Would you use a "transporter" if you knew...

Would you use a human transporter?


  • Total voters
    41
I would advise that the term 'copy' in quantum terms, at least as I understand it, is not what we generally mean when speaking colloquially.
Simply put, a 'transport', such as IBM did with xenon gas molecules some 25 years ago, involves separating a couplet of particles. Creating coupling conditions means that the properties of both are in common with both. From that moment the pair are 'one' in the sense that both exhibit the combined properties and no affect on one can occur without Effect on the other...instantaneously.
I agree the transporter is, shall we say unlikely, but it is no longer impossible and that, ladies and gentlemen, means to me that some variation on the theme WILL exist, if only as a weapon.
Think 20g of -H+ (anti-hydrogen) in a magnetic plasma bottle, coupled to 20g of +H- in the 'enemy' vehicle even billions of light years away.
Flip the switch on your 'copy' and.....You get the idea.
 
Transporters make copies of you using it once or twice would be ok but prolonged use would be like photocopying a copy of a copy at starts to deteriorate, I'll use a shuttle pod
 
No I would not! A copy of you with all your memories would not be you, would it?

Imagine co-existing with such a copy. It would act exactly like you. When it banged its head, it would respond in exactly the same way that you do - but it's still someone else feeling the pain. If you weren't around (say you had gone upstairs, or, more dramatically, been vapourised by a teleporter) you wouldn't even know that it had happened.

No matter how identical the pair of you are, you can't ever take that extra step and actually "be" the clone. You can't view the world from its eyes. If it goes on holiday, you don't know what it's doing.

So why would you be prepared to die and let this clone take over? Even if the clone makes all the same decisions as you and has the same memories and personality, you won't be around to experience it.

The transporter as described in the opening post is basically that scenario: you die and are replaced by a copy. No thanks! :smiley:
 
There was an The Outer Limits episode that dealt with this issue.

There was a guy who ran a transporting facility on the moon that transported people to an alien planet far away. During the transporting process the person being transported would enter the machine and be scanned, then the scan of them was transmitted to the receiving end, and a copy of them was recronstructed. After confirmation that the transmission was received the original was destroyed.

During the episode he didn't receive confirmation that the telepoter transmission was received so he aborted the destruction sequence and spent the next few days visiting with the woman that was teleporting. Then he recieved word that her transmission was indeed received so he had to kill her to "balance the equation".

I don't think most people understand that if they were to be teleported in the way described in most scifi, they would actually be stepping on the teleportation pad to their deaths. They aren't the actual person that is reconstructed at the other end, its only a copy of them.
 
There was an The Outer Limits episode that dealt with this issue.

There was a guy who ran a transporting facility on the moon that transported people to an alien planet far away. During the transporting process the person being transported would enter the machine and be scanned, then the scan of them was transmitted to the receiving end, and a copy of them was recronstructed. After confirmation that the transmission was received the original was destroyed.

During the episode he didn't receive confirmation that the telepoter transmission was received so he aborted the destruction sequence and spent the next few days visiting with the woman that was teleporting. Then he recieved word that her transmission was indeed received so he had to kill her to "balance the equation".

I don't think most people understand that if they were to be teleported in the way described in most scifi, they would actually be stepping on the teleportation pad to their deaths. They aren't the actual person that is reconstructed at the other end, its only a copy of them.

That sounds like a good episode. What was the name?
 
In a word, no, absolutely not. What would the 'real' me be doing whilst the copy was off somewhere else, sitting in the transporter reading magazines until the 'real' me came back?

I think it was the movie 'The Prestige' (it was one of the two magician type movies that was out at the time) where a magician used a machine built by Tesla and transported a copy of himself to the other side of the theatre, this of course meant he had to deal with the original, otherwise he would have ended up with a lot of copies.
 
That sounds like a good episode. What was the name?

The episode was called "Think Like a Dinosaur", Season 7 Episode 8. The aliens that helped build the teleporter looked like velociraptors. They teleporter teleported the people from earth to their planet and back for like tourism and archaeology. There were two operators at the teleporting facility, one human and one of the dinosaur looking aliens, and the aliens were very strict about "balancing the equation" and eliminating the original person, and the episode dealt mainly with the dinosaur trying to convince the human that it was the right thing to do.
 
This thread has been an entertaining read. I voted on the maybe button.

I think the reason for that choice was based on the exact form of the question. I'm rather attached to this old carcase ... even though I know there can't be much of it older than a decade. However my brain thinks it's as old my birth certificate and it won't let me ignore the destruction of the original.

Gimme a good olde-fashioned Star Trekkian transported any day! :borg:

Meanwhile, given the stupendous amount of information to be transmitted, the whole idea of teleporting people is such a massively complex techno-challenge that is seems to me highly likely that adding a few bits of shiny to the prototype would be no more trouble than sticking that famous black, white and blue badge on the front of a new BMW as it rolls off the production line. Here are a few suggestions for some teleport bling ....

  • BMI (Body Mass Index) selector: mass must be conserved so a 5' 2", 200lb woman wanting a lithe BMI would have to settle for being 6' 11"
  • Race/gender selector ... am I the only person on the planet who has often wanted to walk in other people's shoes for day just to see what all the fuss was about?
  • Replacement/regeneration of missing, defective, or traumatised body parts.
  • Dial a Face. The ultimate disguise!!
I know, I know. I have a twisted mind and ought to kept in a darkened room away from polite company. :tinfoilhat:
 
Lol, Mirelly...I like the way you think. I can't recall how I voted on this but I expect I voted maybe. I wouldn't do it if the result meant replacing me with a copy. Even then I would restrict usage to emergency long distance travels only (whatever that would be). It would sure be a good way to cut down on jet usage (either way, work or not work, lol)
 
Very interesting question. I don't think I would use it though, as I am not a big fan of clones unless I'm using them to farm organs...
The only problem with that is when your clone decides that they have as much of a right to live as you do and decide to turn the tables by using you for harvesting. :eek:
 
Don't be so quick to blithely opt for that 'new and improved' copy, guys. I have spent my career radically altering personalities 'for the better' at the brain chemistry level, and I can tell you that--quite regardless of how significantly their lives are improved--these people are ALL very aware that they have permanently lost something of themselves...and they almost invariably mourn its passing.
 
Don't be so quick to blithely opt for that 'new and improved' copy, guys. I have spent my career radically altering personalities 'for the better' at the brain chemistry level, and I can tell you that--quite regardless of how significantly their lives are improved--these people are ALL very aware that they have permanently lost something of themselves...and they almost invariably mourn its passing.


Care to expand a little bit on that point?
 
I was a clinical psychologist who specialized in working with people who suffered from severe personality disorders; Bi-Polar, O.C.D., A.D.H.D. and so on. The principle tools for this endeavor are counseling and various combinations of mood elevators, S.S.R.I.'s and/or tranquilizers. While these drugs are very often helpful in improving the life experience of people who use them, allowing them to run on a more 'even keel', I would frequently get reports of a patient's 'loss of themselves' in the form of sharply reduced energy, drive, focus, ambition and direction. While they are, in effect, a 'better' version of themselves, able to function more effectively in the 'cold, cruel world', they often seem less motivated to do their job well, keep their house clean or write that novel that's been festering inside their head.

I strongly suspect that, just as was the case with so many of my patients, an instinctive feeling that 'it wasn't quite ME, anymore' after a molecular transport would have a similarly devastating effect upon its subjects.
 
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