If you're teleported, do you die?

Originally posted by Combatmed1
There is just one thing that you need to remember when referencing Star Trek....Although the mechanism of their transportation was supposed to dematerialize them then re-materialize them somewhere else, they were sill conscience and AWARE while in the matter stream!

&

So if it is as most of you have stated that what comes out on the other end is nothing more than a perfect copy, how does the "mind" follow?

...[... they were still conscious and AWARE, while in the matter stream]

1st, they must have been conscious & aware of their being caught in the
data-stream of teleportation... because we could see images of their stress and terror as the teleporters faded in-&-out.

so, we could infer that the person being teleported was not 'dead',
but merely in a stasis/time-out, as we see space time unfold...
because the transported subject was in another time squence as they were bouncing around or traveling at the speed of light,
which is years behind the normal time flow of human lifetimes/perceptions.

the person who is de-materialized and transported at lightspeed,
is in a time-space bubble and they will age and react normally, but to an outside observer the person being dematerialied and transported
appears to be frozen. .. as in a coma, or perhaps a state of suspended animation.


so, inho, a transported person is not dead - then reanimated/recreated
that person continued with the normal progression of life, but to an outside
observer there was a time/space distortion, a hiccup in time, or for philosophers the subject had a temporary coma state...
but as there was no outside influences on their life or mind, then the duration of the teleportation was Zero minus lightspeed.


the mind follows because every memory of every cell and neuron is
'photographed' with all its history...and it is not really 're-produced'
at another location (thats just 70 IQ jargon for the masses)
the actual, multi trillion cells of the teleported one are actually 'stopped' at another point in space... being converted into another form of matter/energy is only the vehicle of transport.

Wow, tele-portation. There is so much to say here that it may be hard to fit in one post.

First, we cant look at TV shows as, "thats exactly how it will be" . So we don't need to explain things like being conscious in the matter stream.I will be using some tv show references to help convey the basic idea though.

Second, we need to decide what kind of device we will use for tele-porting people.

There are basically 3 different types of device we can use. I will try point out the pluses and minuses of all of them.

1. The "Star Trek" type device.

2. A Wormhole device.

3. A reconstruction device.

We will begin with the "Star Trek" transporter. This device converts matter into energy, transmits that energy along with the re-materialization data, to a remote location, and "re-matterizes" it. (Yeah, I know thats not a word, but you know what I mean.) Unlike the show, you would need a transporter on both sides.
Thanks to Einstein, we know that matter can actually be converted to energy and can see a very crude example of this process when a thermo-nuclear bomb detonates. What most people don't know is that nukes are extremely inefficient in turning that matter into energy, and yet they still release MASSIVE amounts of energy from a clump of matter smaller than a human head. In order to 100% convert a human being to energy, you would need a way to store and transmit MASSIVE MASSIVE amounts of energy and do it perfectly, and instantaneously. The plus to this method is that you don't die. The actual you is only converted to energy and then back into matter. You would have no memory of the transfer. The draw back to this method is simply the MASSIVE amount of energy that need to be precisely controlled.

Next we will talk about a "wormhole" type device. Many people here are fans of the TV series "Stargate". The transportation device on that show is actually more of a Star Trek device as it converts you to energy, then undoes that on the other side. In actuality, wormhole travel would be like stepping through a door. You would be able to see what is on the other side just by looking through the door. There is no conversion to energy to energy using this method and you do not die. However, at this time, wormholes are still theoretical.

Finally, we come to the reconstruction method. In this method, a scanner records every little tiny detail about your body, and brain chemistry, transmits that recording to a remote site where a machine builds an exact copy of you. The transmitting machine may or may not need to destroy your original body in order to get an accurate scan. If it does, you die, If it doesn't, then there is another you walking around somewhere. The receiving machine would have a large supply of carbon atoms as well as some other materials that it would be able to manipulate in order to build another you.
Even though it sounds bad, there are benefits from this type. You would not need to transmit and control suck massive amounts of energy and data as with the "Star Trek" type, And you don't have to maintain a wormhole.
However, you could only "tele-port" people at the speed of light with this method, so extremely long distances are unpractical.


---------------------------EDIT----------------------------------

P.S. the only time I ever yelled at my TV was when Voyager was having power problems and could find a source of energy. I screamed "YOU HAVE A DEVICE THAT TURNS MATTER INTO MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY!!! STICK A FRIGGIN PLANT IN THERE" My girlfriend looked at me like I was stupid.


[edit on 16-3-2008 by Lotiki]

I don't think we would.
I just thought about that.
As you live your spirit is infused with the matter of your body.
And you can be dead for minutes and still come back.
Wouldn't teleportation be more or less like that?

Originally posted by St Udio

Originally posted by Combatmed1
There is just one thing that you need to remember when referencing Star Trek....Although the mechanism of their transportation was supposed to dematerialize them then re-materialize them somewhere else, they were sill conscience and AWARE while in the matter stream!

&

So if it is as most of you have stated that what comes out on the other end is nothing more than a perfect copy, how does the "mind" follow?

...[... they were still conscious and AWARE, while in the matter stream]

1st, they must have been conscious & aware of their being caught in the
data-stream of teleportation... because we could see images of their stress and terror as the teleporters faded in-&-out.

so, we could infer that the person being teleported was not 'dead',
but merely in a stasis/time-out, as we see space time unfold...
because the transported subject was in another time squence as they were bouncing around or traveling at the speed of light,
which is years behind the normal time flow of human lifetimes/perceptions.

the person who is de-materialized and transported at lightspeed,
is in a time-space bubble and they will age and react normally, but to an outside observer the person being dematerialied and transported
appears to be frozen. .. as in a coma, or perhaps a state of suspended animation.


so, inho, a transported person is not dead - then reanimated/recreated
that person continued with the normal progression of life, but to an outside
observer there was a time/space distortion, a hiccup in time, or for philosophers the subject had a temporary coma state...
but as there was no outside influences on their life or mind, then the duration of the teleportation was Zero minus lightspeed.


the mind follows because every memory of every cell and neuron is
'photographed' with all its history...and it is not really 're-produced'
at another location (thats just 70 IQ jargon for the masses)
the actual, multi trillion cells of the teleported one are actually 'stopped' at another point in space... being converted into another form of matter/energy is only the vehicle of transport.

Actually if you will remember when Barkley was seeing something in the MATTER STREAM (its matter not data) with him he was calm and fully aware of what was happening. Strange enough though he could also move because while dematerialized he grabbed the creature when rematerialized the creature turned out to be a person.

Wouldn't it make sense to tele port an animal first like a dog to see if it stills remembers it's master then a monkey to see if the consciousness remains and then have a guy thats willing to take the chance after the animal testing are done