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Does teleportation kill?
Varian
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Hey guys, this is my first post on the forums. I'm 21 and enlisted in the USAF - but enough with the introductions. :P
So I've thought about this for a few years now and then: If a person teleports via a teleportation device a la Star Trek or some such, wouldn't they really have just been torn apart and put back together on the other end? And wouldn't this have the possible meaning they they've just died and been sort of reconstructed, or just an exact copy has been created on the other end?
Science fiction or not, this has run through my brain box more than once.
So I've thought about this for a few years now and then: If a person teleports via a teleportation device a la Star Trek or some such, wouldn't they really have just been torn apart and put back together on the other end? And wouldn't this have the possible meaning they they've just died and been sort of reconstructed, or just an exact copy has been created on the other end?
Science fiction or not, this has run through my brain box more than once.
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edit: goddamnit, asiina
LIES
libel
What about your soul?
Thats right, I did it, I took the conversation there.
But to steer away from talk of what is essentially a soul, it's really irresponsible to teleport to another world. You are bringing with you all the bacteria and other fun things that live on you to a completely new environment. You don't know how that environment or the bacteria will react to meeting. It could cause an epidemic, or at the very least you could get sick. And if the teleporter strips those microscopic organisms off you, that's not going to lead to a very healthy lifestyle either.
It is completely impractical to transmit the mass.
so the particular atoms in your body determine your consciousness, even though those atoms change rapidly and often?
we've had this thread so many times
i think the only conclusion is that we simply don't know how consciousness works or how the brain physically generates it, so we can't really say how it is affected by any manipulation, especially with technologies we don't even know are possible, and especially with regards to the uncertainty principle
In short, teleportation necessitates a (probably brief) moment of complete nonexistence, not just unconsciousness. That is certainly death.
Edit: that is a horribly-written bit on personal continuity, linked above. Shame on Wikipedia.
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Worm holes are a far more practical way to travel across long distances. No absurd amount of data management, I mean, I don't trust FTPing all my porn to a computer that's only a few blocks away(the damn connection keeps timing out), why would I want to send myself across the universe only to find that one of my testicles is now in the core of a dying sun. It also doesn't de-construct matter and gives the benefits of possible time travel, so not only will I arrive in one piece, I'll also arrive three years before I left.
If someone's heart stops, but the paramedics resuscitate them with a defibrillator, they do not die. They just go into cardiac arrest.
If someone's body is torn apart on a molecular level and shipped over the intertubes or whatever, but they get put back together on the other side, they do not die. They are just vaporized in such a manner that does not preclude devaporization. (it's a word now, get over it)
If we're talking about replication... well that's a whole other can of worms, and not really teleportation strictly speaking.
<hugefuckingnerdrant>Also, in Star Trek they go all Einsteinian and convert the matter of the body into energy (a waveform) and direct that waveform wherever they want. Upon reaching the destination, the energy converts back into matter. There's no "tearing apart" of the molecules, just matter/energy transmission.</hugefuckingnerdrant>
What is the difference between assembling a replica and re-assembling the original if they are physically identical down to the last particle?
then how do you explain the second Riker?
I much prefer the stargate portals.
However, the latter case, teleportation, has no such niceties. You literally cease to exist, physically and mentally, for a brief moment. That is surely different, and, in my opinion, is death of the former and birth of a copy. It may even retain the former personal identity. But it may not. I suspect that something would be "off," on account of a broken personal continuity.
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Because if a replica can be created then there's no need to destroy the original at all. What you're doing then is making a new copy then killing the old one. To the rest of the world it may not seem like a change, but for you, stepping into that teleporter will be the last thing you ever do.
If you allow for sci-fi wormholes, portals, or whatnot, then obviously my cease-to-exist argument doesn't hold up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2049048.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3576594.stm
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That's not the question I asked. A replicated body is no different from the re-assembled original if they are physically identical. A carbon atom is a carbon atom no matter where it came from. To suggest your consciousness is tied to the particular atoms in your brain seems erroneous.
We have a volunteer!
I agree with what he said.
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I don't believe in souls, and I don't see how a "consciousness" can be lifted entirely out of physical matter and dropped into a different matter, so yes, I say a consciousness is tied to the matter it's in. If we took out the step of destroying the original, would you say that one consciousness would be controlling both bodies, or would the original become brain dead?
I'm saying I don't know, and I don't think anyone can make any substantive judgments on a phenomena that is thus far completely outside of our understanding. I believe that consciousness is a physical phenomenon, but individual particles do not have identities. There is nothing special about the atoms in my brain except their configuration. My brain's atoms change over the course of my life, as well, but does my consciousness change? Do I have the same consciousness that I had ten years ago? What about ten minutes ago? We don't know. People liken consciousness to a river, where the river exists despite the different water flowing through it, but "river" is a non-physical concept that doesn't physically exist, whereas consciousness definitely has a physical existence.
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