Imagine that we now have the technology to transport a human from one location to another instantenously. This is achieved by quantum teleportation. In fact, the actual atoms are not trasported, merely a scanned blue print. The recieveing end of the teleportation then constructs you from the blueprint atom by atom from a repository of elements.

Imagine that the scanned you on another planet is not destroyed. Does two of you now exist?

The reason I put this in philosopy is because it is a philosopical question. It asks, "are we more than just a structure of easyily definable atoms?" what about a soul?

What spurs this thread into being is the recent advancement in technology in the field of quantum teleportation. It is now a demonstratable experiment to "send" not an atom to another place, but to send its information to another atom instantaneously regardless of distance (even stellar distances). The "recieveing" atom is then the exact same as the "sending" in all respects.

Thoughts?
Tristan

thoughts?
philocrazy

The reason I put this in philosopy is because it is a philosopical question. It asks, "are we more than just a structure of easyily definable atoms?" what about a soul?

I think we are a structure of easily definable atoms. Scientifically speaking, we really aren't more than that. What is amazing is that a conscious being that can learn about its surroundings, feel emotions, and have what we call a soul can be constructed with simple atoms. It's truely amazing when ya think about it.

- Peace, Love, Health, and Happiness to all! Âðelwulf

Imagine that the scanned you on another planet is not destroyed. Does two of you now exist?

Of course!

The reason I put this in philosopy is because it is a philosopical question. It asks, "are we more than just a structure of easyily definable atoms?" what about a soul?

That is all we are. there is no soul (or at least it is not necessary).

It is now a demonstratable experiment to "send" not an atom to another place, but to send its information to another atom instantaneously regardless of distance (even stellar distances).

It is impossible to send anything instantaneously.

Teleportation already exists: Ideas are teleported from person the person, (you come up with an idea, you write it (thus not the idea but only her coded form is put on the paper) somebody else reads it, decodes it and so it is teleported. Otherwise you would have to prove that the paper on which you put the idea measurres heavier than the paper + used ink...

"It is impossible to send anything instantaneously. "
No, its not. Its called quantum teleportation. It basically revolves around the idea that one atoms "state" can be transferred to another atom instanteously, regardless of distance. Read up on it, its finally been experimentally demonstrated


Later
T

"If two particles are entangled, they act in some respects as if they were a single object," said Wootters. Everything that happens to one of the entangled pairs instantly affects the other, no matter how far apart each of the entangled particles is from the other.

Braunstein likens entanglement to "a pair of ideal lovers who know each other so well that they could answer for their lover even if separated by long distances."

Entangled pairs are made by taking one photon and converting it into a pair that fly off in opposite directions. By imposing the object to be teleported on one member of the entangled pair, the object is instantaneously imposed on the other member of the entangled pair.

Check it out: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0129_030129_teleport.html

I think that there is no soul. And you cold send the "data" of your body via a binary "on and off" represented by the position of a particle. As long as we are doing that, then why not just store our "data" and print your self out anywhere you want to go? Very interesting idea.

Well, if you have even the slightest belief that there might be a soul, this would be a huge issue. You'd never REALLY know if other people had lost thier soulds or not... and you'd never really know if you did yourself. I don't think intelligent, religious, teleporter would ever be a good combination.

Exactly, that is what is so interesting about this idea. it asks, "What, if we have one, is a soul?"

Just think about what happens... teleportation,... think long, hard, and deep.

Later
T

If I was teleported somewhere at the age of 18 years and I kept the teleportation data I could endlessly repeat my life...eg. at the age of 60 I could re-teleport back to 18 and start all over again.

"It is impossible to send anything instantaneously"

not necciseraily - man i cant spell

there is some (not yet proved) prcess by which atoms can be linked, and moving one of them effects the other instantaneously, no matter the distance

You aren't actually teleporting anything though. You're making a copy which you THEN move. The fact that the two copies are linked doesn't really matter. There is NO physical teleportation involved. They are only transporting information states (which aren't even usable).

Yes, the idea revolves around Entanglment. But see, according the the physics, the original has to be destroyed before the copy can be made... and since it happens instantaneously, its kinda hard... but that website I posted explains it a bit.

Persol: all we are are information.... If you can tell someone on another planet exactly how to make me atom by atom within a 3D grid... theoretically, without the idea of a soul involved, you could make a copy of me.

And yes, the teleportation they are using is very elementary right now... but so is the labtop I found in my uncles basment with 2 megs of ram.... Yeah, its THAT old (early 80's?)... Technology grows exponentially, its proven.

Later
T

Is there a particular number of "states" a atom can have? Basically, I'm trying to get an idea of how much computing power/storage would be needed to scan an object and download all of its data.

Oh the amount of computing power/storage needed would be ridicously astronomical. I mean, its almost sickening. HOWEVER, there is something called a quantum computer and uses the same principle of entanglement. An 80 qubit (a qubit is a measure of computing power in these computers) is something like 2 million times faster than the fastest 64 bit processor on the market today

Technically speaking by this form of teleporting you the original are destroyed completly. The "teleported" version is you physically, atomically and for all tense and purposes, but would it be your concousness? cause your conscousness has just been disintegrated completly and your mind and thoughts are being constructed else where. Theres no real way of telling if your the same conscousness. I'm not sure if going to another planet in a split second at the cost of being obliterated is the method of transportation I'm looking for.

But hey this would be great for communication, especially for lightyear distances, and probes sending information.

Cheers