Teleportation....where will it go

[Coopsy]

Having been fascinated by the idea of teleportation for many years, I thought I would raise the question, how far do you think it will go?

Teleportation involves dematerializing an object at one point, and sending the details of that object's precise atomic configuration to another location, where it will be reconstructed. What this means is that time and space could be eliminated from travel -- we could be transported to any location instantly, without actually crossing a physical distance.

In 1998, physicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), along with two European groups, turned dreams into reality by successfully teleporting a photon, a particle of energy that carries light. The Caltech group was able to read the atomic structure of a photon, send this information across 1 meter (3.28 feet) of coaxial cable and create a replica of the photon. As predicted, the original photon no longer existed once the replica was made.

The most recent successful teleportation experiment took place on October 4, 2006 at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Eugene Polzik and his team teleported information stored in a laser beam into a cloud of atoms. According to Polzik, "It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium" [ref]. The information was teleported a little more than three feet (half a meter), as opposed to the minute distances achieved in previous experiments.

For a person to be transported, a machine would have to be built that can pinpoint and analyze all of the 10 to the power of 28 atoms that make up the human body. That's more than a trillion trillion atoms. This machine would then have to send this information to another location, where the person's body would be reconstructed with exact precision. Molecules couldn't be even a millimeter out of place, lest the person arrive with some severe neurological or physiological defect.

What are your thoughts on teleportation developments in the future?

[Evo]

It would certainly be mind-boggling to attempt.

As it stands, we can't escape the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which without going into boring details is a hard restraint that stops us from teleporting real matter. In Science Fiction, this problem is often conveniently overlooked or solved by using things such as "Heisenberg Compensators".

IMO this barrier is more like the speed of light than the speed of sound. Maybe we'll overcome it one day but I doubt it. I'd say it's more likely that we'll learn to manipulate the space-time continum to the extent where we escape the notion of our four dimensions. To move to a different point in space and time will become arbitrary.

It's also likely that the technology we will develop is beyond our current comprehension, such as our technology would appear to a cave dweller.

Then again we may soon hit point such as in the 1800s IIRC where it was pronounced that science had discovered everything that there was to know!

[flagpole]

:blink:

[Coopsy]

Indeed, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is the main principle to overcome, the main barrier for teleportation of objects larger than a photon. This principle states that you cannot simultaneously know the location and the speed of a particle. But if you can't know the position of a particle, then how can you teleport it? In order to teleport a photon without violating the Heisenberg Principle, the Caltech physicists used a phenomenon known as entanglement. In entanglement, at least three photons are needed to achieve quantum teleportation:

Photon A: The photon to be teleported

Photon B: The transporting photon

Photon C: The photon that is entangled with photon B

This could be slightly more diffiucult for humans lol

[MAF]

Indeed, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is the main principle to overcome, the main barrier for teleportation of objects larger than a photon. This principle states that you cannot simultaneously know the location and the speed of a particle. But if you can't know the position of a particle, then how can you teleport it? In order to teleport a photon without violating the Heisenberg Principle, the Caltech physicists used a phenomenon known as entanglement. In entanglement, at least three photons are needed to achieve quantum teleportation:

Photon A: The photon to be teleported

Photon B: The transporting photon

Photon C: The photon that is entangled with photon B

This could be slightly more diffiucult for humans lol

but the movement of the photon transporting photon could be moved off route and thus fail to deliver photon A

[Coopsy]

Going to pop this into the science forum... I for one would be interested in PPs views :blink:

I was just thinking that

but the movement of the photon transporting photon could be moved off route and thus fail to deliver photon A

Exactly, and even a movement of a millimetre would disturb the genetic make up of photon A, and if this was a human it would be catastrophic

[sconetone]

Course you could always use quantum tunneling, then you wouldn't have to worry about the problems of disassemble/reassemble :blink:

[Evo]

Having had a cursory glance at the entanglement theory, it certainly seems interesting! Even this though seems to have problems such that the replicated matter is not created exactly :blink:

Edited October 25, 2006 by Evo

[PersianPaladin]

Until people can actually be teleported safely with such technology...i see no practical reason of use for such a concept.

[Coopsy]

Until people can actually be teleported safely with such technology...i see no practical reason of use for such a concept.

Becasue with concept comes reality, its the journey we have to take to get the end result

[sconetone]

......teleporting snow to *insert chosen Town*......

[Evo]

On a bit of a tangent, something that I forgot to mention is that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is the foundation of quantum cryptography.

Quantum cryptography should make it impossible to intercept transmissions because the very act of reading it changes the data. Mind boggling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography

[osmposm]

....just make sure there are no flies hiding in the lab first, that's all I ask.

[The Enforcer]

Human teleportation, molecular decimation, breakdown, reformation, is inherently purging. It makes a man a king.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

What this means is that time and space could be eliminated from travel -- we could be transported to any location instantly, without actually crossing a physical distance.

But you couldn't move to any other point in the universe instantly, because the information (or whatever you call it) would have to travel to that point, and that would still rely on the speed of light. Dullards.

[Coopsy]

yes, but if a tree fell down and you werent there to see it, would it still make a noise?

[The Penguin]

So what's new? By using two pieces of common office equipment I can already transport my bum across the world. And keep the original.

[Coopsy]

So what's new? By using two pieces of common office equipment I can already transport my bum across the world. And keep the original.

I would like to be able to transport Carmen Electra's backside to me

[Evo]

But you couldn't move to any other point in the universe instantly, because the information (or whatever you call it) would have to travel to that point, and that would still rely on the speed of light. Dullards.

If you can't go faster than the speed of light, why not make the distance shorter. Simple, just bend space.

[I can't believe it's not better]

But how to bend space? I know, by collecting all the mercury we can find and putting it in a balloon.

[BARRY]

I would like to be able to transport Carmen Electra's backside to me

well beam me up scotty i think carmens backside is in trouble

[Gray-Wolf]

We will never teleport life. We may well be able to transport the building blocks but to replicate the electro-chemical state that is ' Me' is, and will remain, impossible. By the time we have the ability to transport matter we will have outgrown the need as atomic replication of materials/objects, atom by atom, will be old news.

Never mind being able to replicate the precise electro-chemical soup that brings the constituents of a slug together how the sneck are you going to copy the complex state that is memory in a way that ,on reassembly,will perfectly match all that is you?

If life is 'spookier' than that how will you transport 'soul' or map it for that matter? for then you ,if you have mastered the art, have ' immortality.' A perfect copy of you to 'upload' into your clone (or better?) on arrival and you could happily travel at light speed without age penalties?.

Maybe it all happened before and then something went horribly wrong at the upload stage and we got stuck with this blinkin' chimp body with its complex animal behaviours ( as a quick fix 'holding vessel') , constantly over-rideing our the better judgements and thwarting our best efforts to advance it's state of technological advancement further than T.V. remotes and the internet so that we will be able to reconstruct our former selves ( Lizards maybe) and get this monkey off our backs once and for all!

Edited October 26, 2006 by Gray-Wolf

[cheeky_monkey]

sounds great if u can teleport someone from one place to anotha in an instant....bet i still be late 4 work though?

[CaptiveMonkey]

As far as I know about this subject (very little,) to teleport someone the basics are:-

1. A teleportation subject (You).

2. Map the atoms of the subject.

3. Destroy the subject.

4. Send the map to another location.

5. Use the map and a store of atoms to reconstruct the subject (New you).

If this all happens instantaneously this is fine. However, lets say this scenario happens.

Stages 1, 2 happen, the computer errors misses point 3 and then carries onto point 4 and 5. The teleportation police then tell you that of the error and then say you have to wait for a minute so you can be destroyed!!

I know that this is fiction, but I personally I dont think I would want to wait around

[Big Bear]

In 1998, physicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), along with two European groups, turned dreams into reality by successfully teleporting a photon, a particle of energy that carries light. The Caltech group was able to read the atomic structure of a photon, send this information across 1 meter (3.28 feet) of coaxial cable and create a replica of the photon. As predicted, the original photon no longer existed once the replica was made.

The most recent successful teleportation experiment took place on October 4, 2006 at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Eugene Polzik and his team teleported information stored in a laser beam into a cloud of atoms. According to Polzik, "It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium" [ref]. The information was teleported a little more than three feet (half a meter), as opposed to the minute distances achieved in previous experiments.

The examples of this method described do not appear to be successful attempts at teleportation. Replicating something and putting a copy somewhere else is something very different.

I wouldn't like to be cloned & killed in the same day in the name of science.

I firmly believe teleportation will never be possible.