Beam Me Up

So you don't think the transporter from Star Trek will ever really work?

I have my doubts. First and foremost, let's not forget that Dr. McCoy was opposed in principle to the thing. That right there ought to give anyone pause.

But, that said, the concept of instant teleportation is fascinating. Leave aside the notion of transporting to another planet or galaxy ... being able to transport from place to place on this earth would revolutionize society. Think about it ... suddenly there'd be no reason to live where one worked. People stuck in the cities and surrounding suburbs would be free to live anywhere else but still maintain their current employment. Land values in previously depressed areas would go up; land values in previously expensive areas might go down. Hawaii land prices would go through the roof.

Note: I wonder, would people spread out or come together? America, for example, is largely an open and unpopulated land. Vast stretches of the west are empty, as are sections of the midwest and upper-midwest. I'm reminded of C. S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce," in which he portrays Hell as a place where people forever strive to get as far away from others as possible. Hell thus becomes this endless suburb.

The freeways would be rid of cars and trucks as the transportation of people, goods and materials could be done instantly. That would allow fruits and vegetables to be picked "vine ripe" and instantly transported ... but it would put hundreds of thousands of truckers out of work. The airline industry would shut down. Distribution of relief food to famine stricken areas could be done without regard to rebel forces blocking the way.

I've long pondered the ramifications of having a transporter mechanism. It's a fascinating thing to consider.

The transporter from Star Trek brings up the issues of self and "the soul". If you can transform an individual into a pattern of information and send that somewhere, possible making multiple copies along the way, what does that say about who we are and our undetected souls?

It opens up quite a can of worms, doesn't it? If one understood the bit pattern, one could tweak it and "correct" things -- diseases, personality ... self. Does the "soul" reside in the physical matter that makes us people? I really don't know. Perhaps it's like some kind of "meta-data" ... associated with our physical self but not actually in the "file" as it were.

Could people be transported and stored ... that is, not re-constituted on the other side but held in suspension in some quantum disk array? Think of the ramifications of that! Would that be murder? Would a copy of someone made from this storage array have rights? (We tread into the controversy surrounding cloning.) More importantly, could sexy Playboy playmates be copied and transported for a night's pleasures ... then simply "sent back?" Would the incidence of adultery skyrocket as people saw a loophole and could have sex with someone else who wasn't really someone else?

The mind staggers.

Yes it's the USB 2.0 (T60) speedup over USB 1.1 (T30). USB 2.0 is capable of a maximum throughput of 480Mbit/sec, USB 1.1 is 12Mbit/sec max.

There's a word for people like you ... g-e-e-k. :-)