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Laser Beam Teleported

Michael Wardle writes "ABC Australia reports that a team of scientists from the Australian National University have successfully teleported a laser beam. It seems that teleportation of solid bodies is still a way off, but at least we're a little closer to Slashdot's favorite super power." Another Australian newspaper has a more detailed story.

418 comments

  1. Re:RoboTroll "Beams" Goatse man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jon Barrett has harnessed the power of lasers to be ableto appear on anyone's computer at any time, all while SPOOGING to defend the honour of his Queen, the Queen of Spain.

  2. Ummm.. by G-funk · · Score: 1, Troll

    Hasn't this already been done?

    What's so new about it this time?

    Although teleportation of light beams could be very very interesting for telecommunication purposes.

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    1. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      wouldn't you still need to transport the data regarding light beam... which leaves you back to square one. IMO, telecommunications would be the last place you'd see transportation. Think about it.

    2. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somebody should moderate this racist and obvious karma whore down into the depths of hell where he (it) belongs.

    3. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How exactly is he a racist?

      --
      Still waiting for my mule and 40 acres.

    4. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He hates ragheads...

    5. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, none of this has^h^h^h will be done until many years from now. Inventors from the future are just giving us a sneak preview.

    6. Re:Ummm.. by Newander · · Score: 1

      Actually, I think you mean willen have on-been.

      --

      Jesus saves and takes half damage.

    7. Re:Ummm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a laser beam can be teletransported you already have a way to send information. Remember morse? (for instance)

  3. Quantum Entanglement by KoopaTroopa · · Score: 1

    One of my friends was telling me about a feature of quantum mechanics in which things or changes at least can be transmitted instantaneously. Does this have anything to do with how all this laser teleporting business works?

    --
    Sharpies don't just sniff themselves.
    1. Re:Quantum Entanglement by SenorMooCow · · Score: 1

      Anybody read Timeline by Micheal Chrihton? He definatly does his homework, this is one of the principals he based going back in time on. Who thought "quantum teleportaion" as he calls it in the book could actually happen(even if it is just photons now)!

      --
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      apt-get @ > 5MBps == teh win!
    2. Re:Quantum Entanglement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sorry about the spelling Mike it should be Michael Crichton

    3. Re:Quantum Entanglement by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      Awesome book, the audiobook is worth listening to also...

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    4. Re:Quantum Entanglement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I am surprised to see so many unenlightened comments on slashdot, so i just had to make a post (first post. as in my first post).
      This is just taken from my memory (and as usual i cannot guarantee it is 100% correct):

      Quantum entanglement was one of the parts of quantum physics that Einstein couldnt come to terms with and hence he didnt believe in quantum physics. He used quantum entanglement as a "demonstration" as to why it was unlikely. It would mean that you could transmit information instantaneously between unlimited distances, and that didnt sound too well with Einsteins theory of relativity where the speed of light was the fastest things could travel.
      There is a "though" though. For quantum entanglement to work there must be two entangled parts of a photon at the two different locations and the only way to get those parts separated is to physically move these to their respective places (unless you teleport them, but then, whats the point). And this is all done under Einsteins theories (maximum speed = speed of light).

      The point i am trying to make is that information can be transferred over distances with speed > light, but you have to prepare the tranfer, and that with the speed = light.

    5. Re:Quantum Entanglement by tsa · · Score: 1

      It is a nice book, especially the beginning when they find this man who has veins that don't connect to each other (if you've read the book you'll understand what I mean). Pity that Crighton's characters are so flat though.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    6. Re:Quantum Entanglement by pboulang · · Score: 2, Informative
      Quick correction: Einstein's theory never said that the speed of light was the fastest that things could travel. Is in an impossible barrier to anything with MASS (due to the fact that mass will increase asymptotically to infinity as it approaches the speed of light) But then this argument also does not bring up tachyons, which would work with the theory happily.

      The ERP theory *was* proposed by Albert to attempt to disprove instantaneous communication. However, since relativity makes the whole concept of instantaneous moot what are we talking about anyways??

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      This comment is guaranteed*

      *not guaranteed

    7. Re:Quantum Entanglement by szap · · Score: 1

      I like Crichton, but I hated that book. The Hugo and Nebula winning novel, "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis is by far a better book on the same subject (time travel back to medieval times).

      On the other hand, I didn't find Doomsday Book that good either. YMMV.

  4. that was a single photon by rebelcool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a message bearing laser beam composed of billions of photons.

    --

    -

    1. Re:that was a single photon by Winged+Cat · · Score: 1

      "...as if billions of photons suddenly cried out, and then were silenced."

    2. Re:that was a single photon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop! You fool! That was a "load bearing" laser beam!

  5. Teleportation, or recreating? by Wire+Tap · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems to me, that there is a huge difference:


    Team leader Dr Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a laser beam, its disembodiment and the recreation of the original beam in a different location.


    To me, that sentence can be translated as such:

    Team leader Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a ball point pen, its destruction and the recreation of the same ball point pen using a factory blueprint in a different location.

    This isn't the first time I've read about "teleportation" of some particle or another, when it seems that they are simply re-creating, mirroring if you will, the particle(s) quantum states in another place. That's not teleporting - that's mimicing.

    --

    Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

    1. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by G-funk · · Score: 1, Troll

      What's the difference though, if the second is exactly the same?

      If you hand me a coin, and i turn my back then hand you another one indistinguishable from the original at any level, is it the same coin? How can you be sure?

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    2. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Wire+Tap · · Score: 1

      The difference would be the continuing existence of the object used as the model for replication. That's the difference: teleportation versus replication.

      --

      Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

    3. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by dirtyhippie · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well.... Normally I'd agree with you. Things are what you perceive them to be. However, when people think of teleportation, they inevitably start thinking about "Beam Me Up Scotty" type stuff. Would I be willing to drink a beer that was teleported to me? Hell yeah. Would I be willing to teleport myself to that beer and drink it there? Hell no. Would you?

    4. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 3, Interesting
      "What's the difference though, if the second is exactly the same?"

      Because when we're talking about a beam of light, the notion of analyzing it, transmitting the information, and reproducing the original seems more like television than teleportation.

      Like most of the non-hoax science stories on Slashdot that relate to fantastic-sounding possibilities (teleportation, time travel, etc.), this is most likely a breakthrough of some sort but not nearly as cool as the summary makes it sound.

      Getting to the subject of destroying an object and creating an exact duplicate, it's a hazy issue. I understand how I'd theoretically be the same person if you were to reproduce me at the most detailed level, but I'm still nervous about potential problems with it.

      For example, should the destruction of the original me fail, there are suddenly two of me in the Universe, each with a full claim to being me and each slightly different (based on the brief experiences that occur after the duplication). One interesting exploration of this scenario was featured in James Patrick Kelly's story, "Think Like a Dinosaur".

    5. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

      It's also explored in the Star Trek TNG episode Second Chances.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    6. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by eXtro · · Score: 1

      In this case the original waveform is destroyed though. I can't get to the more detailed article, but in the less detailed one it states that the original is disembodied. Thats a fancy way of saying destroyed, though in reality its probably the reporters poor interpretation of what the scientist said. Elementary particles have a set of attributes that exactly describe them, but if you observe these attributes you modify them. So somehow something must be both observing it (which destroys the orignal particle) and changing its own characteristics such that they're identical to the ex-particle.

    7. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, if the person created was the exact same down to the quantum level, it would be you, exactly. Your last memory would be a strange tingling as your body was torn apart at the quantum level to be stored, then once you were recreated your memories would begin again. Now this raises all sorts of philosophical questions, like what happened to your soul when you were torn apart, but really, I dont believe in any of that mumbo-jumbo :P If it was proven to be safe i'd use it, sure.

    8. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      Yes, but if youd read up on this a bit more, you'd know that the only way known to do this kind of teleportation, the only way known to determine the states of each particle ata given instant, is to destroy the object being teleported. It simple is NOT possible for the read item to not be destroyed. Therefore, if something went wrong during the process, you'd be dead. There is no chance of there being two of you walking around though.

    9. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by abreauj · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Well, if the person created was the exact same down to the quantum level, it would be you, exactly. Your last memory would be a strange tingling as your body was torn apart at the quantum level to be stored, then once you were recreated your memories would begin again.

      From someone else's point of view, the other guy may as well be me, However, from my point of view, I've been murdered, my body vaporized, and some other guy is now walking around with my memories.

    10. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by madcow_ucsb · · Score: 1

      I've thought of that before...basically what you're saying is that you make a complete copy of yourself and the orignial gets destroyed in the process (essentially like a high-res xerox machine that ate the originals but made an indistinguishable copy).

      But wouldn't there then just be a second "you" who continues to live on with that "strange tingling" while the REAL you remains torn apart? Like having a clone live on after you get killed by the teleporter.

      Maybe they'll figure it out someday, but I sure as hell don't want to be the first to try it - and I'm not sure how they could test it, since the copies would all think it worked fine, even though the original gets blown to pieces...

    11. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by dirtyhippie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The trouble is you can NEVER prove this to be safe. To another person, yes, of course you will appear exactly the same and have the exact same memories, etc. as you describe. And of course this new person will think "hey, whattaya know, the dagnab thing works, I'm over here now!" Because s/he has all the memories, etc. that the "original version" of him/herself had.

      However, the question is where exactly does consciousness live? Does it A) live in the actual, physical atoms that make you up? Is it B) some manifestation of the way your neurons are wired together (as some AI researchers who claim computers have life might contend)? Or is it C) something else, totally unrelated to the physical world (ie on the astral plane, like the Spirit referred to in Christianity and other religions)?

      If it's A) there's an exact copy of you somewhere else, but "you" no longer exist. If it's C), well, you're banking that God doesn't mind taking the time and effort to transport your soul over to the "new you". Only if it's B) can you rest assured that your consciousness will be transferred to the new unit, trouble free.

      I, for one, wouldn't take chances on something philosophers have been debating to no end for hundreds of years now...

    12. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by CaptainSuperBoy · · Score: 2

      Kurzweil talks about all of this in The Age of Spiritual Machines. Highly recommended if you're interested in the whole teleportation / transporting your consciousness thing.

      BTW, the Slashdot blackout was like two months ago.. isn't it time to take it out of your sig?

    13. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by susano_otter · · Score: 2
      However, from my point of view,

      Which "point of view" would that be? The only point of view available to you is that of the guy walking around with your memories... who, by definition, is you.

      Assuming the Perfect Quantum Replication thing is even possible, of course. Although, come to think of it, we should probably pass legislation now to censor the Internet using PQR, on the assumption we'll someday have the technology to enforce such a law.

      --

      Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.

    14. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Like most of the non-hoax science stories on Slashdot that relate to fantastic-sounding possibilities (teleportation, time travel, etc.), this is most likely a breakthrough of some sort but not nearly as cool as the summary makes it sound.

      It's a breakthrough in the same way that experimental proof of atomic fission was a breakthrough. It didn't mean that people were able to start building nuclear weapons and powerplants the very next day, but it kicked open the door.

    15. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by jasontheking · · Score: 1

      oh piffle.

      transporter malfunctions are in the great fscking majority of star trek episodes. That's why it sucks so hard.

    16. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by martyn+s · · Score: 2

      Thing is, I'd tend to agree with you about that mumbo-jumbo about a soul, except there is one huge problem. What if to teleport you, they had to store all the data about each and every one of your molecules in a buffer. And on the other end they would reconstruct your matter based on that data. But what if recreating one of you, they would recreate two of you....Now again, I said, I agree with you; I believe that my thoughts and my being is just a consequence of the matter configuration in my body. But my self-preservation instinct doesn't like that idea, and I bet neither does yours.

    17. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure I understand the difference between A) and B). In the case of C), wouldn't that become clear after the first experiment?

      I'd probably do it after it had been tested for a long period of time. The way I see it, who I am is either made up of matter which we already know about (photons, quarks, etc), or there is an as yet observed factor, call it a soul, which makes up who we are. In either case I think it will become clear by making a test case. Whether or not it should be allowed to make such a test on a human being is something I'll leave as a whole separate argument, which I fortunately don't have to make an opinion about (since it isn't yet possible).

    18. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by mr_klaw · · Score: 1

      The difference between A and B is whether the conciousness is contained within the body itself, or simply the state of the body. B could be transported through the "destroy and recreate somewhere else" method, while A could not.

    19. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by karlm · · Score: 2

      So you need to do a destructive read. That doesn't mean that a software bug won't cause multiple reproductions of that read state.

      --
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    20. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by G-funk · · Score: 1, Troll

      So you need to do a destructive read. That doesn't mean that a software bug won't cause multiple reproductions of that read state.

      I like it. I could make a backup copy of say, Natalie Portman, have my way with her (with hot grits of course), and then replace her with the backup :)

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    21. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 4, Funny

      And on the other end they would reconstruct your matter based on that data. But what if recreating one of you, they would recreate two of you.... But my self-preservation instinct doesn't like that idea, and I bet neither does yours.

      What could possibly be more self-preserving than being able to keep backups? :)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    22. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      I guess I'm not sure what you mean by A) then. My tongue is contained within my body, and if it is my consciousness, then it could presumably be destroyed and recreated somewhere else.

      Either my consciousness is made up of atoms (and photons and muons, etc.), or it is made of something which we have not yet discovered (possibly undiscoverable, and possibly involving supreme being(s)).

      Maybe our consciousness is made up of something which is observable, but not replicable. But again that would imply that a test run of the teleportation machine would fail.

      I'm definately not trying to say you're wrong, I just am having trouble understanding.

    23. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by martyn+s · · Score: 2

      Well it just exposes the whole idea of consciousness and identity as flawed.

      Listen, the fact is, I probably *would* go through the teleporter. But it would take a lot of thinking. I'm just explaining where the unease comes from.

    24. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, if I pass through the machine as a conscious entity and emerge as a conscious entity, going through the entire process of every particle being analyzed, destroyed, and then recreated, that conciousness is no more than just a unique configuration of particles.

    25. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by mindstrm · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Right.. except the original beam no longer exists.. it's state has been frozen in something, and re-emitted later.

      As for the difference... no science we have yet teleports actual particles.

      It does bring up an interesting dilemma though...

      if we COULD make a precise, quantum copy of a person, which one would be the 'real' person? Both would percieve they are real, both would be for ALL purposes, identical. If one were destroyed immediately after quantum duplication, there would be no way to find out which is the original.

      So if someone duplicates you.. which one is really you? what happens to your sense of continuity?

    26. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by MulluskO · · Score: 2

      It's the tearing apart that I don't like.
      Is the body to be transferred destroyed at the exact same time as the new body is created? Does it matter? More importantly, what becomes of the remains? Are they to be delivered to the new body in an urn? Or would that just be too weird?

      Oh, and additionally: You Skinnarian Baboon, you.

      --

      Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
    27. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      So now the question is which quote is correct?

      "God Doesn't play dice"
      -A. Einstien

      or

      "Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded."
      - A. Centauri

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    28. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my guess is sling at over light speeds with such presiion that it misses all atoms in the way...

    29. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 2

      Well it just exposes the whole idea of consciousness and identity as flawed.

      All our ideas of consciousness and identity are just that -- ideas. If they are proven to be false by experimental evidence, then we have some pretty major re-adjustment to do... but that's no reason to ignore the reality of the evidence (if that's the way it works out).

      (Actually, "just" is probably inappropriate up there, as these ideas underlay everything in our lives... but you know what I mean :)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    30. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeh but if you do have a soul on another plane how whoul dit know who it belongs to it has to have some way of latching on to your other-world body such as a tag of some sort i personly go with B but thats just my scientific/religous stand point

    31. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by qorkfiend · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As for the difference... no science we have yet teleports actual particles.

      according to quantum physics, particles are waves and vice versa.

    32. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by canadian_right · · Score: 2
      If the encoced body is tramsmited at the speed of light, well then of course it depends on far you are being sent.

      On the other hand, if you entangle the raw materials, send half the entangled atoms to the destination, then scan and 'teleport' via 'spooky action at a distance' then it would be instaneous. Doing this with atoms, as opposed to photons, is a long ways off.

      --
      Anarchists never rule
    33. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by awptic · · Score: 2

      This reminds me of a story in the book "The Mind's I" which discussed a hypothetical situation
      where you put the 'contents' of a person's brain (in the given example, einsteins) into a book
      and manually process each nerve impulse, and if the person who's brain was stored in this book
      would experience consciousness (albeit on a much slower scale). There's loads of stories
      which raise many philosophical questions, from AI to Cloning ... you'll never think the same again :)
      (it was written by the same author as 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid, or just GED)

    34. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Artifex · · Score: 2

      No, this person would be like you, but wouldn't be you.

      Think about it: using the technology, you could make multiple instances of yourself; perhaps even delay their creation through time, if you had enough storage space you could set aside to hold the pattern. Any and all copies would think themselves to be you, assuming that memories properly transfer. However, you would cease to exist if you were destroyed in the creation of any copy or copies.

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    35. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by LordNimon · · Score: 1
      Which "point of view" would that be? The only point of view available to you is that of the guy walking around with your memories... who, by definition, is you.

      I don't agree with that at all. abreauj is 100% correct. As soon as the word "recreate" is used to describe the process, that means that the original is destroyed (i.e. killed), and the new object is just a copy. Sorry, I'm not going to step into that machine.

      --
      And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
      To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
    36. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by martyn+s · · Score: 2

      You're kind of missing the point. Those things aren't subject to "evidence". If you leave everything to "logic" then we have no reason to continue living. Certain things aren't subject to logic, like our desires and instincts, because those are the assumptions upon which our logic is built.

    37. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The answer to this dilemna is to realize that the person we were 10 minutes ago is dead. The person you were 10 years ago is very very dead. Each second that passes, what we were passes out of existence, and the the self that seems to be the unitary point of existence is just a collection of modalities and a small amount of working-memory. It sounds Buddhist, but it's more informed by neuroscience: there is no self as such.

    38. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by cameldrv · · Score: 1

      How do you explain qualia then?

    39. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by tq_at_sju · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is it really teleportation? Obviously it depends on what you believe a duplicate of an object is, if you think a duplicate is purely physical then yeah they are transporting one object to another place, notably a laser beam. However, as the objects get bigger and more complex the question lingers, is this really duplication when it comes to animals, humans ? After you get to this point the question gets very philosphical and hinges on consciousness, can consciousness of a human being be duplicated. There are many arguments that say NO, consciousness cannot be duplicated especially if you are using just blue prints on the person's physical nature. I.E. if you believe that there is something not physical to us then we couldn't be teleported in this purely physical fashion. one such argument is Jackson's Mary argument "Imagine Mary, a person who knows all there is to know about the physical processes that give rise to color vision. She knows how the neurons interact and what happens with the brain and eyes. But, Mary has spent her entire life in a black-and-white room and therefore has never experienced color vision. So there is something missing from Mary's knowledge of color vision, conscious experience." This thought experiment criticizes materialism because if materialism was correct, then Mary would know everything about color vision (including conscious experience) because she knows everything about the physical processes. But she does not know about conscious experience so materialism must be wrong. Jackson's argument is as follows: 1. If materialism were correct, then knowledge about the physical would lead to knowledge of conscious experience. 2. Mary has knowledge of all the physical processes associated with color. 3. Mary does not have knowledge of conscious experience. 4. Materialism is wrong.

      --
      http://www.vanillaafro.com - take me seriously and I will shoot you
    40. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if it is a 100% perfect copy, it's still just a copy.

      Soul or no soul.

    41. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Hank+the+Lion · · Score: 1

      Most people here talk about multiple copies being possible.

      They overlook that, using this 'quantum entanglement', each particle on the input side is directly linked to exactly one particle on the output side, with the speed of light.

      There is no state that is stored, so no possibility for creating another copy!

    42. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by zangdesign · · Score: 2

      If any of you ever check out old sci-fi, read some of Eric Vinicoff's writings for Analog magazine. Specifically, I am thinking of "When the High Lord Arrives" (Analog, Apr. 85). I don't remember the plot, but the technology described in the story was very similar what these guys are doing.

      A person would have his/her consciousness measured on a quantum level. The information was then transmitted a great distance and reimplanted into a body that was being speed-cloned specifically for him/her.

      This wasn't the only story. There were at least two others that covered some of the social ramifications of dissassemby and re-assembly of one's consciousness.

      FYI.

      --
      To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
    43. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Would you be willing to suck on my schlong if it was transported to you?

      Only if it was transported without the rest of you attached. Motherfucker.

    44. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by paule9984673 · · Score: 1
      Think of (A) as a painting:
      For a painting, it is important to be the original. Just recreating it on a new canvass with the same colours will not produce the same original painting, but a (usually less valuable) copy.

      Think of (B) as a novel: The art in a novel is the way the "material" is constructed. So when you reprint a novel and destroy the first print it is still original art because for a novel it's only the way the words are put together that's important.

    45. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      OOOh... Look at me! I can copy my Philosophy 101 text verbatum!!!

      (Ass!)

      Oh, and the first premise is highly dubious. As in, completely unfounded. The idea that there can be knowledge that is unique to experience has very little to do with Materialism. I could probably look up a similar argument that "disproves" Mind-body dualism, but then we would have disproved all relevant theories and the universe would implode.

      Don't cross the streams... that would be "bad".

    46. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 2

      That's a matter of perspective.

      If consciousness and identity can't be tested by scientific exploration like any other knowledge, then they have no place in science at all, and philosophers in general may as well give up and go home. (And, indeed, most of them would be better served by doing so -- it's a profession with a lot of hot air and little actual science.) Still, that shouldn't stop people at least making the effort.

      To go back to my original point, if an exact copy of me behaves exactly as I would in all circumstances, who are you (or I?) to say that it is not me -- especially if the original was destroyed in the process? It's a functionalist viewpoint, but then I tend to take the view that consciousness is as consciousness does. If some entity claims to be conscious, and exhibits behaviour consonant with that claim, why should I not believe it?

      (Dragging in the whole 'other minds' problem here I guess...)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    47. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 1

      Can I refer you to Daniel Dennett? :)

      All my philosophy books are packed away, so I'm winging it on this one... and only addressing the issue raised by the story, I'd need to read up to get any more general than this.

      I'd assume that the qualia would be qualitatively the same/similar for the teleported identity, assuming an exact similarity of experience. (i.e. the new identity will experience things *just as* the old one would have, but those qualia will be modified by the experiences over time (and the state) of that new identity.) Besides, if those two identities are separated, there would be no way for them to compare qualia anyway (see Nagel); thus it becomes purely a matter for conjecture rather than something that can actually be settled by testing.

      (It's been a while since I've graced my local university, so I'm not communicating that very clearly, apologies... :)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    48. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Hellkitten · · Score: 1

      It thinks it is you, it is indistinguishable from you, then for all intents and purposes it is you. Unless of cource you believe in the existence of the soul

      Still I wouldn't step into that machine either, but that has more to do with me not believing it's possible to make a perfect copy all the time:
      Oops it seems we switchd a few of the atoms of this guys dna, never mind he won't notice in a few years anyway...
      Oops the recreator malfunctioned and we lost a guy, never mind I'll just fix the logs and nobody will know, if there is no body there is no crime

      --
      - We are the slashdot. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be moderated -
    49. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by TheOnlyCoolTim · · Score: 2

      Let's say you were in a coma for a while and then you woke up.

      How do you know that there has been continuity of your self and there's not just some new personality inhabiting your head that retains all your memories and whatnot..

      If in the future you transfer your mind into a computer, do you continue or do you just create a computer that thinks it is you?

      Tim

      --
      Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
    50. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by martyn+s · · Score: 2

      I'm willing to agree with your viewpoint about functionality, until it's *MY* consciousness at stake.

      Considering this has only been tested as a thought experiment, it's most likely that once actually tried out, something which makes us question our consciousness, the functionality perspective will surely win out.

      But the questions still remain. Just because certain questions cannot be answered by science does not make their investigation somehow bogus. The thing is I'm usually taking your viewpoint, and people are usually arguing with me with the kind of stuff I'm saying now (albeit, they are more extreme).

      I've always said that consciousness is like a hall of mirrors. By it's very nature we cannot see or understand it, because we are using it as the tool to examine itself. It's like a blind spot in the whole rational process of our minds.

      As much as I know that the only possible answer is that we are mere machines, very intelligent machines, but mere machines; as much as I know that on some level, I can never fully accept that, and I don't think you can either. I always use that same argument that you do, and, logically, it's airtight, but by using that argument we are only winning by ignoring the part that cannot be put into words.

    51. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by martyn+s · · Score: 2

      You seem to keep saying that anything that isn't science isn't worth looking at. Well, you should know, that science without philosophy is nearly as bad, or perhaps worse than philosophy without science. Mere observation cannot answer any questions; it is both making observations (science) and working on a logical model (philosophy) that leads to understanding. Agreed, what I'm doing now is the philosophy without the science, but "doing" philosophy on it's own can often push us in the right direction in science (that's what wolfram is trying to do).

      So I agree, philosophy on it's own is about as worthless as basic observations, basic data, on it's own. But that doesn't make it worthless.

    52. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reminds me of an excellent scifi comedy story in "Crash" a quite few years back called "Tamara Knight". The potential problem of unwanted teleportation dopplegangers was fixed by dropping the hapless original into an Intergalactic Macdonalds food processor. Told much better in the original... http://www.nonowt.com/magfold/articfol/tamara.html

    53. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by karmawarrior · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So what happens if the original is not destroyed?

      There strikes me as being two processes involved here, duplication and destruction. The argument seems to be that the two together has the same affect as moving a person to another location, and that if both are done the second entity is the same as the first.

      That doesn't make sense, because nobody in their right mind would suggest the second entity is the same as the first if both exist at once. Destroying the first cannot possibly change that, that's an attempt to remove the evidence, not an attempt to move the position of sentience.

      Soul or no soul.

      --
      KMSMA (WWBD?)
    54. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Well.... Normally I'd agree with you. Things are what you perceive them to be. However, when people think of teleportation, they inevitably start thinking about "Beam Me Up Scotty" type stuff. Would I be willing to drink a beer

      mmm... beer...

    55. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      People keep saying that to me. So many in fact, I am going to leave it in my sig forever :)

    56. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by plumby · · Score: 2

      What you seem to be forgetting is that every moment that you live, various parts of your body die and other bits are created. You are not 100% the same person you were a second ago, but do you feel that you are a different person?. There's new particles making up parts of your body. All this does is accelerate the process and do them all in one go.

    57. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Ost99 · · Score: 1

      For teleportaion to work, the state and position of all particles in the object must be known.

      I think the whole point is that in order to pinpoint a particle with sufficient accuracy, you have to destroy it in the process.

      Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that position and mass time velocity cannot both be measured accurately at the same time (for subatomic particles). Teleportation only works if you know both the state (including velocity) and the position of all particles in the object to be teleported. Impossible.

      Somehow it is possible to work around this limitation, by destroying the particle you are observing. I don't know why this helps, but hey if it works, cool.

      But it seems it is impossible to create exact dublicates without destroying the original. There goes the plan to create an army of me...

      - Ost

      --
      ---- Sig. gone.
    58. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe the interaction is instantaneous.

    59. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Hellkitten · · Score: 1

      Like the other reply said it seems to be nessesary to destroy the original in order to make an atom by atom copy

      But no matter the process by original point stands, I would not trust them to get it right, of course if I had grown up with it, everyone did it then I'd probably accept the risk of the odd glitch in the same manner as I accept the risk of a car accident whenever I drive to the store

      Now assuming it's possible to make an exact copy atom by atom without destroying the original. Then they will both be you, and unless someone slapped a sticker on the original to prevent a mix up there would be no way to tell the difference. Both original and copy would think they were the original since the last memory would be stepping into some machine to be copied

      If this was possible it would be very interesting to observe. Will the 'clones' accept each other, try to kill each other, stay together, agree to stay away from each other(devide the land).

      What if there is a significant other involved? Jealousy anyone? Would the SO choose one/both/none ?

      Oh by the way, morally: If we ever can I think we better not. But it's an interesting thought experiment

      --
      - We are the slashdot. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be moderated -
    60. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Hellkitten · · Score: 1

      Damn I hate replying to myself, but I thought of a fews other interesting points

      What wold be the meaning of suicide - killing yourself when there is more than one yourself?

      Also since the two bodies can't be at exactly the same place they will experience things differently, how much before they should be considered separate persons?

      --
      - We are the slashdot. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be moderated -
    61. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Keith_Beef · · Score: 1

      If "consciousness" is a property of each elementary particle, perhaps we could add this to the list of quarks... Not just up, down, strange, charm and whatever... We now have a "soul" quark.

      Now, how about we try to teleport with an "economy" mode, that recreates only half the mass of the original?

      Billy, weighing 86 kilos, steps into the machine in Santa Clara. He steps out of the machine in Boulder weighing 43 kilos. If he has all the memories that he had when he was in Santa Clara, we may have demonstrated that consciousness is holographic; that all the information is present in each elementary particle. Maybe Billy's memory will be a little less precise that before. We will have invented "lossy compression of consciousness".

      I'm off to file a patent!

    62. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by guybarr · · Score: 1

      The answer to this dilemna is to realize that the person we were 10 minutes ago is dead

      my (IANA Biologist) definition for life definately treats it as a time dependant process i.e. a life form is not only it's manifestation at any given instant, but a 4D phenomena.

      and it is the usual meaning people attribute to life: the current me is a manifestation (a projection to 3D, if you like) of a very complex set of interconnected time dependant processes which are viewed as a continuum from zigote to death. ("when he was a baby" ... note the past tense)

      and this is how I view the "self": as a set of processes which very much exist: they make decisions and alter the environment in measurable ways.

      death, in this view, is the temporal upper-bound on the 4D phenomena, saying a 3D projection is "dead" has no meaning.

      --
      Working for necessity's mother.
    63. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by fredrik70 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So if someone duplicates you.. which one is really you? what happens to your sense of continuity? You would both 2 different persons albeit with (very much) the same background. As time goes by different things will happen to the 2 different copies shaping theit minds and opinions differently from each other... Think of it as twins, sort of.

      --
      if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
    64. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems to me the answer to that question depends on whether or not you believe in the concept of a soul, and if so, can it be duplicated.
      One explanation of a similar question is explored in Orson Scott Card's Xenocide, in which the concept of a soul is represented as something called an aiua, which is not necessarily bound to a particular body. One character (Miro) creates basically a copy of his whole body after an accident and his aiua simply moves, making that his 'real' self.
      To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi: "It all depends greatly upon your own point of view..."

    65. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 2

      You seem to keep saying that anything that isn't science isn't worth looking at. Well, you should know, that science without philosophy is nearly as bad, or perhaps worse than philosophy without science.

      I think I'm pushing the science agenda here because I found a lot of (historical) philosophy not to be overly scientific -- but you're right, neither is anything without the other (except interesting data or postulates, sometimes interesting enough in and of themselves to spend a lifetime on :)

      I enjoyed, particularly, studying the philosophy of science, and (having had a pretty digital upbringing :) lean towards the instrumentalist viewpoints that the models aren't necessarily correct,or even accurate, WRT the actual universe they describe, but that they do give us a very accurate way of predicting what will appear to us to happen.

      Philosophy on its own is not worthless, but the sort of philosophy that ends up disappearing up its own arse, happy in the knowledge that its unproven and unprovable, may as well be. :) What good does it do us if its eternal status is "Might be true, can't tell either way"? (Unless, of course, it actually does prove useful 750 years down the track....)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    66. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by naasking · · Score: 1

      If you leave everything to "logic" then we have no reason to continue living.

      Have you tried? What makes you so sure of this? It seems you are merely speaking from prejudice.

      Certain things aren't subject to logic, like our desires and instincts

      Only through habit. The power of your mind lies in the fact that you can mold your desires and instincts however you see fit. Logic dictates how and what you should change.

      because those are the assumptions upon which our logic is built

      That is completely incorrect. Are you implying mathematics is based on feelings? Logic is based on our observations of the world and how it operates: by cause and effect.

    67. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by naasking · · Score: 1

      No, this person would be like you, but wouldn't be you.

      According to who's definition of equality?

    68. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by kubrick · · Score: 2

      I'm willing to agree with your viewpoint about functionality, until it's *MY* consciousness at stake.

      The proof is in the pudding... and I'll let someone else beta test the machine. :)

      I've always said that consciousness is like a hall of mirrors. By it's very nature we cannot see or understand it, because we are using it as the tool to examine itself. It's like a blind spot in the whole rational process of our minds.

      Yes -- I think most variants of the qualia question are essentially meaningless, because they ask us to talk about something that cannot by its definition be defined or communicated.

      As much as I know that the only possible answer is that we are mere machines, very intelligent machines, but mere machines; as much as I know that on some level, I can never fully accept that, and I don't think you can either.

      I have no problem with machines having free will, for some value of free will. I can't conceive of anything dualist -- except to the extent that the mind may manifest itself in some other way in the myriad number of dimensions that have been postulated to exist (are we up to 11 now?), and even then I fit that within the 'physical' universe that (as far as I can tell) encompasses everything. I also believe that phenomenon to (eventually) be susceptible to some for of scientific investigation, when the time comes.

      I'm not as 'hard-core' as the full-on functionalist materialists, but I am happy to accept a materialist nature to existence.

      BTW: I'm not saying I'm right here, just stating my beliefs. I'm agnostic, so I have to muse about the nature of being in some other way. :) (I always say that I only came out of my Philosophy courses with one belief left -- "What is, is." And that's because I only did a BA, and didn't hang around for the postgrad stuff, otherwise I would have lost that too. :)

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    69. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by llamalicious · · Score: 2

      Hmmm... there was an EFC episode in which they quantum duplicated Liam Kincaid so they could have a slightly out-of-phase version of himself with a CVI that wouldn't report to the mothership.

      I remember the psychological dilemma the writers added when the two were interoperating... it'd make my mind jelly.

    70. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by pboulang · · Score: 1

      I recommend Daniel C Dennet's "The Mind's Eye" (hmmm, or was it "Conciousness Explained") for further readings that delve into just this topic. The introduction discusses the transporter from Mars to Earth where the original is not destroyed, and it jumps off from there.

      --

      This comment is guaranteed*

      *not guaranteed

    71. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using quotes like "Soul or no soul", and being worried about perfect copies? Since when did we allow the RIAA to post here?

    72. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by NetWurkGuy · · Score: 1
      1. If materialism were correct, then knowledge about the physical would lead to knowledge of conscious experience. 2. Mary has knowledge of all the physical processes associated with color. 3. Mary does not have knowledge of conscious experience. 4. Materialism is wrong.


      If materialism is right then among the things to be known about consciousness would be the, (physical), experience itself. By implicitly excluding that knowledge from "knowledge of all the physical processes", the argument effectively assumes its conclusion. Either that, or "knowledge" means something different in (3) than in (2) in which case the conclusion simply does not follow.

      Either way, the argument is garbage.

      --
      "Obtuse Anger is that which is greater than Right Anger" - Lewis Carroll
    73. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe the answer to your question lies on page 189 of the AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook, the old version not the new one. Read the section under the spell "Clone". :-P

      -- MisterEGecko

      Hey, if teleportation is plausible, why not?

    74. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by NanoGator · · Score: 2

      "Would I be willing to teleport myself to that beer and drink it there? Hell no. Would you? "

      I wouldn't, either. The last thing I wanna do is be in a pub with my mates and shout "Why didn't anybody tell me my ass was so big!?!?"

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    75. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Akoma+The+Immortal · · Score: 1

      Like in an episode of ST TNG, where Scotty saves himself and almost another crew member (I guess he was a blue shirt, or red shirt?) by keeping their teleporting signals in the teleporter memory bank.

      That was a neet application of the deep freeze conservation method know as cryoginitization :)

      Way less painfull.

      --
      assert(expired(knowldege)); core dump
    76. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by NetWurkGuy · · Score: 1

      I believe that what is being suggested in case A is that it may not be sufficient that each individual atom of the teleported person would be chemically identical to the corresponding atom of the pre-teleported person. The fact that they are not actually the same atoms, (as is the case in ordinary transportation), means that the teleported person would not be the same you.

      Personally, I think substitution of identical atoms for the originals does not destroy identity, but that does lead to the strange and perhaps uncomfortable conclusions associated with B. Aside from the possiblilty of duplication of identity, (two persons who are both you), it also raises the possibility of a you not made from the usual materials. A you might be made, for example, from computer simulated atoms. Perhaps that is what is supposed to have happened to the humans in the movie "Tron" upon being "teleported" into the system.

      The main attraction of C is that it avoids the scariness implicit in B.

      --
      "Obtuse Anger is that which is greater than Right Anger" - Lewis Carroll
    77. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Tackhead · · Score: 2
      > As soon as the word "recreate" is used to describe the process, that means that the original is destroyed (i.e. killed), and the new object is just a copy. Sorry, I'm not going to step into that machine.

      man fork(2)

      The fork() and fork1() functions create a new process. The new process (child process) is an exact copy of the calling process (parent process). [ ... ]"

      Unless there's some stuff in the kernel we don't know about yet (always a possibility), humans don't come with unique process IDs. Both processes' fork() calls will return zero.

      When I step into the machine, one of me is vaporized and feels nothing. It's not around to complain :-) The surviving process steps into the machine and perceives itself as walking out the other end, instantaneously, even if "the other end" was light-years away.

      (And given that my data traveled at light speed to get there, and that all the news from Earth has been traveling at the same speed while I was in transit, I can walk over to the nearest kiosk and read the rest of today's Slashdot posts... Going back, mind you, would give me about nine years of reading to catch up on, which would suck ass... :)

    78. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Tackhead · · Score: 2
      > The main attraction of C is that it avoids the scariness implicit in B.

      Funny, as a guy who holds to "B", I always thought one of the biggest attractions of "B" was that it avoided the scariness implicit in "C".

    79. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Point is, for complete reproduction it is _necessary_ to destroy the original by some weird quantum principle.

    80. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Artifex · · Score: 2

      According to who's definition of equality?

      You just don't get it, do you?

      "Sir, the teleport is complete; you're now really in Paris. If you'll step this way, we can destroy this body. Yes, I'm sure. No, you're not really you, just a leftover body. Really, now, you're overreacting!"

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    81. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Mech_E · · Score: 1

      So if someone duplicates you.. which one is really you? what happens to your sense of continuity?

      Unless you believe that consciousness is a spiritual (as opposed to physical) phenomenon, they should BOTH be exactly you. And nothing at all should happen to your sense of continuity because the process would duplicate the past experience in your brain right up to the point of duplication.

      Of course this all assumes that the duplication process is absolutely perfect, which is hard to imagine ;) Peace.

      --
      "F***in' with your theology like Darwinism in the Bible Belt..." --El-P
    82. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by StillaCoward · · Score: 1

      I see someone else saw that silly Outer Limits episode with the photographer from Spin City. I think it was Outer Limits. The one where a bunch of advanced raptors come to earth and teach us about teleportation, but keep harping on about how you must eliminate redundancies....

    83. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by raduga · · Score: 1
      "God does not play dice."
      Albert Einstein

      "God not only plays dice, He sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen."
      Stephen Hawking

      "Who are you to tell God how to run the universe?"
      Niels Bohr

      --
      First, nothing begins if not opening
    84. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by naasking · · Score: 1

      Actually, the situation is nothing like that. The act of analyzing the particles of the source object destroys its coherence. You are in fact destroyed before you are reconstructed at the destination. Therefore, you are arguing a non-existant situation.

      I had originally thought you understood this, and were arguing how you could know that the reconstructed version of you was really you. Apparently, I gave you too much credit.

    85. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by tsetse_fly · · Score: 1

      An earlier (50's) SF novella/book Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys (oops, just revealed my geezerness ;)
      covers similar topics about making identical copies. There was an interesting take on the whole
      subject I won't give away....

      --
      Research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." -- Wernher von Braun
    86. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous+Cow+herd · · Score: 1

      From someone else's point of view, the other guy may as well be me, However, from my point of view, I've been murdered, my body vaporized, and some other guy is now walking around with my memories.

      A little offtopic, but Orson Scott Card has a short story very similar to this exact scenario called "Fat Farm", in his Maps in a Mirror collection...

      --
      Ita erat quando hic adveni.
    87. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Boronx · · Score: 1

      If ever there is a transporter invented, run this experiment: Try to split the signal to two different endpoints. If the two "arrivals" share the same mental state, then somehow continuity is conserved. If not, than it isn't. If it is theoretically proved that you *can't* split the signal, that when one goes in, only one comes out, that at least lends some credence to the idea that continuity is conserved. You really do go to mars, not just your clone.

    88. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by tq_at_sju · · Score: 1

      well i was just stating the argument, there are others too that are somewhat convincing. One that is cool too is the idea of splitting the brain. It is widely known that people can live with only one half of their brain intact, if some sort of mad scientist could put one half of your brain on a body, and the other half of you on another body which one would be considered you ? If you are a materialist and answer none, then you are saying that the physical doesn't have anything to do with personhood, thus being contradictory. If you say that one of the halves is you then you beg the question why not both ? If as a materialist you say both are you, then this seems absurd, how can both be you and think the same as you and be the same person as you ? Basically, this argument reduces materialism down to absurdity and shows that there is something more then the physical to personhood, thus reinforcing the point that conscious experience and self are not just physical.

      --
      http://www.vanillaafro.com - take me seriously and I will shoot you
    89. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by tq_at_sju · · Score: 1

      the real main point of the argument was ignored by the responders, the point is why is experience needed to know things ? in a physical world such as ours, experience SHOULD NOT BE such a big part, but it is, and this argument as philosophy 101ish as it is that experience plays a HUGE role in knowing. You can say all you want about it not mattering but don't tell Mary that!

      --
      http://www.vanillaafro.com - take me seriously and I will shoot you
    90. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certain things aren't subject to logic, like our desires and instincts

      Only through habit. The power of your mind lies in the fact that you can mold your desires and instincts however you see fit. Logic dictates how and what you should change.


      Your mind is terribly powerful. Do you chose with whom you will fall in love, as well?

    91. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sweet,

      I came up with that independantly (though probably later than all the sources people are using). It is great to see others think that way too.

      There is no way to tell the difference between instantaneous existance with memory and a continuous existance.

      :)

    92. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by naasking · · Score: 1

      Your mind is terribly powerful.

      Nothing you don't have, I'm sure. And just for your information, sarcasm like this does not accomplish anything in an argument.

      Do you chose with whom you will fall in love, as well?

      Of course. You decide what character traits you value and so what people you admire, respect and wish to associate with.

    93. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      People who worry about this thing really ar emuhc more religious than me. There i sno "real you" The only "you" that exists is a mass of biochemical reactions. Your personality is othing more than the mass of your memories, which are stored biochemicly. You have no soul. Consciousness (if there is such a thing) is nothing more than an evolved biological process designed to give homo-sapiens an advantage, just as having a poisinous bite helps species of snakes.

    94. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      The only known way to do teleportation is through quantm-entaglement, which by definition requires the destroying of the original in order to re-create the exact duplicate, in real time. No information available to be stored.

      Bzzt. Try again.

    95. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Painful? You're just cryophobic!

    96. Re:Teleportation, or recreating? by mindstrm · · Score: 2

      Well.. let's say I don't believe in a soul. Let's say I believe that the sense of consciousness comes from simply the arrangement of the molecules themselves and the patterns that arise within the mind.

      Given that, if we made an exacty quantum duplicate, It seems clear that both copies would feel they were, in fact, me. And they would both be correct.. however... would the copy really be me?

      What I mean is, to outsiders, both are indistinguishable in any way whatsoever. Yes, after the copy, they go on to have different experiences, but that's not what we are talking about.

      The thing is.. from my point of view. is it really me?

  6. Re:Remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many bothans died to bring us this information.

  7. I'm not getting in one of those things by yog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Suppose they get this working with matter. Then it's just a matter of time before humans would walk into a chamber and be rematerialized somewhere else. The question is, who walks out of the destination chamber? Is it me or is it a reconstructed "me" with a different awareness, while the original "me" was destroyed? Even if it's a perfect copy, it's not worth the risk.

    --
    it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
    1. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

      How would you know the difference? If there was some mishap and your first "you" didn't get destroyed, the first "you" would think nothing happened while the second "you" would realize that he was materialized in the destination chamber. Which one is the correct "you"?

      What I'd be more worried about is being transported slowly. All those atoms being ripped from the body has got to be painful.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    2. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by interiot · · Score: 4, Funny
      Even if it's a perfect copy, it's not worth the risk.

      What if they could scan the original you, make sure they have two or three backups first, and confirm several long checksums of the backups versus the copied you, before they killed the original you? Would it be acceptable then?

    3. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the instant they try to look at the copy, the original would disintegrate.

    4. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by n3rd · · Score: 1

      What if they could scan the original you, make sure they have two or three backups first, and confirm several long checksums of the backups versus the copied you, before they killed the original you? Would it be acceptable then?

      Hey hey hey, I'm not giving Big Brother a MD5 of ME!

    5. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Star Wars Galaxies does something like this.

    6. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by drang · · Score: 1

      This is the central conceit of a well-known science fiction book: Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A man is repeatedly "killed" during teleportation to the moon. It reads a little clunky today (back in 1960--when Rogue Moon was published--sf authors were still trying to figure out how to write about sex), but has some interesting themes. Out of print now, I believe, but you may find a copy in your local library.

    7. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Oswald · · Score: 1

      Oh, fer chrissakes, children! The subject has been covered. Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon, 1960. He thought of all the angles a long time ago, and of course was smart enough to realize the truth--your copy may think he's you, and the world may think he's you, but he isn't you. You're dead.

    8. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by discogravy · · Score: 5, Funny
      As long as those are legitimate back ups, and just for back up purposes, sure.

      It's bad enough people are sharing music and movies over the net, the last thing we need is people to start sharing themselves online!

      oh, wait...

    9. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by nicething · · Score: 1

      This is a really interesting question--I always come up with the following situation (since I already have some biased thoughts on the matter):

      So, they decide to teleport you to somewhere--to make it easy, they teleport you across the room. (It seems that the "reading" process will destroy the initial object, but I'm going to play with that so I can make some distinctions.) You step into the teleport-machine, which then tells the other machine across the room to builkd a perfect copy of you. Something goes wrong, though, and you step out of the original machine just in time to see yourself step out of the new machine.

      Now, if it's true that the copy of you is the same as the original, then should anyone have any qualms about shooting [the original] you in the head (or putting you in a particle-vaporization chamber, if you want to quibble), just to clear things up? I mean, the original was supposed to be vaporized anyway, and should be no more, now that there is that perfect copy across the room. . . so now is the "accidental original" expendable?

      Notice that in most of the discussions so far, nothing is sent across the room other than instructions on how to make a perfect copy.

      I guess my thoughts are that a perfect copy can be substitutedtransparently for the original, unless you happen to be the original. No one else might notice, but you sure would.

      Is this reasoning fatally flawed, or can I remain concerned?

    10. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by interiot · · Score: 2

      Aye. RTFA. Entschuldigung.

    11. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by limekiller4 · · Score: 1

      "The question is, who walks out of the destination chamber? Is it me or is it a reconstructed "me" with a different awareness, while the original "me" was destroyed?"

      We'll just have to ask the wife of the first volunteer, won't we? =)

      --
      My .02,
      Limekiller
    12. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by krogoth · · Score: 2

      Even better, if the process doesn't require it, why destroy the original? I don't really like the idea of being unnecessarily killed while a perfect copy of myself is created.

      --

      They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
    13. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by groman · · Score: 1

      This reasoning is fatally flawed because if the atom is intact you do not posess the information required to recreate it. So at no point is the atom duplicated, i.e. it has to be destroyed first, otherwise you don't have enough info.

    14. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me outline it a bit more clearly..

      Suppose using this method I am taken apart piece by piece and sent to two separate recievers (I'm only data at this point, after all). These two recievers make two perfect copies of me.

      Now, where is my conciousness thoughout this process? Is it evenly distributed between the two new copies of me? Does it dwell in one of them exclusively? Or was it effectively dispersed when my brain was systematically taken apart by the teleporter?

      I believe that every animal is nothing more than the sum of their atoms. Even if you're making perfect copies of said atoms, they are no longer *yours*, and as such the sum of them would no longer be *you*. You would be effectively dead at that point, irregardless of how many copies of the you are running around.

      - Blue

    15. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Zerth · · Score: 1

      If nothing else, #bookwarez has it. Looks interesting so far. Middle of the century scifi strikes me as having quite a distinct flavor from end of the century scifi. Language shifts and all that.

    16. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Artifex · · Score: 3, Funny

      What if they could scan the original you, make sure they have two or three backups first, and confirm several long checksums of the backups versus the copied you, before they killed the original you? Would it be acceptable then?

      Um. If I way up after someone makes a copy of me elsewhere, that's proof enough that that person is not me.

      "We're not killing you, just turning off your body here; you're really now in Paris. Trust me. Be still!"

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    17. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by guttentag · · Score: 2
      To: yog
      From: Ministry of Love
      Subject: Re: I'm not getting in one of those things

      Why is it that you are the only person in your office who continues to resist teleportation? Society doesn't care whether it's the "real you" or a "duplicate you" that walks off the pad so long as that entity can contribute to the GDP the same way you do. Stop thinking about yourself for a minute and report to room 13B for political re-education. The two men standing behind you will show you the way.

    18. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      That would also depend on whether a fly accidentally got into the chamber with you just before you teleported.

    19. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Is this an excerpt from that age-old game of Paranoia (West End Games)?

      I hope sooo, I haven't thought about that game in at least 10 years.... wow! thanks (even if it isn't a reference). When will someone make an online game of that one...

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    20. Re: I'm not getting in one of those things by SmiloidalManiac · · Score: 2
      Suppose they get this working with matter. Then it's just a matter of time before humans would walk into a chamber and be rematerialized somewhere else. The question is, who walks out of the destination chamber? Is it me or is it a reconstructed "me" with a different awareness, while the original "me" was destroyed? Even if it's a perfect copy, it's not worth the risk.


      For a fun and disturbing thought, how do you know this never happens whenever you go to sleep? I remember thinking this as a kid...
    21. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like cheese! yessireee!

    22. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by neil_rickards · · Score: 1

      As I understand it such a scan would need to be done with at least quantum resolution (for the brain, if not the rest). Asuming this could be done at all (uncertainty principle), would it not affect the original? A second scan for verification would come up different - at what stage would the check-sum be generated?

    23. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Elmar_Stoned_at_Work · · Score: 0

      Cannot move file "soul". File is in use by another application.

      --
      -elmar-
    24. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by datarat · · Score: 1

      Please see James Patrick Kelly's "Think like a Dinosaur"

      --
      If you do something right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
    25. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, there was a Futurama episode about this. :)
      Fry made a copy of Lucy Liu.

      Hmm... Futurama really does accurately predict the future.

    26. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things by perreira · · Score: 1

      I would't share myself, but I could live with a copy of Jennifer Lopez ;-)

  8. ACK!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My computer was commandeered to post that!! Stupid slashdot open source "security"!!! Ignore this post!1 nothing to see here, move along, move along!!

  9. What? by PacoTaco · · Score: 1

    Like the speed of light isn't fast enough for you?

  10. whad'ya mean, Slashdot's favorite? by jeffy124 · · Score: 1

    Didn't you read the disclaimer?

    This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
    1. Re:whad'ya mean, Slashdot's favorite? by Smokinn · · Score: 1

      Yeah like a slashdot opinion, even less a news story is anything important =P

      --
      "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal."
  11. Not necessarily bad for open source. by abat · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    If the lawmakers were actually interested in doing good, they might say that open source software is exempt from liability requirements (because if there are problems you could have seen them in the source!). So, liability could really be good for the FSF.

  12. Amazing Science by Wrexen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Team leader Dr Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a laser beam, its disembodiment and the recreation of the original beam in a different location

    The team was understood to be using a device known to insiders as a "video camera", although how it functions exactly was not disclosed during their press release

    1. Re:Amazing Science by cybercuzco · · Score: 2

      When was the last time you played a video and a laser beam came out of the TV?

      --

    2. Re:Amazing Science by MrFredBloggs · · Score: 1

      Never seen the movie Tron? Or did they just make that up too? I`m sure if Jeff Bridges read Slashdot he`d put you in your place!

  13. Link by MagPulse · · Score: 1

    Here's the Quantum Teleportation page at ANU, which has a brief interview with Ping Koy Lam on the research page:

    http://bohm.anu.edu.au/units/public/phys1007/s3296 225/quantum.html

    1. Re:Link by lex_weaver · · Score: 4, Informative

      The URL you have provided is for a page published by a student undertaking a first-year physics course. Whilst it may (or may not) contain some good content, I doubt the student is part of the research team, and the page should not be treated as authoritative.

      The page at http://photonics.anu.edu.au/qoptics/ is somewhat more official.

    2. Re:Link by proxima · · Score: 2

      Too bad the "Quantum Teleportation" project listed on this page: http://photonics.anu.edu.au/qoptics/projects.htmll eads to a page that is still "Under Construction".

      --
      "The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
    3. Re:Link by dpp · · Score: 2, Funny
      Too bad the "Quantum Teleportation" project listed on this page: http://photonics.anu.edu.au/qoptics/projects.html leads to a page that is still "Under Construction".

      They must still be building it up painstakingly from bits they teleported from somewhere else :-)

      --
      This post is strictly my own opinion and not necessarily that of my employer.
  14. Super fast! by SandSpider · · Score: 1
    Quantum entanglement allows what Einstein termed a "spooky interaction" at a distance between two objects at the speed of light.

    This seems great. I mean, what we have here seems to be taking a beam of light and transferring it to someplace else, and this is the clever part, at the speed of light. Woo woo!


    Personally, I can't wait for them to do the same with matter. Perhaps they could take me apart and send me to McDonalds at 25 MPH. That would be fantastic!


    =Brian

    --
    There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
    1. Re:Super fast! by Com2Kid · · Score: 1

      Personally, I can't wait for them to do the same with matter. Perhaps they could take me apart and send me to McDonalds at 25 MPH. That would be fantastic!

      Feh, it would rock. Being in gazzilions if seperate pieces you wouldn't notice the travel time.

      Rush hour doesn't matter to the disembodied. :)

    2. Re:Super fast! by SandSpider · · Score: 1
      Feh, it would rock. Being in gazzilions if seperate pieces you wouldn't notice the travel time.
      Rush hour doesn't matter to the disembodied. :)

      I dunno, I'm told it feels an awful lot like being drunk.


      =Brian

      --
      There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
    3. Re:Super fast! by Com2Kid · · Score: 1

      I dunno, I'm told it feels an awful lot like being drunk.

      I said you'd be traveling in bazzilions of pieces, not upchucking.

  15. Witchblade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd like to stick my tongue so far up Yancy Butler's vaginal orifice, I can taste what she had for dinner.

    Mmmmm, mmmmm.

    1. Re:Witchblade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hell. I'd settle for a tongue that'd be able to accomplish that task.

    2. Re:Witchblade by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd like to stick my tongue so far up Yancy Butler's vaginal orifice, I can taste what she had for dinner.

      don't you mean anal?

  16. Instantaneous transmission? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Say, does the party doing the duplication of the laser have to exchange information with the party doing the reading of the laser for this process to work?

    If not, why not stick a duplicating end on Mars or someting, read it on Earth, and let the spookiness do the rest?

  17. teleportation by Drath · · Score: 1

    The notion of teleportation in regards to the destruction and rebuilding of an object reminds me of this book I read a while ago. I forget what it was called, but it was about a boy and some robots and they were trapped in some maze thing or something. Anyway, it explained the teleportation of matter in this way. And it had some interesting points on the morality of teleportation transportation.

    For example, what are the theological or philosophical repercussions of killing and rebuilding your physical self?

    I dunno, but it's something to think about.

    1. Re:teleportation by tftp · · Score: 4, Insightful
      what are the theological or philosophical repercussions of killing and rebuilding your physical self?

      For all practical purposes, it is like if you die (and disappear) each time you go to sleep, and your complete copy gets reconstructed at the instant you wake up.

      Given that cells of your body don't live long, you are a new, reborn person, every N years.

      The key to perceived continued existence is the slow transfer of your consciousness into another body, with clear departure from the old one. The copy operation (cp) is not good enough, you need the move (mv) here.

    2. Re:teleportation by Com2Kid · · Score: 2

      Given that cells of your body don't live long, you are a new, reborn person, every N years.

      IIRC some parts of your body are only once around.

      Your brain for instance. :)

      Some of the other human organs have this principle too, and there is even a name for the group of them as a whole, but darned if I can remember it. ^_^

    3. Re:teleportation by JimE+Griff · · Score: 0

      Given that cells of your body don't live long, you are a new, reborn person, every N years.

      Except for your nerve cells, where as far as we know, consciousness is stored. You get a set when you are born, and you stay with them until you die. The replacement doesn't include them.

      I could be wrong; I don't have any "sources" or "actual information" to back this up. That wouldn't be very /. of me, would it?

      --
      Jimmy _______ | | | \__/
    4. Re:teleportation by tftp · · Score: 2
      Except for your nerve cells

      Nerve cells (axons) do regenerate, how else damaged nerves could be reconnected?

      Neurons, on the other hand, were believed to not regenerate at all. Recent studies, however, disprove this theory, concluding, in part, that "the human hippocampus retains its ability to generate neurons throughout life".

    5. Re:teleportation by dissonant7 · · Score: 1
      The key to perceived continued existence is the slow transfer of your consciousness into another body, with clear departure from the old one. The copy operation (cp) is not good enough, you need the move (mv) here.
      The key to percieved continuity of conciousness is memory. Think about it: if your memory were wiped clean and replaced with a completely different history instantaneously, you'd never realize that you used to be someone\something else.
    6. Re:teleportation by mattdm · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure your Unix analogy holds. cp is pretty slow on some media -- and mv doesn't move change the original bits at all if it can help it -- it just changes metadata. If it can't do that, then it exactly does a cp and unlinks (i.e. rms the original after.

    7. Re:teleportation by mesocyclone · · Score: 2

      For all practical purposes, it is like if you die (and disappear) each time you go to sleep, and your complete copy gets reconstructed at the instant you wake up. This makes a big assumption: that your self is simply a product of the state of the atoms in your body. I think it is not unreasonable, but it is not a certainty. In this mechanistic age, this assumption is too often taken as an axiom.

      --

      The only good weather is bad weather.

    8. Re:teleportation by tftp · · Score: 2
      The key to percieved continuity of conciousness is memory. Think about it: if your memory were wiped clean and replaced with a completely different history instantaneously, you'd never realize that you used to be someone\something else.

      No. That would work only for the copy of me, but not for the original. The copy does not see a break in memories anyway. The problem is the original. Just imagine, you walk into a chamber, stand there for a minute, and then the operator says "All ready, you've been copied, now be please so kind to walk to the wall and I will shoot you." That is a problem - break of continuity for the original person.

      Think about this process. You are teleporting somewhere. You enter the Blue Chamber, press the button. Instantly the surroundings begin to fade into something else, colors fade, teleport operators become more and more transparent, and at the same time other people become visible where they weren't... and finally everything is stable again, and you are in Green chamber at the other end, with all your memories intact and not broken for a moment. That would work.

    9. Re:teleportation by tftp · · Score: 2
      The only other assumption that would change things here would be the "soul" hypothesis. However, it has not been proven to be correct or incorrect yet. The modern theory that associates self-awareness to electro-chemical processes in the brain has much more solid foundation already, even though modern computers are not good enough to simulate a brain yet.

      That's exactly why I used this theory in my analogy - it makes more sense at this time. If the soul gets discovered in some way (for example, as a wave in ether or hyperspace) then very many concepts will change.

    10. Re:teleportation by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

      Think about another process, though.

      You stand in front of a door. You take a step through the door. Now you are on the other side of the door.

      Did you kill the "you" who stood on the first side of the door only to recreate the present "you" on the second side?

      If all the particles in your body tunneled simultaneously to Hawaii, would you say that the original you who sits glumly in your chair staring at the monitor now was killed in order to create the new happy Hawaiian you?

      The first scenario above is discontinuity in time. You 'kill' the instantaneous representation of yourself to walk through the door. In fact, every instantaneous representation of you is destroyed or lost to the time dimension. The second scenario is discontinuity in space. In one instant you are at your desk, the next you are in Hawaii. Every bit of you is the same, just in a different place.

      Would you say either of those was 'killing' the original?

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    11. Re:teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The theological aspects are of course complicated, as almost all religions I know of beleives in some sort of soul.



      Another thing I was thinking of was that copy your quantum states in another location, is that exactly the same as beeing in the original location? The body is not only the particles that are in the body, but also the sum of everthing around effecting the body. Maybe (and probably) the quantum state for a certain particle will change when you go from your bedroom and into your shower, what would happen if that is the case and you are your "bedroom-body" in the shower?

    12. Re:teleportation by tantrum · · Score: 1

      The unix anology works just great. No need to copy all your atoms/cells/structures, just update the location table to convince the universe that you're not on earth anymore, but on mars or something ;)

    13. Re:teleportation by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 2
      The problem is the original. Just imagine, you walk into a chamber, stand there for a minute, and then the operator says "All ready, you've been copied, now be please so kind to walk to the wall and I will shoot you."

      I was just thinking about that to. That has the all the makings of a good sci-fi movie. Some guy(s) who keeps teleporting himself, but is always killing himself to, each time he does it. Wonder what that would to do the soul (if it exists). Wonder if your soul would be part of each copy. Would it be fair and legal to kill you old copy? Since it is a person to. Wonder if the memories of dieing would build up each time you did it.

      That's some fucked up shit that society isn't ready for yet. Lucky, we won't have to deal with it just yet.

    14. Re:teleportation by anshil · · Score: 1

      Given that cells of your body don't live long, you are a new, reborn person, every N years.

      N == 7

      Yes thats biologically correct, every 7 years you are a complete new person.. (Every Cell has been replicated).

      --

      --
      Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
    15. Re:teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The often overlooked problem. If you have heard and remember a song, the new 'you' isn't the old 'you' - therefor, remembering the song is a clear case of copyright infringement.

      Remember, only the origional you has the right to remember the song. All new 'you's ' must purchase a new license.

      What is clearly needed is a DMTA - Digital Millinium Transporting Act.

    16. Re:teleportation by dustmote · · Score: 1

      Yes, but even those cells are continually taking in molecules and emitting waste, as I understand it, so there is still a lack of continuity from, say, the matter you conatined when you were born and the matter you have at time of death. (Assuming, of course, that these events are sufficiently far apart.)

      --


      -1, "1337" speak
    17. Re:teleportation by Jon+Howard · · Score: 1

      For all practical purposes, it is like if you die (and disappear) each time you go to sleep, and your complete copy gets reconstructed at the instant you wake up.

      Strangely enough, I never seem to wake up as you. Where am I when I sleep?

      (Consider that to be plural)

    18. Re:teleportation by praedor · · Score: 2

      Not so fast Clarence! Not ALL your cells replace. Many cells are no longer dividing nor capable. Certain tissues (blood, mucosa, liver, skin, and the like) do constantly replenish with less and less fidelity as time passes but there are many critical cells and tissues that do not replenish and you are flat stuck with them.


      --
      In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
    19. Re:teleportation by praedor · · Score: 2

      Your "information" isn't stored in individual atoms. You are not a form of holographic storage device. Information is stored in very stable macromolecules such that even if this atom or that atom is replaced, the connections are the same (a covalent bond between a carbon and nitrogen atom is the same no matter what. This bond is no different than THAT bond - no information is stored in that bond). It is like trying to claim that synthetic vitamin C is not the same as "natural" vitamin C. They ARE the same. They are handled, seen as, and behave the same no matter how the vitamin C was synthesized. There is no information of note in the combined atoms of one molecule vs another. YOU are macromolecules such that the individual atoms are irrelevant in and of themselves.

      --
      In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
  18. Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by duncan+bayne · · Score: 1

    >Is it me or is it a reconstructed "me" with a
    >different awareness, while the original "me" was
    >destroyed?

    What do you mean? If the 'new you' is constructed as an identical copy (down to the electrochemical set-up of your nervous system at the exact time of teleportation), the 'new you' will indeed be indistinguishable from the 'old you'. It will be the same.

    This should actually be a good test for the existence of the soul as separate from the body - if such a soul exists, the result of teleportation would be the removal of the soul from the body. Of course, if the results of teleporting humans are identical to the originals, I'm sure the fundamentalists will find some entertaining way of avoiding the truth, as they have done with evolution.

    1. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by HydroCarbon10 · · Score: 2

      This should actually be a good test for the existence of the soul as separate from the body - if such a soul exists, the result of teleportation would be the removal of the soul from the body.

      Would you care to explain this phenomenon in detail? Oh, wait, you can't prove it but you believe it to be true. You're argument is just as "solid" as the argument of the "fundamentalists" that you deride. You have none.

      --
      The best way to accelerate a windows box is at 9.8 meters per second square.
    2. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by yog · · Score: 2

      OK. Suppose you walk into a teleportation chamber, it scans you completely and creates the identical copy at the destination. Then, it destroys the original you, to achieve the effect of "teleporting". That's what I don't want.

      Philosophically it doesn't matter to the rest of the universe what entity emerges from the destination chamber as long as it's a perfect copy of the original. However, it's still murder.

      You can go; I'll take the bus.

      --
      it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
    3. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by HydroCarbon10 · · Score: 2

      Philosophically it doesn't matter to the rest of the universe what entity emerges from the destination chamber as long as it's a perfect copy of the original. However, it's still murder.

      Please...a perfect copy IS the original. Everything in the universe is made of energy. People are no exception, and one person certainly isn't made of "different" energy than another. Also, for teleportation to work the only thing that can come out of the other end is a perfect copy. We couldn't begin to measure how randomly changing the kinetic energies and translational vectors of the chemicals in your body will affect you.

      --
      The best way to accelerate a windows box is at 9.8 meters per second square.
    4. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We really don't have any evidence whatsoever that the earth is round either, but that doesn't deter fools into thinking it is. I can see perfectly from my perspective that it is indeed flat and has four corners, just like the bible says.

      Sheesh, get back on the reality train will ya?

    5. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

      How do you conceptualize the corners? Are there orthogonal borders in your perspective?

      Interesting.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    6. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Zebbers · · Score: 1

      the soul you have is electricity....

    7. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Ztream · · Score: 1

      Well, it appears that physics handles this problem nicely by ensuring that the original *must* be destroyed in the process, but hypothetically, consider this:

      You are to be teleported across a room. You are standing in the "source" chamber, and you can see the destination chamber. Now, teleportation starts, and your whole physical makeup is scanned. Next, a copy of you is built across the room in the destination chamber. After this, the original you is destroyed, but only after catching a glimpse of the destination you.
      The question is then: would this be OK with you, and if not, why not? The difference between this and instant teleportation would be a split second of coexistance.

      It scares the hell out of me anyway...

    8. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by dissonant7 · · Score: 1

      Presupposing that we are possessed of a soul, what makes you think that it is tied to your body? Couldn't the soul be distributed in some way? Could each of our souls be a part (or maybe whole) of the universe and everything in it?

      For that matter, think about this: the you that existed only a moment ago no longer exists. You no longer consist of the same cells, atoms, etc as you did before. Did that previous instance of you have a soul? If it did, where did its soul go when the moment ended?

    9. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Would you care to explain this phenomenon in
      > detail? Oh, wait, you can't prove it but you
      > believe it to be true. You're argument is just
      > as "solid" as the argument of
      > the "fundamentalists" that you deride. You have
      > none.

      It's really very simple, if you're capable of distancing yourself from the emotional content of the experiment. Simply put, if a teleportation device can create 'copies' of people that are in every way identical to the originals, then either:

      1. souls do not exist

      or

      2. what we perceive as a 'soul' is simply a property of the electrochemical state of a body

    10. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Philosophically it doesn't matter to the rest
      > of the universe what entity emerges from the
      > destination chamber as long as it's a perfect
      > copy of the original. However, it's still murder.

      Why? At what point does replacement of particles within a body change the body itself? It strikes me that you're arguing in favour of the existence of a 'soul'.

    11. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if a teleportation device can create 'copies' of people that are in every way identical to the originals

      But this is impossible to determine. How do you know if the copy is identical?

    12. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by PhuCknuT · · Score: 1

      Why would something that you will likely never be forced to do and even more likely will never be possible to do scare you?

    13. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > But this is impossible to determine. How do you
      > know if the copy is identical?

      If you cannot devise any way of differentiating between the copy and the original, then it can be taken as identical. Anyway, if someone is arguing in favour of a supernatural 'soul', then there should be some difference between an original and a copy that could be accounted for by the absence of a soul in the copy.

      Personally, I'd be *very* surprised if there was such a difference.

    14. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you cannot devise any way of differentiating between the copy and the original, then it can be taken as identical.

      So if I clone a human and then give them both amnesia, they are identical?

      Anyway, if someone is arguing in favour of a supernatural 'soul', then there should be some difference between an original and a copy that could be accounted for by the absence of a soul in the copy.

      Define soul.

      Personally, I'd be *very* surprised if there was such a difference.

      I think there are definately things that make up who we are which have never been observed scientifically.

    15. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by startled · · Score: 2

      "Suppose you walk into a teleportation chamber, it scans you completely and creates the identical copy at the destination. Then, it destroys the original you,"

      Actually, most of these philosophical questions are conveniently solved by the fact that that's not at all what happens.

      The scanning process involves destroying the original. At no point in time are there two of you, and we currently have no idea of how to do something like that.

    16. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by OzJimbob · · Score: 1

      I would think that true teleportation would not involve "scanning" and "reassembling" - wouldn't it involve some kind of funky twisting of the space-time continum so you move through space without actually moving?

      --
      -"I still believe in revolution; I just don't capitalize it anymore." - srini!
    17. Re:Religion, 'the soul', and teleportation by LordLucless · · Score: 1

      So if I clone a human and then give them both amnesia, they are identical?

      No, because there are acquired attributes not reproduced during cloning. If your original was a pack a day man and gorged and take away, he'd have gunk in his lungs and his veins that the clone wouldn't.

      I think this issue really turns about the seat of the consciousness. If the consciousness is based somewhere physical(the mind, the nerves), teleportation wouldnt do anything horribe to the teleportee. However, if the consciousness is metaphysical, that could be a problem.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  19. McDonalds? by RelliK · · Score: 2
    Perhaps they could take me apart and send me to McDonalds at 25 MPH. That would be fantastic!

    Aha! So that's what they burgers are made of!

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  20. Re:Remember... by prismatic · · Score: 1

    Well, I never mod anything up that's already at three, four, or five. I only mod up stuff at zero, one, and two. (Usually just ones and twos, though). I almost never mod down, because I can count on someone else to mod down something that truly deserves it.

    Finally, if you don't like how stuff is getting moderated, metamod

    --
    Brian Voils
    "A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students."
  21. Still limited by speed of light by SirKodiak · · Score: 1
    Like the speed of light isn't fast enough for you?
    Teleportation in this manner is still limited by the speed of light. The gains would be that you wouldn't need to occupy the space in between the two points while in transit and (at least for laser beams) you would not experience signal degredation because of intervening dust and such. Quantum entanglement does not allow for superlinear communication.
    1. Re:Still limited by speed of light by mattdm · · Score: 2

      Are you sure about that? If the numbers reported in the second article are correct, the "teleportation" does in fact happen at faster than light speed -- see this comment.

    2. Re:Still limited by speed of light by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You haven't got this quite right. You are only half right. Quantum entanglement does indeed allow for faster than light communication, but only within the entangled system itself, no external FTL is allowed.

      If it were possible to create our own quantum entangled system, then we might just succeed at transfering information faster than light. Elimination of randomizing could be done by purposely setting our phase entangled values ourselves, but no way has been found to do this so far.

      The problem is, you have to get points A and B far apart first to make the FTL communication worth it, and that must be done at slower than light speed.

  22. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Please tell me that Fey'lya was one of them. I hate that furry little bastard. Why the hell couldn't Salvatore have dropped that moon on his head instead of Chewie's*? The galaxy would have been so much better off if he had.

    *Oh, sorry, did I just spoil the book for you? Well, tough gornt, kid. Speaking of which, have you heard the one about the Bothan and the gornt in the cantina?

  23. exceeding the speed of light by Bob+Loblaw · · Score: 1
    According to the article:

    Using a process known as quantum entanglement, the researchers, led by 34-year-old physicist Ping Koy Lam, have disassembled a laser at one end of an optical communications system and recreated a replica a metre away.

    Quantum entanglement allows what Einstein termed a "spooky interaction" at a distance between two objects at the speed of light.

    An encoded radio signal is embedded on an input laser, which is combined with entanglement and then scanned. The laser is destroyed in the process.

    But the radio signal survives and is sent electronically to a receiving station, where within a nanosecond an exact replica of the beam - with the radio signal intact - is retrieved and decoded.

    Am I missing something or are they doing this quantum entanglement at over 3 times the speed of light? 1 m/ns = 1 000 000 000 m/s = 3.3 c

    where c=299 792 458 m/s

    This process is getting spookier and spookier.

    1. Re:exceeding the speed of light by Why+Should+I · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's the whole point.

      The "spooky interaction" postulate was based on the fact that these things seem to be interacting at faster than the speed of light.

      As other posts say, the re-constituted object appears (essentially) before the old one is destroyed.

    2. Re:exceeding the speed of light by josh+crawley · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm still considering very fast traveling of the light. If there was an impediment between the 1 meter, I'd consider teleportation.

      There's a relativly (pun intended) interesting experiment on NEC Institute's web page. It proves that light can go faster than C. Here for NEC Faster than C webpage

      It seems that this beam of light traveled about 3C. However, there's conjecture that it traveled slower, but time dilation made it seem 3C. That's unprovable at the time though.

    3. Re:exceeding the speed of light by snkline · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think the article is incorrect, the Quantum Entanglment interactions are instantaneous, not delayed.

    4. Re:exceeding the speed of light by JimE+Griff · · Score: 0

      but time dilation made it seem 3C. That's unprovable at the time though.
      Of course it is! It time is dialated, then its pointless to talk about what happens in it.
      I think its a relativity thing

      --
      Jimmy _______ | | | \__/
    5. Re:exceeding the speed of light by josh+crawley · · Score: 2

      I knew some slashbot would make a rather inane comment on a non-issue. That's what the main project engineer was asked. See, we still dont know if faster-than-light does reverse-dilate time. It's still a theory till we prove it, and all we need is 1 out-of-bound number to throw it out.

      So yes, it is a valid question.

    6. Re:exceeding the speed of light by itsme1234 · · Score: 1

      Or maybe the space contraction made the distance smaller ? There are MANY pitfalls in relativity. However, the page looks all right (they state that it's not possible to send information faster than light).

      to quote:

      Information coded using a light pulse cannot be transmitted faster than c using this effect. Hence, it is still true to say that "Information carried by a light pulse cannot be transmitted faster than c." The detailed reasons are very complex and are still under debate. However, using this effect, one might be able to increase information transfer speed up to c. In present day technology, information is transmitted at speed far slower than c in most cases such as through the Internet and inside a computer.

  24. Laser Beams Identical? by KanSer · · Score: 0, Troll

    In the more "in-depth" article they say "- disassembling objects in one place while a perfect replica is created elsewhere -". - If they are doing this with a laser beam, how the hell do they know they've done it? Are they not just shooting a laser beam into a wall and then making another one somewhere else? This stinks of two idiots with a camera and a laser pointer. - I'm gonna go out side and teleport some vitamin-d into my system while my friends teleport a football back and forth. It should be great fun. -

    --
    • MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward Wednesday April 20, @4:20
  25. Wow, teleportation of waves by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

    How is this different from "teleporting" a sound wave by using a microphone and a speaker?

    1. Re:Wow, teleportation of waves by BobTheBooser · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is compleetly different from transporting sound by using a microphone and speaker.
      1 these are billions of photons, not the average of air preasure over the cone of a microphone.
      2 They are the teleportation makes an "exact" replica of the photons in the lazer at the other point.
      3 these are photons not waves, if you remember your high school physics light waves and light photons are two different (interconected) things.

      5 in mic -> speaker you are basicly making an electrical aproximation to the air preasure waves, sending that electrical signal down a wire, and the speaker aproximating movement of its cone via the magnetic interactions from that signal.
      In quantum teleportation such as this, the quantum states of the molecules at each end are directly conected.

      6 im sure someone eles could give a better explanation and more reasons

    2. Re:Wow, teleportation of waves by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Well, I was assuming that the sound wave was recreated perfectly. So that covers 1, 2, and 5. As for 3, well, I think you're oversimplifying things.

    3. Re:Wow, teleportation of waves by BobTheBooser · · Score: 1

      What do you mean by the sound wave is recreated perfectly. do you mean that you can capture the movement of every air molicule and suspended particles that are caused to vibrate?

    4. Re:Wow, teleportation of waves by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      do you mean that you can capture the movement of every air molicule and suspended particles that are caused to vibrate?

      Sure, it's all just E-M waves anyway.

  26. Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can anyone give a layman's explanation of how the information is getting passed from point a to point b?

    1. Re:Question by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Can anyone give a layman's explanation of how the information is getting passed from point a to point b?

      Magic.

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    2. Re:Re:Question by jstockdale · · Score: 1

      Can anyone give a layman's explanation of how the information is getting passed from point a to point b?

      Magic.

      Can anyone give a scientific explanation of how the information is getting passed from point a to point b?

      Spooky action at a distance.

      What?

      Erm. Magic.

      --
      **AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
    3. Re:Question by Salsaman · · Score: 2
      Yes, it uses sub-space frequency transmission.

    4. Re:Question by GrBear · · Score: 1

      Can anyone give a layman's explanation of how the information is getting passed from point a to point b?

      Magic.


      Funny, I was going to say smoke and mirrors.

    5. Re:Question by Asprin · · Score: 2

      You know, there's a great story about Richard Fenynman using 'layman's terms'. I've heard slightly different versions, but for the most part, the story appears to be true.

      When RF won his Nobel prize in Physics for Quantum Electrodynamics, the story goes that he was approached by a reporter who asked him to explain "in layman's terms" what his work was about.

      Feynman's response? Something like, "Well, if i could explain it to you in layman's terms, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel prize."

      Classic.

      --
      "Lawyers are for sucks."
      - Doug McKenzie
  27. i sure hope by OklaKid · · Score: 0

    i hope M$FT does not get involved in this, what if the computer BSODs when someone is in mid transport??? better get Linux to run it...

  28. Nonsense by Bushipunk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Quantum entanglement isn't nonsense, and I don't imagine that this teleportation experiment necessarily is either, but the article on The Australian site certainly seems to be. Am I the only one who found it to be incredibly poorly written? I'm somewhat familiar with the principles involved, but I couldn't make heads or tails of most of it.

    More detailed my foot - it was gibberish. There were definite erorrs (a previous post already pointed out that the "spooky interactions" are instantaneous, not "at the speed of light"). It's a real shame, too - this may be near-sci-fi technology, but it really isn't so arcane that a little basic proof-reading couldn't be done on articles about it.

    1. Re:Nonsense by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      It isn't the 'spooky interactions' that are at the speed of light, it's the info describing the photons. The entanglement just makes sure that the quatum state info is accurate (AFAIK).

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  29. Re:Remember... by prof187 · · Score: 1

    This sounds vaguely familiar. Why is it that people feel they must claim other people's work as their own. And no, I'm not trying to say I wrote that.

    --

    My other sig is an import.
  30. They still do the bait and switch though... by Clockwork+Apple · · Score: 1

    In the headlines it reads TELEPORTATION, but then in the discriptions they are very carefull to call it a "replication". This seems to be a pretty big hoax, call it what it is, or just admit you have been watching too much Trek.
    Dr. McCoy was right!!!!
    Anyone looking to be replicated to their desired vacation destinantion? Im not.

    --
    "Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
  31. Faster than super fast! by mattdm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah I thought that was pretty funny too. I think the reporter is wrong, though -- the spooky part is that it happens *faster* than the speed of light. I'm pretty sure about this, in fact, because there's a famous Einstein line about "spooky action at a distance" referring to faster-than-light quantum effects, which I'm pretty sure the scientists quoted would be aware of.

    That being the case, everyone here is totally missing the point. And in fact, the reporters who wrote the linked-to story missed it to, despite this quote:

    "The applications of teleportation for computers and communications over the next decade are very exciting," [Dr. Ping Koy Lam] said.

    The bits about teleporting solid objects (including humans) were just humoring the reporter -- sort of like the whole "could this experiment destroy the universe" thing surrounding supercolliders. The true interesting practical application of this is FTL communication -- vital for any space missions going much further than, say, Mars -- and pretty handy even if you're only that far away.

    1. Re:Faster than super fast! by mattdm · · Score: 1

      And when I say "to", I mean "too". Slashdot made me do it, I swear.

    2. Re:Faster than super fast! by 037 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Yeah, FTL communication is cool, and I would agree that it is vital if it were at all possible, and I mean at all. It's not. The truth is that this type of laser teleportation is pretty arcane stuff, and doesn't move faster than the speed of light.

      The question is begged, "what is the point of making a a laser go the speed of light? Isn't that like making a german sheppard go the speed of dog?" and the answer is um, sort of. Because the laser is reconstructed at the other location sort of faster than the speed of light, in that half of it arrives instantly (FTL) and the other half arrives at the speed of light.

      This doesn't make any sense, but that's cool, so we'll keep going. The important thing to note is that the two halves of the laser beam (not really half, in the terms of 1/2 intensity or anything like that, it's more about the polarization, but we'll gloss over that) are needed to transmit any information. That's any information at all, including if the laser is even turned on or not.

      That means that half of the laser can arrive from Jupiter, and the other half is en route for however long it takes for light to get here from Jupiter and you pretty much have to wait around.

      (Actually, you can do a whole bunch of nifty calculations while you're waiting, and this is usually a good idea, but I've already dreadfully confused myself so let's skip that part.)

      Then your speed-of-light transmission arrives with the other half of the data and you can reconstruct the original. Which is fabulous, and actually quite exciting, but importantly not faster than the speed of light.

      Information turns out to be limited just like everything else is by the universal speed limit of 3X10^8m/s. So, if you want to go past, say, Mars, you're going to have to be ready for some lag on your phone call home. It's sad, but it's true.

      --
      Everything above may well be poorly-thought out / spelled. Blame the beer, not me.
    3. Re:Faster than super fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it is the phenomenon I think it is then it would happen faster than the speed of light. It would happen instantaneously in fact.

      It is all to do with the Heisenburg Uncertainty principle where you cannot know the exact location of a quantum particle and it's speed (or something similar. I'm a bit rusty on all this). This is because as soon as you do measure one of these values you interfere with the particle and you no longer know what it is doing.

      The problem occurs when you bounce two particles off each other so they are moving apart from each other at the same veocity. In theory you should be able to measure the exact location of one particle and as a result know the exact location of the second particle without interacting with it. Then you should be able to measure the speed of the second particle and, again without interacting with the first, know it's exact speed. This means you now know both particles exact speed and location which violates the uncertainlty principle.

      The bizzare thing is, it doesn't violate the principle. Scientists have performed experiments and found that when they interact with the first particle, they also interfere with the second particle instantaneously. It doesn't matter how far appart they are either. They could be light years appart, but as soon as you do something to the first particle, you instantaneously change the second particle. This is the "spooky interaction" Einstein was talking about, and also one of the reasons why he disliked quantum theory.

    4. Re:Faster than super fast! by rweir · · Score: 1

      IAQMS (Quantum Mechanics student), so while I don't know much, I can pretend to, quite successfully:)

      You can't go faster that the speed of light. Try and think of some trick, if you want, but every loop hole seems to be closed, including whichever one you're thinking of now.

      Yes, there is the spooky action at a distance, but you still can't transfer any information using it , becuase you can't (at least as far as we know right now) alter the outcome. If you entangle two photons, and fire them in opposite directions, measuring one *WILL* instantaneously alter that state of the other one. Unfortunately, the outcome is completely random. Perhaps someday we will be able to influence the outcome, allowing us to transport information instantly anywhere in the universe, but according to QM we can't.

    5. Re:Faster than super fast! by redcliffe · · Score: 2

      I can't stand people who say that because we think it's impossible to do something now, that it always will be. You don't know what technology may come about in the future. I'm sure the ancients thought it impossible to fly without feathers, but we do now.

    6. Re:Faster than super fast! by Kalani · · Score: 1

      I can't stand people who say that, because we've overcome difficult obstacles in the past, we can overcome any obstacle at all. I'm sure that it's easy for them to say "anything is possible" from their greasy E-Z-Boy recliners while listening to Art Bell, but once they grow up and try to put their idiot philosophies to direct tests, they'll find that there are actually things that simply cannot be done.

      --
      ___
      The ends are ape-chosen, only the means are man's. -- Aldous Huxley
    7. Re:Faster than super fast! by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

      >> So, if you want to go past, say, Mars, you're going to have to be ready for some lag on your phone call home.

      "*some* lag"??? I think it takes about 17 minutes for light to travel the distance from here Mars, much less beyond it. It would be 34 minutes before you heard their reply to what you just said - I think that qualifies as "hella lag".

    8. Re:Faster than super fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Bravo! If I had mod points now, I'd use them all on modding your post up.

    9. Re:Faster than super fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FTL was also responsible for the awesome Dungeon Master for the Atari ST and Amiga.

    10. Re:Faster than super fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the Apple IIgs

    11. Re:Faster than super fast! by csirac · · Score: 1

      actually, it's like 7.someting minutes from sun to the earth, so no, not as much as 17 minutes...

      I guess we could all do the simple calculation time = distance/speed, but niether of us could be buggered, eh? :)

      - Paul

    12. Re:Faster than super fast! by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

      Depending upon the time of the call, earth might be on the opposite side of the Sun - the distance varies a lot. 17 minutes was my guess at an 'average'.

      -J

  32. yes and no by Kz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The "spooky action at a distance" is a weird consequense of the heisenberg uncertainity principle. It 'appears' to be an interaction, but in fact it's just the result of the coherency between two 'entangled' wavefunctions.

    the 'yes' part is that to receive a teleportation, you have to have one of the entagled particles, and a measured quantity.

    the 'no' part is that since the measured quantity is transmitted classicaly, there's no FTL transfer of anything.

    --
    -Kz-
    1. Re:yes and no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought I read somewhere that with this quantum entanglement, that when you "teleport" the first entangled particle and produce the second particle, that the second was actually just a copy and the first was destroyed, or something like that. At any rate, it's an interesting read.

    2. Re:yes and no by ShavenYak · · Score: 2

      Yup the original particle must be destroyed.

      Obligatory Douglas Adams reference:

      Aldebaran's great, okay,
      Algol's pretty neat,
      Betelgeuse's pretty girls
      Will knock you off your feet.
      They'll do anything you like
      Real fast and then real slow,
      But if you have to take me apart to get me there
      Then I don't want to go.

      [Chorus]

      Take me apart, take me apart,
      What a way to roam
      And if you have to take me apart to get me there
      I'd rather stay at home.

      --

      Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
  33. Politically Incorrect Views get modded down, too by H-1B_visas_suck · · Score: 0

    Such as anti-H1b posts. Slashdot is now part and parcel of the business class, which supports the importation of cheap labor, which is why I get modded down. What really disgusts me is that I have the same karma as the First Post idiots. WTF? If that aint censorship, then there is no such thing!

    --

    This post is protected under the DMTA (Digital Millemium Trolling Act). It is illegal to moderate it as a troll.

  34. Smoke and Mirrors by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

    Yeah, right. From the article: ``Team leader Dr Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a laser beam, its disembodiment and the recreation of the original beam in a different location.''

    So they send some laser-beam, eat it, and then create another one with the same properties somewhere else. Look ma, I can teleport pixels!

    oldcolor = getpixel(0,0);
    setcolor(0);
    putpixel(0,0);
    setc olor(oldcolor);
    putpixel(10,10);

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Smoke and Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. The whole point is that the teleported beam is in the SAME QUANTUM STATE as the original. It is COMPLETELY different from what you are describing. Everyone who is complaining about this story is basically saying "I don't get how this is different to ****. This means it must be [BS|insignificant|old news]". Um, no, it just means you don't get it.

  35. I mostly agree... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mostly agree with you because:

    Witchblade : Yancy Butler

    Alias : Jenniger Garner

    The Practice : Marla Sokoloff

    However, Charmed is just stupid with every cast member being annoying and just plain ugly.

    Never seen your schlong show. I'm thinking I'd rather watch Charmed.

  36. light transportation? by MarvinMouse · · Score: 1

    Well, this is an interesting intellectual curiousity, but really has little use.

    The problem is that the quantum state has to be communicated to the source for the laser beam to be transported. These communications are done through classical communcation channels, and therefore the fastest you can teleport a laser beam is at the speed of light. Which raises the question of why don't they just send the laser down the pipe to where its supposed to be. As well, with Shannon's information theory put in this would actually be a slower way to communicate information.

    Thus, it's very nice to see that they have made some more progress with quantum teleportation, this isn't that revolutionary since the communication speed is still limited by the speed of light.

    --
    ~ kjrose
    1. Re:light transportation? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

      The article doesn't make it clear if this is possible, but it would certainly be useful to be able to set up a network to transfer the quantum state, and then later transfer the actual information, after the network is torn down. What if I could transfer the quantum state in my car, take it to my friend, and then when I go home I can communicate with that friend. Even if it's "only" at the speed, this would revolutionize communications (and bankrupt the entire current telecommunications industry). No more need for T1s.

    2. Re:light transportation? by cp99 · · Score: 1

      Actually it potentially very useful. Quantum encryption should be about as close to unbreakable as possible.

      --
      Warning: Some ideologies on the Net are smaller than they appear.
    3. Re:light transportation? by MarvinMouse · · Score: 1

      Well, the problem is that what they do is have both parties with one half of a EPR pair. Then to teleport the photon, the first person interacts the photon with her half of the EPR pair, and then measures the the results (1 of 4 possible results), then she sends this information to Bob. Then bob will have an exact replica of the photon she destroyed when she measured it (you destroy the quantum information after measuring), but Bob can recover an exact replica of the photon.

      Now the problem is that she has to measure it and then send the information at the same time that she wanted to send the information. She cannot just send it all before hand since the measurement is based on the interaction between her half of the EPR pair and the photon that she wants to send.

      --
      ~ kjrose
    4. Re:light transportation? by MarvinMouse · · Score: 1

      Quantum encryption uses quite different techniques then this. Since the information contained within the photon can only be used by one party effectively in quantum teleportation, it would be equivalent to Alice handing Bob an exact replica of the codebook, and then burning her copy of the codebook (thereby making Bobs copy the original in a weird twisted QM way).

      --
      ~ kjrose
  37. Might work out nice for the old bank balance too by LordLucless · · Score: 1

    I just cant wait to shuck my super-expensive Australian ADSL and hook up to a network that transmits my data instantaneously. You could have true direct connections - no bouncing around nodes, which would mean that international exchanges of data (which is why Aussie broadband is expenses) wouldn't cost any more or less than ones to your nextdoor neighbour. It seems to me (and I know nothing about quantum mechanics other than the very bare bones) that the only service youd need to pay for would be some sort of naming service to determine where to send your data - then you just go direct. That would cut net costs down a bit too. Quake 3 with lag limited by the speed of quantumn translation!

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  38. DMCA violation? by aozilla · · Score: 5, Funny

    As any teleportation device could clearly be used to replicate 'N Sync CDs, its use will be obviously be prohibited by the DMCA.

    --
    ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
    1. Re:DMCA violation? by PacoTaco · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you sent James Brown then it would be funky action at a distance.

    2. Re:DMCA violation? by frovingslosh · · Score: 2
      As any teleportation device could clearly be used to replicate 'N Sync CDs, its use will be obviously be prohibited by the DMCA.

      This might also explain the "region 2 error" I get in my experiments when I try to teleport a DVD to England.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    3. Re:DMCA violation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dont try to make DMCA look like the good guys, traitor.

  39. Replication or Recreation -- not an easy question by serutan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The blueprint analogy shows a lack of understanding of entanglement. There is no blueprint at the receiving end, and no measurement and communication of instructions to replicate the properties of the sending photon. What happens is a seemingly spontaneous change in the properties of the receiving photon.

    Whether this is teleportation or replication is more of a philosophical question, or maybe a matter of semantics. Is an object (or a laser beam) equal to the sum of its properties? If you can make the sum total of an object's quantum properties disappear from one place and reappear in another place, have you merely copied the object or have you moved it?

    I think you've moved it, but questions like these deserve more than offhanded answers.

  40. Crappy Australian science journalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has anyone found a better writeup of this? I work in the field, and still can't understand what they did! The media release from the Minister of Science is the worst of all.

    1. Re:Crappy Australian science journalism by detect · · Score: 2, Funny

      While the rest of the world has been sleeping we have been busily developing teleportation.

      Australia's Teleportation project:

      All we needed was Superconductor and Future Tech. In another 2 turns we will also have Genetic Engineering and the SETI Program!

      --
      // The fastest Alt-Tab in the West
  41. Replicator? by Ender77 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If the process involves ripping apart the object and getting the information so that you can reassemble that object later. Couldn't you just store the template and create as many copies as you want? Then not only have you created a teleporter, but also a replicator as well.

    1. Re:Replicator? by gowmc · · Score: 1

      Well, I guess that IF you can make more than one, then it proves against the teleportation idea, as you can't be in (or moved to) two places at once, not to mention that it would prove that the "old you" got fried, and aint around no more. I don't know about what everyone else thinks, but regardless of those for or against the idea of a soul, I think that a person is defined by not only their exact physical structure, but also their location and what they are doing (not what atoms, but what those atoms are doing, would be destroyed, therefore destroying and "killing" the original)

      If we were to get around to AI, would they be too happy when we tell them something like "Don't worry, we are just going to archive your memory, kill your process, and reload you from the binary executable in a minute."? Maybe if we program them to...

      --
      -- If it aint broke, fix it till it is. --
  42. Try it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When the tech progresses. Someone is going to have to climb in and give it a whirl. If you come out the other end and are still 'you'. As in, 'I' went in, and 'I' came back out. Then, we know that we are no more than collection of particles in a distint state.

    1. Re:Try it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meanwhile, behind some cosmic mirror, your former self will be looking out, pounding his fists, screaming "It's a cookbook"!

  43. Re:Remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not claiming it as my own, I'm hoping to make it more widely known.

  44. In related news... by FearUncertaintyDoubt · · Score: 1

    Slashdot has successfully teleported a months-old story to its current front page. Thankfully, the process does not work on Jon Katz.

  45. Quantum Teleportation Surgery by Ztream · · Score: 1

    Say, it wouldn't be possible to, like, enlarge parts in the process?

    1. Re:Quantum Teleportation Surgery by Papineau · · Score: 1

      Beware... it could just as easily decide to put your butt in front of you. It's safer to walk across the door.

  46. Is it too much to ask? by telstar · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Is it too much to ask for me to get sharks with FREAKIN' LASER BEAMS mounted on their heads?

    Zippit...

  47. Re:Politically Incorrect Views get modded down, to by discstickers · · Score: 1

    thats why you should AC it... you'd be much, much happier in your trolling.

    --
    I have a shitty sig!
  48. Another Micheal special... by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

    Well, what more can you say about the man who quantum entangled a rant on a 1 1/2 year old bad movie to the present day? Screw laser beams... We're teleporting cinema here on Slashdot.

    --
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  49. The first subject in the solid trial test... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    should be non other than Bill Gates. If we cant get Bill, I'd settle for CowboyNeal.

  50. Re:I'm not getting in one of those things - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... and what would you do if something went wrong and the original WASN'T destroyed after the "new you" was created.. would you just say "oh damn...I'm still here too, better shoot me quick?". I would get cold feet and run! Then there would be 2 of me running around.

    hmm..
    AOTC directors cut?

  51. It seems to me, that there is a huge difference... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It seems to me, that there is a huge difference:

    Team leader Dr Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a laser beam, its disembodiment and the recreation of the original beam in a different location.

    To me, that sentence can be translated as such:

    Team leader Ping Koy Lam says it involved creating a ball point pen, its destruction and the recreation of the same ball point pen using a factory blueprint in a different location.

    This isn't the first time I've read about "teleportation" of some particle or another, when it seems that they are simply re-creating, mirroring if you will, the particle(s) quantum states in another place. That's not teleporting - that's mimicing.

  52. Re:Remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A more effective moderation scheme would require several votes to increment/decriment the value of a post. The really good posts would be more likely to be really good, and the bad posts would be more likely to be bad. And as a bonus, the chances of vindictive moderation decrease as well since one vote alone could not move a score below the default threshold.

    Requiring multiple votes to increment or decrement a score would also reduce some of the satisfaction people get from moderating. I imagine some folks moderate not because of percieved quality of a post but how moderation makes them feel. Requiring multiple votes to change the value of a score would mean that the person would not immediatly see a change of score with the votes they cast. This breaks the cause effect relationship, since the reward of seeing the score change is removed. This should reduce the number of people who moderate impuslively for shallow reasons.

    I could go on but already the old addage about the futility of advice giving is reverberating in my mind, and this little postage stamp sized editing box is...unpleasant.

  53. Re:Remember... by martyn+s · · Score: 2

    Thing is, the strongest point in this post is not true. There are always more +2 posts than +3 posts and more +4 posts than +5 posts. Check this story, check every story. What you're saying is not true.

  54. Of course ... by ProfMoriarty · · Score: 2
    ABC Australia reports that a team of scientists from the Australian National University have successfully teleported a laser beam.

    And with this ... nobody knows where the laser beam went to.

    It is surmised that it is currently in time-space next to the time-machine that was invented several years ago, switched on ... and summarily disappeared.

    --
    Karma? Karma? I don't need no stinkin' karma.
  55. Save game... by wayland · · Score: 1

    So if you don't like the way your day has gone, you just recreate yourself the next morning from your backup you made the day before, so that you can have a rerun. And you can make a backup before you do anything dangerous, and ...

    :)

  56. *STAR TREK* by WetCat · · Score: 2, Funny

    **Enterprize is caught in a long range tractor beam
    ***HACK HACK HACK CHOKE!
    Kirk: Rauh! Rauh!

    May be we'll create long range tractor beams from the teleporting laser beams?

  57. In Australia by ignavus · · Score: 1
    It is not surprising that we are doing this in Australia. Given our wide open spaces, and the price of domestic airfares, we need a new way to get around.

    But what if they create a replica of me at the other end, and forget to destroy the original me at this end?

    Will that mean there are two of me?

    And can I go to more than one destination at the same time? (My life as a forked process)

    Still, no more 24-hour plane trips to the other side of the world. Cool!

    --
    I am anarch of all I survey.
  58. Secure, not fast by remoford · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hold up! This article isnt about faster than light data propogation. Its about encryption. The radio signal still has to cross the distance. The interesting thign here is that it allows you to have two different "one time pads" that change constantly but are also always in sync. This is quantum entanglement. You cant ever send data through this effect becuse my measuring it you change it (and for the other guy to). But you can use it like they have. Bascically this allows you to produce "perfect" encrytion. It dosent move and faster than you can transmit the radio signal.
    Anyways, I could be wrong - whadda I know.

  59. Paralysis? by ritlane · · Score: 1

    This is not meant to be argumentative, I am actualy curious...

    If this is the case, then why can paralysis victems not regrow their nerve cells in order to walk again?

    1. Re:Paralysis? by tftp · · Score: 2
      why can paralysis victems not regrow their nerve cells in order to walk again?

      It is a big question, and I am not a doctor. But probably your question is incorrectly stated. There is no such single thing as "paralysis". There are many illnesses and injuries that have symptoms of paralysis. If a portion of the brain gets seriously damaged (in a stroke, for example) then some functionality can be lost. Some of lost functionality can be later regained, and so far it is attributed to brain's rerouting capabilities. But I don't know much about that, and nobody knows.

      Even if paralysis is caused by nerve damage, nerves grow very slowly. If a significant section of a nerve is lost, it may never be restored.

  60. Eliminate the patent system... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the person who ultimately discovers teleportation gets a patent on it, they will have the power to completely eliminate the patent system.

  61. On teleporting humans by Vadim+Makarov · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is an informal talk by Samuel Braunstein on the problem of teleporting humans.

    --
    17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
  62. It's faster than light teleportation too! by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The article says:

    Using a process known as quantum entanglement, the researchers, led by 34-year-old physicist Ping Koy Lam, have disassembled a laser at one end of an optical communications system and recreated a replica a metre away

    and

    But the radio signal survives and is sent electronically to a receiving station, where within a nanosecond an exact replica of the beam - with the radio signal intact - is retrieved and decoded.

    I'm having trouble working out whether that nano-second is the elapsed time from when the original beam is destroyed and the new one is created, or whether it's the amount of time required to recreate the beam from the received radio signal.

    If it's the former then we're talking faster-than-light teleportation here because it takes light 3 nanoseconds to travel a yard.

    1. Re:It's faster than light teleportation too! by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Just confirming the 3 nanosecond thing.

      "For example, if the second is kept as the basic unit of time, then the unit of length must be equal to exactly 299792458 metres."

      http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity /S peedOfLight/fast_light.html

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  63. A bit more vagueness, please? by Mulletproof · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "An encoded radio signal is embedded on an input laser, which is combined with entanglement and then scanned. The laser is destroyed in the process. But the radio signal survives and is sent electronically to a receiving station, where within a nanosecond an exact replica of the beam - with the radio signal intact - is retrieved and decoded."

    First, a simplified definition from my very limited research into Quantum Entanglement: The supposed link between particles that have once interacted, enabling them to influence each other instantaneously over indefinite distances.

    I'll mention before hand I'm not a quantum physics major of any sort, but if I'm reading this correctly, they have encoded a laser beam with a radio signal and "quantum entangled" the two mediums which is then "scanned" (whatever the hell that is) in which the laser is destroyed in the process. So now we should supposively have an intact radio signal with a "destroyed" laser sub-atomically anchored to it in ether somewhere. Sending this radio signal downrange to a receiver will recreate this signal and "pull" the laser back into reality (pardon my butchering of terms).

    My problem here is perhapse not how unbelieveable this sound, but how damn vague the artical is. Scanning? How the hell was the beam recreated? Did it appear from thin air? Did it have to be "un" entangled? It doesn't seem as if the laser is infact destroyed at all... How do you go about "entangling" something to being with? This artical doesn't simply bog you down in scientific explanation; In fact it doesn't bog you down in ANY explanation for that matter-- it throws some words in and stirs them up with teleportation references. Hell, the only way I could figure out ANY details was independent research, and oh, how fun that was. The above definition was as easy as it got. After that? Whew... Maybe I'm just bitching, but I'm asssuming this article was written for the common man, but goes far beyond watering things down. It leaves out key pieces nessisary for understanding to occure. Jeez, that's shitty writing...

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  64. quantum teleportation is not teleportation by g4dget · · Score: 2
    The point of quantum teleportation is that it preserves the quantum entanglements of the object being teleported.

    But for teleporting humans, what matters is first of all the classical physical structure: the DNA sequence, arrangement of membranes, intracellular locations of proteins, and all that. There is no indication that you need quantum mechanical information or even dynamical information in order to make teleportation work.

    Maybe it will be quantum mechanical tricks that ultimately make teleportation feasible. But these results so far really have nothing to do with the teleportation of real-world objects, because they don't solve the hard problem. The hard part is not transmitting entanglements, the hard part is transmitting the instantaneous locations of molecules in 200 pounds of matter and recreate them at the other end nearly instantaneously.

    1. Re:quantum teleportation is not teleportation by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      I'd imagine that quantum entanglements is certainly related to the inter-relationship of the photons involved in this experiment.

      This means that eventually the inter-relationships of quantum states of electrons in 'atoms' and how they interact with each other will also be available. This means that eventually the inter-relationships of quantum states of electrons in 'molecules' and how they interact with each other will also be available.

      We're missing protons and neuterons. Who knows the future of this part. However it is the inter-relationships of each component and not necessarily the 'location' which looks to be the answer.

      If you think about it one way, a certain pattern of inter-relationships between electrons/neutrons/protons really defines the atom and thereby defines the molecule, etc. and one pattern defines the connected pattern as a result of the physics and chemistry involved... think about how molecules form themselves based on valence levels of electrons and available 'links' between atoms of elements. This goes on and on until you have a composite of elements/molecules otherwise known as matter.

      It is the inter-relationships which can be charted and gauranteed to be accurate because they can not ,according to the laws of physics, form any other pattern with those same relationships.

      Location is relative.

      The inter-relationships of millions of atoms of elements is not. The pattern can only exist in one configuration and that is related to it's quantum state at the time, a result of the inter-relationships between all of the atoms.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  65. Practical Application? by NetRanger · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have a great idea for a device which will employ this new technology...

    How about a device that will teleport the laser back into the eye of the dumbass teenager shooting his laser pointer on the movie theater screen?

    --
    -- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
    1. Re:Practical Application? by cybercuzco · · Score: 2
      How about a device that will teleport the laser back into the eye of the dumbass teenager shooting his laser pointer on the movie theater screen?

      They do that themselves. I remember riding the bus in HS, and the stoners who sat in the back would have contests to see who could shoot a laser pointer directly into their eye the longest before it hurt so much that they had to take it away.

      --

  66. In other news by eddeye · · Score: 1

    >Even if it's a perfect copy [of me], it's not worth the risk.

    Hollywood scrambled today to introduce the anticipated Corporeal Copy Protection Bill (CCPB) on Capitol Hill. The bill requires all copies of teleported matter to contain access control technology that prevents reconstituting by unauthorized parties.

    "With analog teleporters, copies of celebrities degrade over time, keeping celebrity piracy at manageable levels," said an alarmed Jack Valenti of the MPAA. "With this new technology, anyone can download their own perfect Natalie Portman off the net.

    "Miss Portman's body is the legal property of the MPAA. We suffer irreparable financial harm if she suddenly appears in every amateur, indie, porno, and home movie on the planet."

    Breaking from the MPAA's stance, Universal promised to offer cheap digital downloads of popular celebrities. Their initial catalog will include Roseanne Barr, Camryn Manheim, and "Mimi" from the Drew Carey show.

    --
    Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
  67. Slashdotted or some shit already by fire-eyes · · Score: 1

    Someone hook a honkey up with a mirror or something.

    --
    -- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
  68. Shitty Journalism by Mulletproof · · Score: 2

    And that's my problem with whoever wrote this crap. It's obviously dumbed down for people who know nothing about quantum physics (me), but then doesn't even provide the clues for basic understanding. My half hour google search revealed:

    Quantum Entanglement: The supposed link between particles that have once interacted, enabling them to influence each other instantaneously over indefinite distances.

    Da Mullet's interpretation: Once the two mediums are "entangled" (how you do that is anybodies guess because the article sure as hell doesn't say), they are mysteriously anchored to one another, partical to partical regardless of distance. THEREFORE... While you can "destroy" the laser beam into a chaotic mess, those particals are still mysteriously anchored to their radio counterparts. According to this article, they have destroyed the laser and it's signal, but transmitted the radio to a reciever and have been able to recreate the laser via quantum entanglement effect. The radio partical's laser counterparts (supposively scattered around incoherently) are pulled back from ether to create the original laser signal at point B.

    That's the best I can do. Hope it helps, cuz the author sure didn't.

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  69. This technology will never come to Fruition by eclectus · · Score: 1

    The RIAA has deemed that it can be used to for piracy and therefore will be outlawed.

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    This signature is a waste of 42 characters
    1. Re:This technology will never come to Fruition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially since you could use it to copy the laser hitting the disk, therefore bypassing all that messy circuitry, compression, etc...

  70. I wonder how long-range can they make it by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If they can make it really long-range, as long as they can make it consume less power, it'll at least be useful for things like replacing undersea fiberoptic cables, and communication links to (at least) geosync satellites.

    It would be even better if it didn't have propagation time but hell, I'll settle for the speed at which a laser normally travels through a fiberoptic cable. That wouldn't disappoint me at all.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:I wonder how long-range can they make it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Screw quantum effects, I'd be happy just getting cablemodem service in my town instead of only dial-in.

  71. Wich bring a good point by Mad-Gab · · Score: 1

    Just think about it. Build a "teleporter" that doesn't destroy the original object. You could duplicate anything perfectly.
    "Who wants the Mona Lisa? Just 5,99$."

    But what will be 5,99$ if you can duplicate anything?
    Altrough there will be possitive points to a machine like this(example: vital organs duplication), it could really mess up our way of life.

    So, like the Fisherprice slogan: "Oh the possibilities!"

    1. Re:Wich bring a good point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't, iirc it is a law of quantum physics that you can not have two completely identical things in the universe.

    2. Re:Wich bring a good point by aozilla · · Score: 2

      Fire fighters could back themselves up before heading into burning buildings. Then if they die, they can just restore from backup.

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      ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
    3. Re:Wich bring a good point by Kintanon · · Score: 2

      There's a pretty good SciFi book about this called '"A" for Anything'.

      Kintanon

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    4. Re:Wich bring a good point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can not have two completley identical things in the same universe in the same space. Slightly diffrent!

  72. It's the perfect test of a soul by spoco2 · · Score: 1

    The poster is correct really... at least in the way I see it, as do many others:
    * If there is no such thing as a soul, then who we are is merely the makeup of all our component parts, the electrical charges, spins of atoms etc. in our body at any given time. If you can duplicate us down to that level, then you would be able to create an EXACT replica of us. Including all memories (As they are stored as cell configurations, electrical charges etc. in our brain), personality etc.

    HOWEVER

    * If we have a soul, something other than what is physical, something which transcends the merely atomic level, something which continues on after the death of the physical body... then if you make a perfect physical copy of the body, transport it to somewhere else, and destroy the original... where does the soul go? If we are more than just the bits and bobs that we are made up of, if who we 'ARE' is defined by the soul, then whatever comes out of the transporter at the other end would not be us... The soul would have been seperated from the body....

    OR

    * If you think that the soul could just follow the copy of the body to whereever it went... then what about if you use a transporter without destroying the oringal... what if you create a perfect 'clone'... then the soul would be in the original, and the copy would be 'soul-less'...

    That's how transportation can be a good test of the soul... that's why it would be so fascinating... that's also why it's scary as hell... just what the hell are you going to get out of the end of one of these things?

    Simon

    1. Re:It's the perfect test of a soul by HydroCarbon10 · · Score: 2

      The key is that you can't prove any of that. There is no logic to religion. Nearly everyone raised under the philosophy of western logic, however, insists that there is logic to religion and that logic can be used to either prove or disprove religion.

      ...and before you deride me for being no better than the unthinking joe-sixpack, you should study eastern philosophy.

      --
      The best way to accelerate a windows box is at 9.8 meters per second square.
    2. Re:It's the perfect test of a soul by naasking · · Score: 1

      I have studied various eastern religions. They seem far more logical than western thought.

    3. Re:It's the perfect test of a soul by spoco2 · · Score: 1

      No, that's aside from the point... answer me this using whatever religion or philosophy you like:

      * If you use such a teleportation device on a human, but do NOT destroy the originating human, you have in effect created a 'clone' of the original.

      Now, if there is such a thing as a soul, what would this clone be like? It can't possibly be the same as the original person, or you'd have also cloned the soul... so it'd have to be zombie like, or noticably different somehow... if so, then you may have just proven the existence of a soul... if the clone is EXACTLY the same as the oringal host, in all ways physical, yet acts entirely differently, then you've probably just shown the world the existance of something along the lines of a soul, or an etherial portion to the human makeup.

      However

      If the clone is just the same as the original, how do you explain that, using any means you like other than we are defined entirely by our physical being? You can't just say... 'well religion isn't logical'... but however illogical a religion may be, is it going to accept that humans can copy themselves, soul and all?

      I'm just asking... I'm very curious to know... I'm open to all views on it, I just can't see how you could still have the concept of a soul work in this case.

  73. transporter was budgetary device by pmineiro · · Score: 2, Informative

    it's so funny ... the original transporter on star trek was introduced because they lacked the budget to handle shuttlecraft scenes. the famous roddenberry quote is "what if they just appeared there?"

    and here it is, inspiring cool science. neat.

    -- p

  74. Cowboy Neal by mike-c.com · · Score: 1

    Now all we need is for Cowboy Neal to be cloned...

    Cowboy Neal on demand - teleported straight to your house. Yours to keep for only $1000!

  75. Nice, but the real question is... by tm2b · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My big question would be what the "speed" of the information propogation was. Some say it should be c, some say it should be "instantaneous" - either way, the results will have substantial impact on our view of several well accepted physical models.

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
    1. Re:Nice, but the real question is... by jakobk · · Score: 1

      Quantum Entanglement - which they seem to have used - is well-accepted and instanteous.

    2. Re:Nice, but the real question is... by tm2b · · Score: 2

      It's only instantaneous in theory. AFAIK, there's no experimental data to back up the claim of instantaneous travel (of energy or information).

      General Relativity says that nothing can go faster than light, and as a result the two models are inconsistent. That's why experiment is important, to determine which theory requires updating.

      --
      "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  76. IF this is true... by Mulletproof · · Score: 2

    Hell, it was an outer limits episode too. Aliens gave humans teleporter technology, but the human operator finds out that the originals are actually destroyed while their copies go about their daily lives thinking nothing but transport has taken place. Of course, the guy went insane... Until you can quantify what truely makes us different from life without consciousness, you're not going to be able to answer that question. if we're just building blocks to be taken apart and put back together, then there shouldn't be much consequence at all. If there is more, something governing those blocks beyong the physical, then you'll be running into quite a few moral dillemas.

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  77. Not just encryption... by Mulletproof · · Score: 2

    Sorry, another post on the main, but there are applications far beyond encryption... Try non-line of sight laser bombardment. Still, they never mentioned what it took to re-create the laser anyway. And that's assuming this isn't just cold fusion or Internet though your AC outlet...

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    1. Re:Not just encryption... by jth1234567 · · Score: 1


      Offtopic, but the "Internet through your AC outlet" thing has been commercially available in several european countries (for example Germany and Finland) for a while now... and seems to be working fine.

  78. I'm a fly! Bzzz! help! by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

    Hell, according to theory you should "just" be able to entangle matter to a carrier and atomize it with the death-ray of your choice. After all, those sub-atomic particals should be bound to the carrier no matter where it goes (chuckle). Recombination, on the other hand....

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  79. Fax + Shredder - Remote Fax by Desario · · Score: 0

    I hooked my fax machine up to my shredder tonight and teleported atoms from my home to my office.

  80. Where's the science? by jdrogers · · Score: 1



    I really wish they wouldn't hype it up as 'teleportation.'

    I don't doubt that the research has demonstrated some useful phenominon, but its hard to find much excitement in a bunch of claims that 'teleportation of humans is a ways off yet.'

  81. If it's not FTL then what's the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was under the impression that the change happened "now" as in instantaneous and that it was FTL due to something, which did not break against some law. Appears I've been wrong. Or have I?

  82. This articale is really screwed up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The idea behind Quantum entanglement is that two particles are generated and entangled at a single source and then split and sent off in different directions.

    The spooky part happens when someone fiddles with one of the entangled particles, the other particle immediately reflects that same fiddle in Zero time FTL communications.

    This effect was discovered back in the early days of Quantum physics with the 2-slot experiment, causing Hiesenburg to postulate his uncertantly principle.

    The reason it hasn't been exploited until now is that the technology has not been available to detect these changes without causing interference.

    Who ever wrote the popularist teleportation thing is on some serious bad "PR drugs".

    Bruce

  83. I'm cool with this by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 2

    I'm cool with being sent in this "destroy the original and recreate" thing so long as they don't transmit the UDP...

    me: "Where's my frickin' legs, assmunch?"

    technician: "Sorry mate, packet loss."

    graspee

    1. Re:I'm cool with this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oops- "transmit the data stream with UDP"

      graspee

  84. ya, kinda funny by martissimo · · Score: 2

    how the researchers state that the main hopes for it at this point are as an amazing encryption device, and yet 99% of the comments are about teleportation of matter.

  85. kernel oops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    instead we will have kernel oopses mid transport
    and the poor soul won't even be able to see a colourfull death

  86. You're forgetting something... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

    Teleporting a solid object without destroying the original? Sure, sounds nice. Now what are you going to make the one at the other end out of, and where are the 1.21 gigawatts needed to do it going to come from?

    1. Re:You're forgetting something... by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 2

      "Now what are you going to make the one at the other end out of..."

      The same stuff that the original is made out of...carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, iron...

      I have absolutely no idea HOW you could do this, but there's nothing special about the basic ingredients that we're all made of. I have read before that the chemicals in our bodies are worth about 6 bucks on the open market.

      "...where are the 1.21 gigawatts needed to do it going to come from"

      Either lightning hitting the old clock tower or the wall outlet.

      -B

  87. Perfect Copy? by Felius · · Score: 1

    A lot of people have been talking about this in terms of matter transportation a-la Star Trek.

    An article I read recently on Wired mentioned a theory that "conciousness" may be the electromagnetic field of our brain interacting with neurons.

    A device like this wouldn't copy the field, would it? Or can these things be expressed in terms of quantum "particles" as well?

    --
    ..and I'll form the head!!
  88. Re:Politically Incorrect Views get modded down, to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If that aint censorship, then there is no such thing!

    Well they could delete your posts.

    The moderation system sucks though. The very fact that there is a presumption that certain posts will be "less worthy" than others promotes trolling...

  89. An End to Quantum Cryptography? by cybermint · · Score: 0

    According to this article, a photon can be read, then duplicated. Does this mean that the 'Perfect Encryption' described in this article has now been broken?

  90. The Jaunt by OzJimbob · · Score: 1

    There's a great short story by Stephen King that explores this concept, called "The Jaunt". It deals with teleportation, where those undergoing teleportation have been found to be in a fine physical state when they emerge, but are completely violently batshit in the head. In order to stop this happening, "travellers" are put under anasthetic while they undergo teleportation and they seem to come out fine. The story deals with the case of one person who skipped the anasthesia and the resulting consequences, and essentially their soul / consciousness is stripped from their body. The body arrives instaneaneously, the soul just floats around in space for several trillion years until it finds it's body again.

    --
    -"I still believe in revolution; I just don't capitalize it anymore." - srini!
  91. E-bay auction by quintessent · · Score: 3, Funny

    The original Mona Lisa, in good condition. Bidding starts at $20 million.

    The item will be sent either via FedEx or by FAX machine, buyer's choice.

  92. Re:Replication or Recreation -- not an easy questi by TheDarAve · · Score: 1

    Whether this is teleportation or replication is more of a philosophical question, or maybe a matter of semantics. Is an object (or a laser beam) equal to the sum of its properties? If you can make the sum total of an object's quantum properties disappear from one place and reappear in another place, have you merely copied the object or have you moved it?

    Well, the only way to really figure that out would be to do a quantum measurement on each particle in the beam and seeing if there is any stray particles that weren't in the original, missing particles from the original, or some odd combination of both.

    -TDA-

  93. transportation by RatFink100 · · Score: 2

    There's a word for moving a object from one location to another whilst maintaining the continuing existence of that object - it's called transportation.

    dictionary.com defines teleportation on the other hand as "A hypothetical method of transportation in which matter or information is dematerialized, usually instantaneously, at one point and recreated at another."

    1. Re:transportation by meatspray · · Score: 1

      where are my mod points when i need them?

      that's exactly what i was thinking, this seems to me not to be so big a deal you could not recreate the same effect detecting and recreating polarized light in your garage. i guess this should have fell in the some news is better than no news department.

  94. hmm real uses by narkotix · · Score: 1

    so does this mean that i cant give the excuse "sorry but the traffic was hell out there" when im late for work? dang!!

    --
    We played dungeons and dragons for 3 hours.....then i was slain by an elf
  95. Not- exceeding the speed of light - but.. by olethrosdc · · Score: 1

    As far as I can understand, they are not saying that they are exceeding the speed of light, but that the 2nd pulse is appearing before the first pulse, while the opposite should be the case.

    Even if they exceeded the speed of light a thousand times, the 2nd pulse should always appear after the 1st. The thing they mention about 310c (and not 3c) is not the speed of transmition, but the difference in delay times.. it is mentioned in the FAQ.

    --

    I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)

  96. Obligatory Douglas Adams Quote by JimPooley · · Score: 4, Funny

    I teleported home one night,
    With Ron and Sid and Meg.
    Ron stole Meggie's heart away,
    And I got Sidney's leg.

    --

    "Information wants to be paid"
    1. Re:Obligatory Douglas Adams Quote by Salsaman · · Score: 1
      Heh...I'd forgotten that one :-)

  97. Well don't that beat all? by pjt48108 · · Score: 1

    Why do we have to beam Kirk and Friends down to the planet to shoot things, when we can just stay shipside on the other side o' the planet and teleport phaser blasts into the Komm's and Yang's asses for a laugh?!?

    I'm only asking...

    --
    Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
  98. I did this ages ago. by codework · · Score: 1, Troll

    I turned off the light in the bedroom and turned on the hallway light..

  99. This is being done since years! by hokanomono · · Score: 1

    Quantum teleportation is not new. It has been done and published 1997 [Nature vol.390, 11 Dec 1997, pp.575] by Weinfurter & Zeilinger. The experiment was in Innsbruck, Austria (which is not a typo of Australia). The website contains interesting details on the experiment.

    --
    This sig is a true statement, but I cannot prove it.
  100. No substitute for cables yet. by hokanomono · · Score: 1

    Teleportation needs the transportation of particles and a channel for classical information. So, for teleporting 1 photon, you will need 2 fibre cables.

    What does "propagation time but hell" mean?

    --
    This sig is a true statement, but I cannot prove it.
    1. Re:No substitute for cables yet. by General+Wesc · · Score: 1

      Try "It would be even better if it didn't have propagation time, but, hell, I'll settle for the speed at which a laser normally travels through a fiberoptic cable."

      You could split in into two sentences at "time" and "but" if that makes it more clear.

  101. Quantum Entanglement by Bugmaster · · Score: 1

    Can someone refresh my memory, please: does quantum entanglement work instantaneously, or at the speed of light ? In the second case, this "quantum teleportation" would be no more interesting than just beaming a laser the conventional way... by shining it on things. How does quantum entanglement work, anyway ?

    --
    >|<*:=
  102. Downloading... by nnnneedles · · Score: 1

    Downloading Britney Spears....61% Complete

    --
    Will code a sig generator for food
  103. Re:It's faster than light teleportation by dollargonzo · · Score: 1

    yes, it IS faster than light teleportation!

    quantum entanglement is instantaneous, not at the speed of light. the article was mistaken and actually *somewhat* corrected by one of the comments at the bottom of it. teleportation is just a neat word the press uses to describe what they are doing: quantum entanglement communication. that is what is important. since it IS instant, it does break einstein's laws for no communication faster than the speed of light. this needs to be tried at large distances, like across the world or, say, to mars.

    QED

    --
    BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
  104. Not as important as bandwidth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well okay, there's always the irritating second-and-a-half delay on satellite link-ups, and I guess this could be useful for Mars or interstellar missions but for terrestrial applications I'd much rather have high bandwidth than fast carrier speed. Look at it this way - which would you rather have: nanosecond pings or terabit ethernet?

    1. Re:Not as important as bandwidth by hemanman · · Score: 1

      You don't play CS, QIII or UT, do you?!?

      -H

  105. Growing nerve cells by Aapje · · Score: 2

    An important problem is getting both ends of the nerve cells to connect to each other again. They can't automagically find each other. A cut nerve will usually grow a bit and give up when it doesn't reconnect very quickly.

    There is some early work on producing scaffolds that lead the nerve cells to each other and keep them multiplying until they reconnect.

    --

    The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
  106. Re:It's faster than light teleportation by guybarr · · Score: 2, Informative


    superluminal photons are old news.
    IIRC, though, superluminal communiaction , i.e. passage of information is considered impossible .

    (the fact the WF collapses does not imply passage of information, as you need to know the information measured at source to decipher the destination state)

    I very much doubt they achived this.

    --
    Working for necessity's mother.
  107. teleportation by pbrinich · · Score: 0

    holy wacked-out shit, batman!

  108. Um, don't think so... by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

    Don't quote me on this, but it sounds like the "teleportation" speed is directly dependent upon the speed of the particals entangled. Thus you can entangle a laser to a radio wave, but you have to wait until you recieve the wave until you can reform the laser 'x' distance away (thus, the light speed limitation). The only advantage I could see would be non-Line Of Site transmission of what you are teleporting. As for how QE works, I can only give you a definition (search Mullet on the main thread). How it actually accomplishes the definition? It's going to take more than a quick search to find that out, but suffice to say it wasn't worth the time to wade through all the high level physics explanations I found.

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
  109. Something to think about... by OracleX103 · · Score: 1

    Ok Imagine this...

    You cannot see, hear, taste, smell or feel ANYTHING

    Just as if you we're completely blind, deaf, numb, etc..

    So you can no longer interact with the world as we know it (barring future genetic engineering of telepathy...which would be really useful)

    So how do you know your consciousness isn't just running out of a computer [albeit a Pentium 10^254].

    The point is that you *can't*. The whole teleportation thing works this way too. Granted some neuralyzer technology from MIB you wouldn't know if you had flown or telepoted to where ever you are. And no one else would either.

  110. cloning by cicci0 · · Score: 0

    so instead of destroying and recreating, what about just recreating? Seems like a simple way to create clones at will. Just like when Riker's (STNG) transport signal was split in two, thereby creating an exact copy of him.

  111. The BBC also has an article on the story... by Zspdude · · Score: 2
    --
    What's in a Sig?
  112. As in...? by Mulletproof · · Score: 1

    ...Data modulated on your AC or a seprate physical line with your AC? Thought the former was a proven scam... Thanx for the update.

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
  113. TYPE of POST MUST be considered! by H-1B_visas_suck · · Score: 0

    You cannot allow down moderation of political viewpoints. Period. Until you stop this, Slashdot moderation is, IMO, BROKEN!

    --

    This post is protected under the DMTA (Digital Millemium Trolling Act). It is illegal to moderate it as a troll.

    1. Re:TYPE of POST MUST be considered! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The whole purpose of moderation is to filter the input. Political viewpoints should be modded down if it isn't a political discussion (e.g., if you bitch about H-1B visas in a discussion of one of Taco's pet anime stories). That is what Offtopic is for.

      Anyway, it is rather presumptuous of you to think that your political opinions are so interesting and relevant that they should be modded up, or even heard.

  114. Television, or Wonkavision? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Got a golden ticket? Your imagination's the limit.

  115. Does it work like the unix 'mv' command? by nickyj · · Score: 1

    The age old teleport question:
    Are we killing ourselves again?

    cp original copy
    rm original

    --
    Causing Chaos Everywhere,
    Nik J.
    The strange world of a loner, in a populous city, drowning in society
    1. Re:Does it work like the unix 'mv' command? by millette · · Score: 1

      This has me thinking... Using the cp command, one has to read the original file, to make a copy. mv on the other hand, doesn't touch the original file at all. The process involves modifying a file location - something in the filesystem, but not the actual file.

      Back to teleportation, if we are to keep the analogy correct, then there's no ethical question about murder and such. Also, there's no point in looking at the original to teleport it, what you want to modify is something in the universe, but the not individual itself.

  116. Re:Remember... by prof187 · · Score: 1

    Then why not give credit where credit is due. Or at least take it out of first person.

    --

    My other sig is an import.
  117. Just like on TV by Vinnie_333 · · Score: 1

    This is just like on the one show ... Star Trek ... anyone see that one?

    --

    "We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
  118. Hey, they're reporters, not Quantam physicists! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, they're reporters, not Quantam physicists! Ever had an event that you were involved with, or knew the person involved with it appear in the newspaper? Did they get that right? I've made my point.

    When it comes to REALLY complex issues like the in's and outs of quantam physics and teleportation, the reporters/media are SURE to really botch it up... it's in their nature :)

  119. Bell's Theorem and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen by emil · · Score: 2

    I am not a physicist, but I seem to remember a discussion of FTL properties implied by work by Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen and extended by J.S. Bell.

    The particular discussion I remember involved the emission of paired electrons that travel some arbitrary distance. When the path of one of these electrons is altered by some external force, the path of the paired electron is also instantaneously diverted (with some limitation due to frame of reference) in an equal and opposite direction, implying an FTL transfer of information, if not of matter or energy. As I remember, this has an intense impact on the assertion of local causality. Google seems to turn up a large number of references on this subject.

    In any case I do not understand why practical applications of this phenomena have not yet been developed.

    Please pardon any inadequacies of this summary; I am a lowly engineer and computer scientist entirely unqualified to be commenting on such lofty subjects.

  120. no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There's plenty of self. You're capable of saying "I am". You remember what you did 10 minutes ago. You don't remember what someone in Saigon did 10 minutes ago. This is the aforementioned sense of continuity. It's the basis of sentience. You're misinterpreting Buddhism if you believe it says otherwise. And you're also judging all Buddhism based on Zen Buddhism, which is not really Buddhism. It's Taoism. The Heart Sutra states that everything is "the same". That there's no ultimate division between you and me. That's not the same as saying there is no you and there is no me. To your statements, I say "mu".

    1. Re:no by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 2
      For one thing, I'm not judging Buddhism at all. I'm making an observation that a perspective informed by a straightforward neuroscientific perspective on consciousness and the self resembles Buddhism in some ways - and the Buddhist doctrine of the skandas, to which I was referring, is universal in Buddhism, not just to Chan/Zen schools or even the Mahayana.

      Memory is an iffy way of defending the unity of the self over time. It is frequently wrong. Memories are reconstructions based on reactivation of neural paths, and are flawed, selective, and distorting. It is possible to remember things that didn't happen, and experimental psychology is filled with such cases (giving rise to the false-memory phenomenon of the past couple decades.)

      I'm capable of saying "I am." I'm also capable of saying "I am not," "I am the king of France," and the like. The question is what endures from moment to moment.

      Saying "mu" is pretentious. This ain't no zendo.

    2. Re:no by ffatTony · · Score: 2

      I'm capable of saying "I am." I'm also capable of saying "I am not," "I am the king of France," and the like. The question is what endures from moment to moment.

      But I really am the king of France.

      Ok, maybe I'm not, but I swear I used to be.

  121. Teleportation for humans? I'll pass by xant · · Score: 2

    I don't believe in the soul, but this argument could be rewritten with that word. I choose the word "identity." You will never teleport me, because if you did I would lose my identity.

    I believe we are more than just brains and tissue and memories; we are the sum of ALL of our parameters. Our identity depends on that location parameter too. How do we reconcile this view with the certain knowledge that our parameters are changing constantly? We are constantly moving, our cells being born and dying, our mood swinging, or memories collecting. Identity isn't just the set of parameters as it is right now, it's a continuous function which shows our path from single unfertilized egg cell to the sum of all those terabytes of data which make us up as adults.

    To teleport me into another location, you recreate my exact characteristics in the new location with a new location parameter. Whether or not the original continues to exist is irrelevant; the new me is not the old me. You have created a discontinuity in my function. Identity is continuity.

    Let's talk about that important concept, identity.
    # The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.
    # The quality or condition of being the same as something else.
    # The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality.

    The dictionary is telling us that it means both "the same as something else" and "distinct, individual". It's almost a one-word oxymoron. Certainly if you have been teleported in a process which can conceivably leave behind, even for a millisecond, a copy of you at the starting location, you are no longer individual. That sense of identity has been violated.

    What about the second sense: The quality or condition of being the same as something else. But if a being has been teleported, the new being is not "the same as" the other. They do not share identity because of that discontinuity. The old me has to be destroyed, the new me has to be born, and they do not share the same location, so they do not share the same function, so they are not the same waveform, and they are not the same entity.

    --
    It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
  122. Take one to Mars by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

    Hopefully they can productize this in the next decade or so, and the Mars explorers can take one with them.

    This way, they won't have to wait many minutes between sending and receiving messages with Earth.

    BTW, it's a 'subspace communicator', not a 'teleporter'. C'mon, get your bad Sci-Fi right.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    1. Re:Take one to Mars by AnyoneEB · · Score: 1

      According to the BBC article posted by another user the quantam physics part moves faster than light (instant), but you need information (a radio wave) to use it so it isn't FTL communications... but we can still hope, right?

      --
      Centralization breaks the internet.
    2. Re:Take one to Mars by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2
      Hmmm, the BBC article says:

      At first sight, entanglement offers the prospect of sending a signal faster than the speed of light. But a closer look at what is actually possible shows that this will not work because of the limits of what can be known about quantum mechanical systems and how such information is relayed.

      But the IBM research several years back showed how to get around that particular problem. I wonder if that info came from the lab or the reporter's general knowledge.

      The quantam physics part moves faster than light (instant), but you need information (a radio wave) to use it so it isn't FTL communications...

      Hmmm, I'm hunting around the BBC site, but I'm not finding that in the article. You need information going into the system, a modulated laser in this case, and you have to analyze the data coming out, another modulated laser, all of which takes time. The FTL distance in this experiment is only 1 meter, but as the FTL distance is increased, the whole system should become FTL, no?

      The Lab Website isn't much use here...
      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  123. Teleport/Recreation? What's the difference? by Parallex · · Score: 1

    In response to the Teleportation vs Recreation Issue.
    I think the issue does not lie in wether we are transported or recreated. For inanimate objects the topic is moot at best. However for anything with a conceptual 'soul' a conciousness, all of a sudden the heebie-jeebies make a lunge from the dark again.

    The question is will my conciousness be transported with me? Or will my conciousness cease and a seperate conciousness belonging to the replica take over - consisting of all memories involved. Where's the connection? Where's the continuity?

    I have a short analogy to describe why this, in all contextual terms can and will teleport a human being in all conciousness (assuming that the relevant technology is developed to allow entire atoms to teleport).

    Imagine that you are frozen. This is akin to placing one under anaesthetic sleep also. So when u wake up are you still there? Whole? Yes... I'd say so.

    Now consider that while you are frozen, a few atoms in your right toe are replaced with identical, but differing, atoms. When you wake up are you still there? Whole? Yes, I still think so.

    There's no massive desynchronization involved here. So where's the threshold? a foot? a leg? a body? What about the brain? that is after all, only material composition as well.

    Consider this :
    While you are frozen all the atoms in your body are one by one replaced by identical atoms. You wake up. What has changed? Nothing. You have a fresh set of atoms but that's about it.

    Now Finally :
    While you are frozen your atoms are replaced one by one. But they are replaced by atoms in a different location. When you wake up everything is the same, however you have adopted the new location.

    Note that conciousness is analogous to your physical body in this manner.
    So long as the instance of yourself doesn't simply blink out of existance at any one point in time, it is safe to assume neither does your conciousness. Subsequently, your conciousness would be transported also.

    The difference between teleportation and recreation in THIS sense is that if firstly something ceases to exist completely, then a copy is made afterwards - that is recreation. Otherwise teleportation applies with all its perky bonuses.

    1. Re:Teleport/Recreation? What's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what if consciousness is just the sum state of the combined particles that make us up in varying states. Taking your frozen and then moved example, what if you introduced a lag period between the old copy and the new copy. You could effectivly pause your conscience. But the person undergoing the process would likely experience a seemless transition.

      So, if that holds true, you could copy yourself into a computer and send your self off in a spaceship and just be recreated when you arrive at your destination. The trip would appear instantaneous. Heck, if somthing happens to you on the trip there, you could just have a backup copy loaded and created. You would instantly know if your trip was successful or not.

  124. +1, Funny by clary · · Score: 2

    ROFLMAO. Where are mod points when I need them...

    --

    "Rub her feet." -- L.L.

  125. CNN article by scubacuda · · Score: 2

    here.

  126. Life is static by Jon+Howard · · Score: 1

    If only I could literally know what you're thinking, I would have no way to argue with that perspective.

  127. Re:It's faster than light teleportation by Asparfame · · Score: 2

    It is not faster than light. Observable information never moves faster than light, even in Quantum Mechanics. It's true that entangled particles can "communicate" in a sense faster than light with eachother, but classical (measurable) information will never move faster than light.

    In this experiment, a radio signal was sent between the teleportation sender and the teleportation receiver. At each end, there were some particles entangled with the particles at the other end, however, the classical information - that is the laser beam - could not be reconstructed without sending a radio signal (at the speed of light) from one end to the other.

    --

    There's no reason for a sig here.

  128. Obligatory Spelling Flame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also a shame that nobody knows how to spell Crichton...

  129. Even more boggling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many Slashdotters cannot spell the word ARTICLE.

  130. kill saddam! by igorxa · · Score: 1

    heh, so when are we going to be able to threaten the world saying, 'hey, give us your oil/money/bombs/women or we'll teleport laser beams to hit your leaders' heads.'

    talk about stealth assasination. maybe we could even teleport the beam in, let it do it's job, then teleport it out. all this, of course, in a fraction of a second. and no trace!

  131. Missing an important point about identity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "Well if the person created was the exact same down to the quantum level, it would be you, exactly."

    This is plainly not true if you take a moment to think it through. Think of any two atoms of a given type (or quark, or smaller). Down at the quantum level, they have the same structure, but having an identical structure does not make them the same atom. A crucial part of identity is location in space/time. The hydrogen atoms in the glass of water at my desk are structurally identical to the atoms elsewhere on earth, but their location makes them unique.

    This property of identity also holds true on a larger scale. If individual A is perfectly 'copied' that does not mean there are two As, it means there are two individuals, A plus the copy.

  132. Re:It's faster than light teleportation by dollargonzo · · Score: 1

    but if they can communicate, isnt that superluminal communication. regardless of how it came about, if i know something i didnt before because of it, its communication.

    QED

    --
    BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
  133. we'll never be able to prove... an alternative? by spaere · · Score: 1

    the whole concept of our linearity as a living being is simply impossible to prove, and i suppose a disappointing limit. the concept of teleportation of actual particles is an extremely difficult concept to consider. the method described here is simply deconstruction and reconstruction. you become disassembled into data, transferred, and reconstructed. however, it is my opinion that while an exact reconstruction, your linearity is interrupted. why? say you store this data, and 60 years later you die from old age and say in your will for someone to simply reconstruct you from your backup tape sitting in the safe deposit box... obviously it's a matter of opinion, but the reconstruction of your consciousness just isn't possible because the original can continue to exist/be destroyed along with the reconstruction thus branching the linearity of consciousness. How about this >> i'm obviously no expert, but how about through incredibly detailed analysis, we construct an antimatter field that is the exact opposite of your matter based state, then transfer the energy from the reaction, and somehow ... oh nevermind, my mind just exploded. i say just take the bus.

  134. Why human teleportation? by koensayr[vKm] · · Score: 0

    What's so important about being able to teleport humans? I'd be more than happy with just being able to move all my shit around at the speed of light...

  135. Clarification: Teleportation and FASTER COMPUTERS by anomalousman · · Score: 1

    Teleportation is a key idea in large scale quantum computing schemes.

    Quantum computers work enormously faster than classical computers by performing computations on superpositions of states, effectively gaining huge parallelism. The hard part is that the computer must operate perfectly reversibly without decoherence of the memory states. This gets harder and harder as you scale up.

    One scheme for making the computations more robust was proposed a couple of years ago. It involves a logical teleportation of a gate (not a physical gate, but a gate operation) after the most dispersive step. This enables multiple attempts at a calculation step to be performed, and then the teleportation of the gate post facto allows the successful operation to be used without repeating the calculation up to that point.

    I know that sounds complicated, but hopefully that claim is a little less mysterious now.

    The speed advantage has nothing to do with photons, and everything to do with quantum computation, which has been reviewed on /. extensively.

  136. Clarification: Teleportation and CLONING by anomalousman · · Score: 1

    The hard thing about teleportation is that it is impossible to measure something perfectly due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. This means that you destroy half the information about something by measuring it even when you have infinitely good technology.

    Teleporters use entanglement to disembody the information about the thing they are teleporting. Ideally, they have half of the information travelling classically (where it can be copied, if desired), but half of it travels as an entangled quantum state.

    It is NOT a process of measure-copy-destroy, so all those cloning thoughts are not relevant. In fact, there is a well-known

    Quantum No-cloning Theorem

    which states that it is impossible to create an identical copy of a quantum state without simultaneously destroying the original. If you could, then you could measure different halves of the state of each, and you'd have cheated Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in a two-step process.

  137. Re:It's faster than light teleportation by Asparfame · · Score: 2

    The particles can "communicate" faster than light, but humans cannot extract information from this communication.

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    There's no reason for a sig here.

  138. Practicality? by gurensan · · Score: 1

    Someone, somewhere, please wake me up when this evolves into a replicator that can make food. This will at least keep my grocery bill down.

    Here's my real question: should this advance to the point where transporting a person is possible, who would want it? If you think about it, you are destroyed, transported, and recreated - while this all sound like great fun, why would I want to destroy myself? The person made on the other end may have all my memories, but they're not *me*, because *I* was destroyed to make the other person. They'll think they're me, but what good is that if I'm not there? I'll never live through it, so it's not *me* who's going to the impossibly far away place, so I guess it's kinda pointless, isn't it...

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    You are all fartheads.
    1. Re:Practicality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      in a sense your body already goes through that same process. old skin is shed and new stuff takes its place. Blood is continually renewed. Your hair, fingernails, etc. So, for all practical purposes 'you' are no longer 'you' any more.

  139. Elaboration by Prune · · Score: 1

    Timespace is most likely discrete. There is a smallest meaningful interval of time, the Planck time. We can look at ourselves not as continuously moving through time, but as a set of states, each existing at a certain point in time. The illusion of time passing at each of these moments is created by having a memory consistent with the past states. This and more gems are to be found in this excellent paper: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/quant-ph/pdf/0105/010509 7.pdf

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
    1. Re:Elaboration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The URL didn't work, what is the name of the paper?

    2. Re:Elaboration by Prune · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the delayed response... Here is the correct link: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/0105097

      --
      "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
  140. power issues by snaphu · · Score: 1

    sure this may create super-whatever, but how much power is being taken up and is it worth it? If it could be possible to create a super computer, lets say i turn it on and all the lights in the state of california turn off. It might not be worth it.

  141. Re:Replication or Recreation -- not an easy questi by serutan · · Score: 2

    Another thought -- it's very possible that location is a quantum effect, and "normal" movement is subatomic particles popping out of existence and reappearing a distance-quantum away. If that turns out to be the case, then what we call teleportation is the same thing as normal movement, just covering a larger distance with each jump.

  142. time-travel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Essentially, isn't this sending photons into the future as well as across space?

    Entangled photon A and the laser photon are destroyed at one moment as information is collected. That information is sent at the speed of light, across space (which takes time) where it is used to tinker with photon B and turn it back into the laser photon that was disrupted by the scan. At this point, photon B is now in the exact same quantum state as the laser photon was a brief moment before when it was initially measured. If you just hold onto photon B and the information in the radio signal for a minute or an hour or whatever and then tinker with photon B, are you not essentially moving the laser forward in time without any real change in the photon?

  143. I smell military applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Although potential teleportation (even of lasers) could have very 'good' applications in telecommunications or medical sciences, how far would a nation with military lasers (i.e U.S) go to ascertain the technology that could zap a Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser instantly to a target?