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Researchers Moot "Teleportation" Via Destructive 3D Printing

ErnieKey writes Researchers from German-based Hasso Plattner Institute have come up with a process that may make teleportation a reality — at least in some respects. Their 'Scotty' device utilizes destructive scanning, encryption, and 3D printing to destroy the original object so that only the received, new object exists in that form, pretty much 'teleporting' the object from point A to point B. Scotty is based on an off-the-shelf 3D printer modified with a 3-axis milling machine, camera, and microcontroller for encryption, using Raspberry Pi and Arduino technologies." This sounds like an interesting idea, but mostly as an art project illustrating the dangers of DRM. Can you think of an instance where you would actually want the capabilities this machine claims to offer?

163 comments

  1. Useless Art Project by lbenes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why was this posted? It's not good art and has no real life applications.

    1. Re:Useless Art Project by Threni · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The rites of spring by stravinsky has no "real life applications" other than the usual art stuff. You know, making life bearable in a pointless, hateful world where the best thing you can say about it is that you're going to die eventually, and beyond that everything in the universe is going to ultimately run out of energy and go dark and cold for ever and ever and ever. I mean, you're right; it would have been better had it improved the speed of an internet search or something practical like that, but sadly, no. Just pointless art.

    2. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In your ideal world we'd all be reverently licking the buttholes of every artist who produces useless toys like this. No thanks.

    3. Re:Useless Art Project by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "Beam up a full-size PLA sculpture of me, Scotty!"

    4. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like 99.85% of all 3D printing stories I've seen.

    5. Re:Useless Art Project by killkillkill · · Score: 1

      Yes, pointless art-- that's the problem with it. Had it been good art it would have met one of the qualifiers GP mentioned. Nobody attacked art, they only attacked this one idea that was poorly executed.

      Now I'm sure we can have long discussion arguing about what qualifies as good art, but wherever the line is, clearly this is below it and Stravinsky is above it. Anyone who wants to argue against that is just being difficult or trying to prove to others (or themselves) that they are an idealist.

    6. Re:Useless Art Project by killkillkill · · Score: 1

      Currently, it can only beam your PLA self a few inches to the left. By the looks of it, that vacuum system will likely prove inadequate-- leaving your PLA self standing in a pool of your original self that was slowing milled to death. Also, be sure that no matter how much it hurts, to stay perfectly still through the milling process.

    7. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why was this posted? It's not good art and has no real life applications.

      It is irrelevant whether this is good art or bad art. What is relevant is that this is Slashdot and not a blog for artists.
      I really really really do not want to see art discussed on Slashdot; I prefer 4chan for my art needs.

    8. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would be necessary to make a copy of an object with accurate internals, right?

    9. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why care?

      You'd end up in an existential crisis, or start believing in supernatural beings that will make your dreams come true when your body has decomposed too much to sustain life.

      Enjoy life and try to build a better world, regardless of that you won't get to experience more than a blink of it. Those are things, that may be true. Given that objective reality exists, which we cannot know. But even though it might just be a dream, a simulation, or an illusion by an evil demon to your brain in a jar, it is about as certain as we can get anyway. So why bother doubting?

    10. Re:Useless Art Project by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 2

      This idea has been used in several scifi and fantasy stories/books for how to transport people. In a few they expand a bit on the possible moral conundrums this can cause. This is just an applied science version of the same thing. Would you blast a post about a scifi story that this kind of discussion? Scifi is near and dear to most slashdot readers.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    11. Re: Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why waste time building a world I will not live in? Those are fantasies for simpletons. Rob, rape and kill: this is what living is all about. Be strong and prey on the weak.

    12. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because it's the first step in teleportation, even if it's comparable to playing with toy blocks being the first step towards building the Eiffel Tower.

    13. Re:Useless Art Project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You miss the point. As the original poster said it is BAD art. So it is useless and pointless. So why was it posted here?

    14. Re:Useless Art Project by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 1

      You just have to speed up the process a lot so that you are quickly milled to death.

    15. Re:Useless Art Project by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Why was this posted? It's not good art and has no real life applications.

      If it pissed you off enough to post about it, it probably was good art.

    16. Re:Useless Art Project by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

      And Larry Niven wrote an essay which covered this ground.

      --
      There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  2. This is all fine until you get derezzed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    end of line

  3. Prototyping security? by The+Rizz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The only situations I can see this having any use in is some sort of security model where you make an object that for some security reason isn't supposed to exist in more than one place. I can see this for the whole "only this key can open the briefcase with the documents/money/etc." situation, for example.

    1. Re:Prototyping security? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

      Only problem with that is: if you can replicate an object with this contraption, you can replicate the object using a similar contraption that doesn't contain the destructive/encryption element. So if the item ever leaves a secured area, anyone can replicate it.

      So yeah; it could be used to send a key to a remote location... but you could just keep the plan for the key in an encrypted file and send that to whoever you want -- as you still can in this situation (anyone with the file and the key can replicate the item at any point in time).

    2. Re:Prototyping security? by LifesABeach · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My thought was, "what could possibly go wrong?" and then the idea formed, "the recieving maching broke half way through the process."

    3. Re:Prototyping security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I take it you've never heard of a Man in the Middle attack then...

    4. Re:Prototyping security? by The+Rizz · · Score: 1

      I take it you've never heard of a Man in the Middle attack then...

      Of course I have. But a man-in-the-middle attack isn't going to do much good without a man-assaulted-on-the-way-to-the-airport attack as well. You've got a key that's transmitted, and a briefcase that's physically moved. The key's kinda useless without the briefcase, after all.

    5. Re:Prototyping security? by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      Hint: Don't put your pet hamster in this machine.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    6. Re:Prototyping security? by horm · · Score: 2

      Luckily, the object is stored in the transporter buffer, and with a little sci-fi magic we can reconstruct the object and save the day minutes before the episode ends.

    7. Re:Prototyping security? by fractoid · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hint: Don't put your p-

      I thought this post was going somewhere much more worrying than "et hamster".

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    8. Re:Prototyping security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No machine can print things *that* small.

    9. Re:Prototyping security? by codeButcher · · Score: 1

      My thought was, "what could possibly go wrong?" and then the idea formed, "the recieving maching broke half way through the process."

      Luckily, the object is stored in the transporter buffer, and with a little sci-fi magic we can reconstruct the object and save the day minutes before the episode ends.

      So what are we gonna do with all the Capt Kirk torsos lying around?

      --
      Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    10. Re:Prototyping security? by mjm1231 · · Score: 1

      SInce the key is presumably only useful when it is in the same location as the lock, how does this improve security?

      --
      Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
    11. Re:Prototyping security? by Talderas · · Score: 1

      If someone is a courier taking a locked object from point A to point B then having the key with courier isn't a good idea. Transporting the key independent of the goods help prevent people from getting access. This would just be a another method of transporting a key from point A to point B.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    12. Re:Prototyping security? by internerdj · · Score: 1

      Some mind controlled red shirt can use it to stage Kirk's murder, blame it on Spock, and now you have next week's episode too.

    13. Re:Prototyping security? by JoeMerchant · · Score: 1

      How about an object with internal features that cannot be determined without opening it up?

    14. Re:Prototyping security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can get an evil version of the object right after you printed the good version. (Of course this happens after everyone has left the room with the printer and completely uninitiated.)

    15. Re:Prototyping security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brundlehamster, is that you?

    16. Re:Prototyping security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I take it you've never heard of a Man in the Middle attack then...

      Of course I have. But a man-in-the-middle attack isn't going to do much good without a man-assaulted-on-the-way-to-the-airport attack as well. You've got a key that's transmitted, and a briefcase that's physically moved. The key's kinda useless without the briefcase, after all.

      What if the MITM passes on corrupted data, he has the real key and you have a lump of useless metal at point B and a pile of metal swarf at point A!

    17. Re:Prototyping security? by The+Rizz · · Score: 1

      Then you have a useless key and the briefcase, but the MITM has only a useless key.

  4. yes. by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    i can.

    1. Re:yes. by aBaldrich · · Score: 1

      I bet there's not enough space in that margin to put the whole idea...

      But seriously, most advances in mathematics (and other fields) happend and people couldn't immediately find any use. Like boolean algebra or lasers.

      --
      In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
  5. Currency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If there was a decent recycleable plastic that could be processed by the 3D printer, it could be the basis for a form of currency. The "teleportation" would be a currency transfer.

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

      Electronic transfer of currency already exists, and is much simpler and more convenient than destroying and creating material tokens.

    2. Re:Currency by ArcadeMan · · Score: 0

      There's also some kind of virtual, electronic currency being talked about but I don't know much about that.

      P.S.: check out the links in my sig, I need more refs!

  6. Could be useful in certain rare cases by c0d3g33k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can you think of an instance where you would actually want the capabilities this machine claims to offer?

    In situations where moving the original object physically to its destination is difficult or cost prohibitive, and there is no further need of the original at the source (maybe it only has utility at the destination). The most obvious case would be from Earth to space, either to a location in orbit, or eventually another planet.

    1. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In situations where moving the original object physically to its destination is difficult or cost prohibitive, and there is no further need of the original at the source (maybe it only has utility at the destination). The most obvious case would be from Earth to space, either to a location in orbit, or eventually another planet.

      I would think that a trash can next to the scanner would probably do this particular job just as well.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    2. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 2

      Ah, I get it now .. the destruction of the original is apparently more of a side effect than a feature of this device.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    3. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by Immerman · · Score: 1

      As a 1-to-1 transporter, I can't say I see any use. But as a 1-to-many copying machine it could be useful. Destructive scanning will generally be far more detailed than non-destructive, improving the accuracy of the copies. And if the scanning and printing could be done in sufficient detail (atomic level?) the complete dataset might be far too large to be stored for reasonable cost, but you could still do multiple reconstructions in parallel fed by the same scanning buffer.

      I can't think of any reason, other than "teleporting" living people, that you would want to artificially limit what is basically a scanning replicator to avoid making copies.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    4. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      it's an _extra_ _step_ the machine makes.

      as such, you could just as well just trust the operator to hit it with a hammer.

      the only reason they did it was to get some publicity. but even then, nobody should give a fuck. it's not teleportation. it's just a scanner, a 3d printer and a device that destroys the original for no good reason at all.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the scanning is in fact destructive, but you could of course produce multiple copies at the endpoint.

    6. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by Talderas · · Score: 1

      It's a destructive scanner which isn't entirely a bad thing if it permits a far more accurate scan.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    7. Re:Could be useful in certain rare cases by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Looks to me like it would be simpler to just build the thing in orbit or wherever, and skip the make-and-destroy-one-on-Earth step.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  7. Simpson's did it!!! by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Informative

    That was an Outer Limits episode...

    "BALANCE THE EQUATION!!!!"
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    1. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Once you release your false sense of personal identity, using a device like this (once the technology is advanced enough to work for people) to quickly travel long distances makes perfect sense.

      It is surprising how many atheists would reject this, despite the fact that most of them would swear up and down that there is no such thing as a soul, and that consciousness (if it is anything at all) is just a general phenomenon (like gravity) that is not particular to an individual. So, if a person teleports in this way, an atheist should be the first to assert that nobody died and that nothing was lost.

      Oh well. Illusion is a hard thing to overcome.

    2. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Well, if we had faith that it wouldn't screw up, sure. After all, we're all for uploading our consciousness come the singularity.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    3. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by dala1 · · Score: 2

      What exactly is it that you think atheists believe? Atheism is when you lack a belief in God, nothing to do with souls or consciousness or personal identity. And none of these things have anything to do with this crude take on 'teleportation'.

      Regardless of what happens on the other end of the machine, if you physically destroy the body of a living thing then it will die. It will experience exactly the same things that it would if you killed it and then did not make a copy.

    4. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fun fact: in Star Trek teleportation is portrayed as if the subject stays concious through the process and experiences it as a fancy cross-fade between the two locations. All ideas that were touted as "practical" teleportation so far would thoroughly kill the original and construct an exact copy without a sense of a transfer of consiousness. That is, you step in, and *you* die. A disconnected perfect copy of yourself comes into existence somwhere else and starts to imitate you.

    5. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      my break in consciousness would be scary, but no more scary than going to sleep. I don't like the idea of killing myself every time i teleport. but in the broadest sense. Honestly, i wouldn't notice. Like i don't notice that I could be being cloned and killed every time i go to sleep.

      I used to be adamant against dying through teleportation, but once i got argued to the point about sleep i was like... ok, that makes sense and is a perfect analogy.

    6. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 1

      So, if a person teleports in this way, an atheist should be the first to assert that nobody died and that nothing was lost.

      If you don't believe in a soul to transfer and you watch a person get destroyed by an energy beam you may condclude that someone died.

    7. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by sir-gold · · Score: 1

      It depends on how commonplace the event is.

      A few hundred years ago, if you saw someone jump from a great height you would assume they died on impact (even if you don't see the impact).

      Now you see people jumping off cliffs all the time, and you just assume the backpack they are wearing is a parachute, and they will land safely.

      Once teleportation becomes somewhat common (or atleast common knowledge) people will just assume that the person they saw getting vaporized is still alive in some distant location.

    8. Re:Simpson's did it!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > So, if a person teleports in this way, an atheist should be the first to assert that nobody died and that nothing was lost.

      You think that atheists don't believe in death, and that it's okay to kill someone as long as you copy them first? Interesting.

  8. Can I try it first? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want to teleport myself.

    1. Re:Can I try it first? by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      I'll interview you, before and after.

    2. Re:Can I try it first? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go for it Mike TeaVee. We don't have a taffy puller though.

  9. Yes by Jaime2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their method of destructive scanning allows for internal detail to be accurately reproduced. They aren't destroying it for the fun of it, they're destroying it to see it's internal structure. The DRM-like behavior is just a side-effect.

    1. Re:Yes by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It depresses me that it took this long for someone to come up with a sensible answer... I read the article and immediately thought of pump impellers, but everyone above here is still stuck on derezzing.

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    2. Re:Yes by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      I don't see any DRM-like behavior at all, it's just destructive scanning. Who says it's only limited to a single reproduction? Like you pointed out, sometimes destruction is the only way to really find out what something is, but once you've done that what's really stopping someone from then creating 100 copies of it?

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    3. Re:Yes by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the only part about it that resembles DRM to me is the fact that the data stream is encrypted. Presumably, the purposes of that are privacy and/or preventing MiTM attacks. In practice, DRM has usually done the opposite of that.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    4. Re:Yes by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 2

      And when money for non-destructive probing makes this concern irrelevant?

      Or the corollary, when the internal structure cannot be replicated by the scanner? And perhaps it's not a corollary, because then you damaged the original.

      The printer would need to be capable of printing whatever the scanner finds, and non-destructive methods incapable of the same discovery. I find this perhaps implausible for now.

  10. First Volunteer's Reaction... by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    I would like to interview the first volunteer and find out just how they felt about this destructive teleportation process... Oh, my.

    1. Re:First Volunteer's Reaction... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would like to interview the first volunteer and find out just how they felt about this destructive teleportation process... Oh, my.

      Well, the original will be a smelly meat slush and the copy will be a plastic statue hopefully resembling the original.
      I doubt you get much of an answer out of either version.

    2. Re:First Volunteer's Reaction... by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      Precisely.

      Before and after impressions are so enlightening...

  11. James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like A Dinosaur" by magusxxx · · Score: 2

    it was made into an episode of The Outer Limits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... The idea was that a human could be teleported to another planet. After the "copy" arrived the original would be destroyed.

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
    1. Re:James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like A Dinosaur" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The idea was that a human could be teleported to another planet. After the "copy" arrived the original would be destroyed.

      That raises some interesting moral issues.
      The moment the copy and the original has experienced different things they are no longer the same person so if you allow the copy to experience the new environment before killing the original they become different persons.
      Killing one of them would be murder.

    2. Re:James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like A Dinosaur" by eis2718bob · · Score: 1

      Is it a people mover....

                                  or a murdering twin-maker?

  12. That's not Teleportation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Teleportation involves actually transporting the individual particles or parts of the item.
    There is nothing in the copying process that transports anything but information about the item/image.

    1. Re:That's not Teleportation! by foradoxium · · Score: 1

      exactly, this is destructive replication. Not teleportation.

      That's like saying we're teleporting music files to our drives every day.

      But hey..marketing..

    2. Re:That's not Teleportation! by Sowelu · · Score: 1

      You wouldn't teleport a car.

    3. Re:That's not Teleportation! by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      So if I converted your body to energy, and beamed it to the moon, then converted it back to matter, you would not consider that to be teleportation?
      If I had to transmit your particles that would be very limiting, as particles with significant mass won't accelerated to the speed of light. Might be faster to put you in a rocket and transport you the old fashion way.

      I think the flaw here has more to do with the process not producing an object in the same state except position. Than with your arguments from your narrow definition of teleporting.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    4. Re:That's not Teleportation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You wouldn't teleport a car.

      Tell that to the DLC on my Xbox!

    5. Re:That's not Teleportation! by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      well that would be copying at a different place.. and then what would stop you from making two copies? making it a copying process and not teleportation.

      if you want to say that there isn't likely to be real teleportation then duh... it's just magic scifi anyways. if you were to convert the state of the object into information then you would need to have artificial limitations to stop you from making two copies once you have the information.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    6. Re:That's not Teleportation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't the E=MC^2 thing come into play when you convert matter to energy?

    7. Re:That's not Teleportation! by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      the artificial limitation would probably be the technical limitation. storage space and bandwidth. taking a person apart piece by piece... seems pretty fucking fatal if done anywhere in the vicinity of non-instantly.

      and the positional data for each atom... that's a shit ton of information to transmit, and write.

    8. Re:That's not Teleportation! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      If you can pull in the information and use it, you can record it while you're doing it. Then you can make as many copies of Yeoman Rand and Lieutenant Uhura as you like, in the hope of getting lucky with one of them.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    9. Re:That's not Teleportation! by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      yeah, but we're talking all the data that makes a you a you, in less time than it takes your body to realize it's dead.

      think about it, you're basically talking ablating a person and capturing each bit that's blasted off.

      some of those bits are serving the purpose of keeping other bits in the bits pile that is you.

      some of those bits flow like blood.... wait.

    10. Re:That's not Teleportation! by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of problems with star trek like teleportation. You can't measure both energy and time of a particle accurately either. Which is a pity because I would want my brain's state to be transmitted perfectly and not a jumbled mess. Even if my brain was only a single particle (an accusation I have received), it would be altered in more than position through any teleportation process.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  13. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  14. moot teleportation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    First moot retires, and now they want to destructively teleport him?

    1. Re:moot teleportation? by MondoGordo · · Score: 0

      LoL

  15. Yes by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Any situation where you don't have the details of what is inside the object but you want them.

    Take a step away from the "teleportation" aspect and put the sender and receiver right next to each other. One disassembles the item while the other recreates it. At the end of the process you have the replacement item to stick back into where ever you took it from AND a scan of all the layers inside allowing you to produce more should you so desire.

  16. Have the receiver do the rebuild mutiple times by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DRM, what DRM ?

  17. Isn't that how the transporter works? by hawguy · · Score: 2

    Isn't that exactly how the transporter works? Surely they don't actually disassemble the body atom-by-atom, convert it to energy, then stream it to the remote site.

    I figured they used a high-resolution scanner to scan the body, then send an energy beam to the remote site to reconstruct an exact replica of the person being transported. After the copy is complete, the original body is no longer needed and is disintegrated.

    1. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 1

      If that were the case, wouldn't the cloning of a certain star ship captain be more prominently featured as a plot device?

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    2. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by MondoGordo · · Score: 2

      Actually no the ST transporter converts the object into an energy pattern, beams the energy to a remote location and erases the pattern after the object is re-integrated into solid matter at the remote location. ... the object only ever exists as matter in one place at a time. which is why people are lost in transporter accidents.

    3. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by Megahard · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, the transporter works by first filming with the actor, then without the actor, and combining the shots post-production with added glitter.

      --
      I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    4. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by Dahamma · · Score: 1

      the object only ever exists as matter in one place at a time

      Except for that episode that created two Rikers...

    5. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by Cramer · · Score: 1

      The "pattern" (transporter trace) is, for the lack of a better term, the assembly instructions for reversing the matter/energy conversion. In theory, with enough energy (or equiv block of matter), a person could be replicated. It's the same way they make parts, food, etc. It's also the way Riker ended up cloned (in a very hand-wavey manner in the story) via an "energy reflection" during a beam out through a storm.

    6. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by Cramer · · Score: 1

      These days we do it all with green screens and cgi.

    7. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The "pattern" (transporter trace) is, for the lack of a better term, the assembly instructions for reversing the matter/energy conversion.

      No, not for lack of a better term, for lack of a good term — apparently. The transporter pattern actually is most of the person. That's why it's not murder.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by hoborg1 · · Score: 1

      You mean this one?

    9. Re:Isn't that how the transporter works? by MondoGordo · · Score: 1

      So if it's just the instructions explain Reg Barkley's experience in Realm of Fear ? http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

  18. Not teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I drink a beer over here, and you go to the bathroom over there, we didn't teleport the beer...

    1. Re:Not teleportation by Cramer · · Score: 1

      Always get your receipt!

  19. I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by davesque · · Score: 1

    Leonard McCoy is rolling over in his grave.

    1. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      I guess you have to be really geeky to remember the philosophical discussion between Spock and McCoy over this very question in the novel somewhat stupidly named "Spock must die!"

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by Kittenman · · Score: 1

      I guess you have to be really geeky to remember the philosophical discussion between Spock and McCoy over this very question in the novel somewhat stupidly named "Spock must die!"

      I remember it! McCoy pondered that he might have been a ghost (or whatever -- someone other than himself) since the first time he was teleported. Spock's final comment was that he'd have no way to test the argument one way or the other, so any answer was irrelevant.

      Go on, ask me a hard one...

      --
      "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Ok, here's a hard one. From the same novel, finish this quote: "A difference that makes no difference,"

      It was actually not a bad novel, from a decent author (James Blish). Too bad about the title.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    4. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is no difference at all.

      Boom goes the dynamite.

    5. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, here's a hard one. From the same novel, finish this quote: "A difference that makes no difference,"

      It was actually not a bad novel, from a decent author (James Blish). Too bad about the title.

      makes no difference." Scotty said this.

    6. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never saw the transporter as a copying machine with all the moral questions of who are you once you've been transported. Rather, I always assumed it was a device that took perfect advantage of the first law of thermodynamics. Basically, it is converting the matter of the target to energy, moving that energy to the new location, and converting the energy back to the original matter. As far as concerns about being the same person, you technically are comprised of the same matter (or matter derived from the same energy) as before. And any abstract thoughts of soul simply gets carried along with the energy beam. Where the characters would run into problems was when the transporter technology behaved less than perfectly in the matter/energy conversion.

      I know -- too much thought to put behind a sci-fi plot device!

    7. Re:I dare anyone to beam my atoms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, here's a hard one. From the same novel, finish this quote: "A difference that makes no difference,"

      It was actually not a bad novel, from a decent author (James Blish). Too bad about the title.

      ...is no difference."

  20. Along the same lines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm announcing a "Proof of Riemann's Hypothesis, with proper acknowledgements to contributing researchers".

    Here are the details:
    First, we use Kickstarter to obtain community funding for a website with adequate bandwidth and administrative resources. Then we publish the proof on the web site. Then, we establish a wiki forum along the lines of Slashdot (with community-driven filtering of spam and trolls) where attribution to important prior results can be posted; these will contain the name, institution, and (optionally) contact information for each researcher, along with a synopsis of their work and links to online resources.

  21. this is why teleportation never made sense by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    it's duplication

    which is great!

    but why destroy the original? just to call it teleportation? seems ridiculous

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:this is why teleportation never made sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I realize that the restriction is so you won't have two copies of the captain walking around.

      But I always wondered why they didn't invest in larger transport buffers, and then let the captain/star fleet policy choose which version gets to live after the copy returns. E.g. If the crewman returns dead, missing limbs, or with a pathogen? Just beam the old version onto the transporter pad and forward the compromised version to the computer in sick bay for analysis. Oh, and be sure to tell the redshirt how he died so he can avoid making the same mistake next time.

    2. Re:this is why teleportation never made sense by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      but why destroy the original? just to call it teleportation? seems ridiculous

      Calling it teleportation is a side effect. They destroy the original so they can see its internal structure and replicate a full object, not just the outer layer.

    3. Re:this is why teleportation never made sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The most logical explanation is that there's just too much data to retain. Imagine to recreate a living, breathing human being, all their brains synapses, their particles, the states of each and every one (electrical charge, quantum states, position, acceleration, vibration, etc), it takes a 100 yottabytes of data. They can "stream" it through a system that can transmit and process 20 yottabytes/sec, but to actually store that data would require an extra starship to carry around the storage necessary just to recreate a couple people.

      "Failed" transports that end up taking a lot of time and then resulting in the person going nowhere could be seen as the buffer about to overflow and dumping back the missing pieces again in their initial place as a failsafe.

    4. Re:this is why teleportation never made sense by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      where do you think the red shirts come from? why there's an endless supply of them? and why they don't seem to be worried about their shirt color?

      they don't know how dangerous their fashion choice is because each mission is their first and last.

  22. "To Be" by roc97007 · · Score: 2

    I think I've heard this story before.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  23. uh... star trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so, a transporter in star trek murders the original person (almost) every time it's used? D :

    now we know the real reason why mccoy hates those things.

  24. Hmmmm by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can you think of an instance where you would actually want the capabilities this machine claims to offer?

    Yes. Yes, I can. Let's use this as the new transport mechanism for congresspersons. What a problem-solver!

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Hmmmm by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      Would anyone notice a difference between the erased original and the copy?

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:Hmmmm by jimmydevice · · Score: 1

      A small state machine attached to a money counter and a voice synth should be sufficient for all Congressional activities.

    3. Re:Hmmmm by fractoid · · Score: 1

      "All we'd have to do is program it to say 'Um' and 'What?' and 'Where's the lobbyists?'"

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    4. Re:Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you think of an instance where you would actually want the capabilities this machine claims to offer?

      Yes. Yes, I can. Let's use this as the new transport mechanism for congresspersons. What a problem-solver!

      This. I second the motion.

  25. Re:Like the destructive scanning by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    I wonder if anyone's tried combining some sort of sintering process with an electron microscope... it would be neat to be able to build up a complete molecular model of an object and then be able to reproduce it, layer by layer. It'd take forever, but you could replicate some pretty useful things really accurately. And once you've destructively scanned the item once, you can replicate it as much as the materials you have on hand allow. Great for making backups of mechanical parts, just in case someone stops making that specific part. Not so good if you don't get the printing accurate, as you'd have a part with stress lines most likely.

  26. Awesome art project: Mutation via Teleportation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine the art project potential of the equivalent of running through a blob of text through Google Translate over and over and over again, back and forth between different languages.

    Applied to an Object.

    Could be very fun.

  27. Scan, encrypt, save for later by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great filing system. Save items for posterity without taking up physical space. Maybe even remove the encrypt option.

  28. The obvious by JThundley · · Score: 2

    The only situation I can think of is doing this with people. Obviously the technology isn't there yet. I know for a fact that the world doesn't need any more of me running around in it. You're welcome world!

  29. Teleporter Discussion! by eepok · · Score: 1

    What actually defines a teleporter?

    Does an object need to be smashed down to molecular/particle level and those remnants sent to another place to be reassembled?
    Is it sufficient, as in this research, to simply clone the object and destroy the original?

    What about live matter? Does the destructive process kill the live matter? If it's a person, does one need to record the death?

    Is the Star Trek universe full of clones whose previous iterations back to the original are long dead?

    1. Re:Teleporter Discussion! by captjc · · Score: 1

      Is the Star Trek universe full of clones whose previous iterations back to the original are long dead?

      No. This was actually addressed in a hand-waving sort of way in an episode of Enterprise where the inventor of the transporter said that that particular metaphysical argument was poppycock.

      --
      Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
  30. One Of A Kind Art by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Luckily I hacked the data stream and printed cheap knockoffs from my secret lab in Antarctica ...

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  31. Wouldn't actually prevent 1:N copying. by Hobadee · · Score: 1

    While this is a nifty "copyright" idea that I'm sure producers will jump all over, it doesn't actually enforce 1:1 copies or prevent 1:n copies. At the most basic level, I can setup 2x 3D printers side by side and link them to the same servo controller, giving me a 1:2 copy every time and bypassing any encryption or other form of DRM. I could also probably put a recorder on the servo controller output and play it back later, again bypassing encryption or DRM.

    In theory I could then take the 2nd copy and put it in the "scanner" and repeat infinitely. (Although I'm sure the resolution would degrade rather quickly in practice)

    It is going to be *EXTREMELY* difficult (I would venture to say impossible) to come up with an effective DRM for 3D printing, especially in the near future.

    --
    ...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
    1. Re:Wouldn't actually prevent 1:N copying. by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. DRM is an attempt to change a very fundamental physical fact in this universe, namely that data can be copied. It will never be perfect and always a problem for those subjected to this travesty.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  32. Yes, a key by Rashdot · · Score: 1

    You could teleport the key of his jail cell to an inmate, destroying the evidence that you stole it in the process.

    --
    This is not the sig you're looking for.
  33. I can just see it now ... by ubrgeek · · Score: 2

    Spock: Captain, I'm receiving an odd error message from the 3D printer transporter ...
    Kirk: What's the error message say?
    Spoke: It says, 'PC load letter.'
    Kirk: PC load letter! What the fuck does that mean???

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
    1. Re:I can just see it now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently in the future space people will be using rubbish paper sizes.

    2. Re: I can just see it now ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol

  34. What show or movie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What was the television show or movie that had this as the plot twist?

    The far off space base that can only be reached by teleportation, but the character was actually copied. Then the mistake happened and a copy was made and the original wasn't destroyed. Now two of the exact same person, but some crap about only one can have a soul or something.

    It was on cable at some point, or Netflix?

  35. No by kuzb · · Score: 1

    This is not teleporting, any more than getting a hard copy of your word document out of the laser printer is teleporting. Teleportation of physical objects implies that something is deconstructed on one end, and then reconstructed in the same state as when it left using the same matter.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  36. Fax machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I can think of an application where I would need these capabilities. I use it every day.

    1. Re:Fax machine by Triklyn · · Score: 1

      really? faxing is pretty rare these days.

  37. There's only one case where this is useful: by NicBenjamin · · Score: 1

    Where there's no way to get important data on how the object is put together without destroying it. Which is somewhat believable if you're talking about living material, which would actually have to be reproduced at the molecule-level, including velocity of all molecules, electric forces, etc.to create a living copy. It's becoming more believable about electronics. It's hard to see how you could copy something with a 14 nanometre resolution that with a non-destructive external scan.

    But even this process wouldn't be moving the damn thing. After all there's no reason you couldn't create two copies of the destroyed object.

  38. Recycling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't Destructive Scanning a potential form of recycling? Depending on the method and material, this would permit a number of potential uses with an almost closed circuit of material which could provide a quasi-endless supply of projects!

    Imagine kids who can't go out and play, taking turns at building something using their imagination.
    Imagine art school students in a MOOC working on a project from various locations.
    Imagine artists on other sides of the world, building and refining a prototype for a new revolutionary project.
    Imagine a game where the object is to remove certain parts of the object before it collapses under the weight of an object.
    Imagine communication with other colonies in space where you would need to work on a project that would require trial and error.

    There are a lot of potential applications for a concept that a lot us have gotten a chance to know when were kids.

    (Should any of the above ever be used to generate(print?:) some kind of project, business or end result, give me a shout someday and let me know Billylabsatlivedotcom)

    -B

  39. Attempt to change physical reality by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Physical reality is that data can be copied without changing the original. This project attempts to change that by only giving people access to a certain aspect of reality through an access layer. This is hence DRM ported to the physical world and just as despicable.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  40. One of the dumbest stunts in human history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First, IT DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE ANYTHING EVEN RELATED TO "TELEPORTATION". Sorry for shouting, BUT I detest these phony "let's confuse the general public with phony sensational clickbait claims" headlines. In actual Teleportation the original thing arrives at it's destination. In THIS, the original is destroyed and something new is created at the destination with matter and energy that already were at the "destination".

    Second, this is just plain stupidly wasteful of time, matter, AND energy (a full home run of wastefulness). You start with an original at the origin, then you use energy and material at the destination to make a copy, then you (when you have two items) you waste time, energy and material destroying the original... something so patently insane I would have thought only a vacuous fool like Nancy Pelosi or an MSNBC host could come up with it.

    Third, When is is claimed that destroying the original is a good thing because it makes sure only one of the thing that was faux-teleported exists (thereby protecting things like intellectual property) ioverlooks two facts of the digital age: [1] two will HAVE to exist simultaneously for at least a short time (so that proper reception and duplication can be verified before the "original is destroyed) and [2] NOTHING once converted to ones and zeroes can ever be said to be truly secure and under control. Destoying the original is no guarantee that another machine has not listened-in on the data transfer and made its own copy.

    The ENTIRE POINT of "teleportation" is to move an object from point A to point B. If there is an ability to make a copy at point B and a copy will do the job of the original, then you do not need "teleportation" at all, you need telecopying (which has already been demonstrated in full reality by many people including by NASA and the crew of the ISS, equipped with a 3D printer, solar power, and spools of filament)

    1. Re:One of the dumbest stunts in human history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS ARE ALREADY POSSESSIVE AND DON'T NEED AN APOSTROPHE. I'm not sorry for shouting, BUT this is grade-school level information.

      Second, it's means IT IS.

  41. Can't you do this with a Makerbot Digitizer, by jpellino · · Score: 1

    Replicator2 and a hammer?

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  42. shredder fax by millette · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is attaching a FAX to a paper shredder considered prior art?

  43. Not quite right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't upload consciousness any more than you upload movement. You can upload data, which is that of which consciousness is aware.

    If you upload every piece of data that defines your brain, you might think of it as uploading your consciousness, but that is a sloppy misunderstanding of what consciousness is (unless, of course, you believe in ghosts).

    1. Re:Not quite right by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      I guess you don't believe in emergent behavior.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  44. What was it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    About the original... parts... fixing... google, google, google...ah, yes!

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

  45. Of course, by WhodoVoodoo · · Score: 1

    will it work on a suitcase of drugs?

  46. Ass Backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First they teleport me ass backwards, then they destroy the only good copy and now I have to watch my ass the rest of my life!

  47. Star Trek vs. The Prestige by ryan.onsrc · · Score: 1

    Somehow, I think transporters where Picard has to shoot his other self twice, after each away mission (first, when he returns back to the ship, and then secondly from orbit -- or only the later if he wants to be a lazy ass) would sorta ruin the whole utopian vibe.

    Of course, there was that episode with two Rikers but at least things didn't turn out as violent as they did in The Prestige.

  48. Western Union already does this,,, by barfy · · Score: 1

    It's called wiring money.

  49. Two times two times by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Teleportation only works if there are two different time states such as present future, past future, present past. There is are only conceptual and there is only a present, that was the past, will become the future, mostly due to the theory of relativity, so time travel does occur, only in the present (or daydreams)

  50. It only works when it isn't by clovis · · Score: 2

    This thing only duplicates items that were originally made by a 3D printer that uses that same material.
    That is to say, I don't want a teleported camshaft that is printed with a 3D printer that uses chocolate for the printing material.
    Well actually I do want that, but I would not put it in an engine.

    Nor do I see how something made of materials that aren't available as 3D printer matrix materials could be teleported.

    1. Re:It only works when it isn't by phorm · · Score: 1

      I don't want a teleported camshaft that is printed with a 3D printer that uses chocolate for the printing material.

      Actually, printing real-world stuff in chocolate via 3d scanning+printing would be *awesome*,and would probably have a decent market. Those scale model cars that you can buy; print those, in chocolate. You can eat your way through the car and see all the intricate parts as you do so.

      Get yourself printed...in chocolate. Then eat yourself. Or take a bite outta the boss!

      Lots of fun applications there.

  51. Replacing a murder weapon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just saying...

  52. Well no body wants that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    3d printing has the potential to free us as a society from the constraints of materialism.
    MY GOD!. nobody wants that.

  53. Except they already have this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They could already so SORT of do this, just only with very small thing (eg atoms, molecules and photons), so I don't see this as that exciting, just the next step on the way.

  54. Outer Limits Already Covered This by daveywest · · Score: 1

    Watch the 2001 episode of The Outer Limits, "Think Like a Dinosaur," if you want to know where this path leads. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

  55. Maybe... by mongothesecond · · Score: 1

    This might be useful for fitted goods, like body armor. Take measurements of a soldier while they are in basic, get the armor prototype finished before they deploy, and then encode/ship the armor. The fact that the encoding process is destructive is of no matter. When the soldier gets to his/her deployment, print off their gear, or the pieces that can be assembled into the gear. If they need any replacements, just keep shipping the printing materials out. The logistic details of shipping square blocks of material around is probably far easier than shipping individual goods.

  56. Your grammar NAZI license is hereby revoked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "let's", in this context, is obviously a CONTRACTION of "let us" (it HAS to be in order for the text in the quotes of the earlier post to be a sentance as it was clearly intended), and hence the apostrophe is proper.

    In some other context, you might have thought "lets" as in: "allows" (NOT a contraction) was what was intended and THEN you would be correct that the apostrophe would be incorrect. You are hereby downgraded to grammar hall monitor.

  57. Lois Griffin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What I want it for is to have a digital 3D copy of Lois Griffin.
    giggity giggity