Does it hurt to be transported?
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
If they do, it is all the result of tactual hallucinations and possible psychogenic hysteria - ask Barclay. Actually, I will save you the trouble:
I suddenly find myself thinking about a certain scene in Spaceballs.
Well, Comanderette Zircon said that Snotty had "beamed" her twice, and it was wonderful. So obviously, beaming doesn't hurt.
Even if your head comes out backwards (now that I think about it, didn't that also happen to C-3PO?).
TOS transporter probably felt like an out of body experience; maybe the moment we fall asleep.
Someone advanced the theory that every transportee experienced oblivion/nothing/death.
It's just that an identical copy of the person, with all of the memories and personality was recreated at the target point. So nobody -- including the spankin'-new transported one -- suspected anything so unpleasant.
Just keep that in mind for every transport in all of Trek. It puts a new light on it.
It's just that an identical copy of the person, with all of the memories and personality was recreated at the target point. So nobody -- including the spankin'-new transported one -- suspected anything so unpleasant.
Just keep that in mind for every transport in all of Trek. It puts a new light on it.
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However, that means that death would be routinely reversible for anyone whose pattern is memorized. Marla Aster steps on a mine? Tasha Yar gets zapped by Armus? Ensign Joe Blow gets diced into cubes? Dematerialize the corpse, use the old pattern to rematerialize it. Marla goes home that night with Jeremy unaware that he was an orphan for two minutes, Tasha is around to convince her baby sister to choose a better life, and Ens. Blow might actually live to make LTJG.
It would be an interesting idea though.
Suppose being transported was enduring agonizing pain, hurting like hell, but only for those few seconds the transport lasts. After those 5-10 seconds, you're fine. How much would transporters be used then, given that they're supposedly the safest and most efficient means of transport by far?
Suppose being transported was enduring agonizing pain, hurting like hell, but only for those few seconds the transport lasts. After those 5-10 seconds, you're fine. How much would transporters be used then, given that they're supposedly the safest and most efficient means of transport by far?
And both TWOK and the Abrams movies have shown people continuing to have conversations (no idea how that works, guess they transport the atmosphere between the conversants as well) or finishing up some activity while in the middle of being beamed, and it would seem like any kind of major stimuli would get in the way of that.
The whole standing still during the beaming could also be seen as some future mannerism or decorum. Maybe its rude to be finishing a conversation rudely or trying trying to fart before leaving where you came from and getting caught half-way done before you arrive, so people generally just stand still as best they can.
I imagine people would learn special breathing techniques, or take some kind of painkiller. Unless of course any pain is quickly forgotten.
Which would be interesting: after years of transport accompanied by intense pain, followed by promptly forgetting it, all that repressed, built-up pain returns with a vengeance and torments people. Sort of the transporter version of "Force of Nature" (the "warp drive is ripping space" episode), after which it is completely ignored and dismissed.
Which would be interesting: after years of transport accompanied by intense pain, followed by promptly forgetting it, all that repressed, built-up pain returns with a vengeance and torments people. Sort of the transporter version of "Force of Nature" (the "warp drive is ripping space" episode), after which it is completely ignored and dismissed.
It's absolutely agonising but is accompanied by a few seconds memory loss...
I've once read that theory about anesthetics. That they don't actually dull your pain during an operation, but simply block your memories about the pain.
A terrifying thought but I don't buy it, given that there are also local anesthetics that leave the memories intact.
