first Transporter

[RobertScorpio]

My friend and I were debating whether or not there will ever be transporters..and then we got to the discussion as to when teleportation, via a mechanical way, was ever mentioned in scifi...was it in books first? Or TV or movies? I honestly don't know...but does anyone know the first time teleportation tech was first elluded to???

Rob

 

[sojourner]

Not sure about who was first, but Niven has several short stories that pre-date Trek. I would definitely say that it appeared in written form before all else, as goes with most sci-fi.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Not sure about who was first, but Niven has several short stories that pre-date Trek. I would definitely say that it appeared in written form before all else, as goes with most sci-fi.

There's always a wiki

1877 for print - The Man Without A Body

1939 for film/TV - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

concept came into sc-fi vogue in the 40s

 

[Zachary Smith]

HEEellllp MeeEEeeeeEEEee!

 

[FinalFrontier]

Written, seeing as film hasn't been around all that long.

And I don't think there ever will be transporters. As explained in the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, it is impossible to measure simultaneously both position and velocity of a microscopic particle with any degree of accuracy or certainty. A computer would never be able to isolate every atom and subatomic particle and remember where it was and what state, direction, velocity it had in order to take it apart and put it back together somewhere else.

 

[skep155]

It will never happen, and even if it did you wouldn't get me stepping into one. Im personally of the opinion that the second all your molecules are taken apart your dead ad the reassembled person is not the original you. They'll think they are you, but they wont be.

 

[Joshua Howard]

Running the risk of coming across as sacreligious (which I am not aiming to be) the first popularized instance of teleportation is actually the Biblical account of Jesus (though I admit, whether he used mechanical means or not is debatable.)

He is documented, according to religious text, as having been in one location, after which point he disappeared and rematerialized elsewhere. According to the Bible He also, apparently, was able to modify his molecular structure in a way that permitted him to move through a wall.

In any case, I am not aiming to derail the thread. The thought of this just occurred to me as providing an interesting parallel.

 

[Australis]

I don't think we'll see people tyransported. I think pretty much along the same lines as they did in s1 of ENT (sorry to bring it up) - that any kind of inanimate item can be transported, but noit people. Seriously, what happens to who you are? Is what arrives at the toehr end a copy? Yes, it's made of the same atoms, but they've been disassembled and reassembled, with the software readded and rebooted, if you see what I mean. You won't feel any diferent, but in a way the old you will have evaporated to be preplaced by the reconstituted you 2.0.

So I'm with McCoy (as seen in TMP) on that one.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

One atom of C12 is fundamentally the same as any other atom of C12. "You" are just the meme that "you" think "you" are. Believe "you" are the same "you", and "you" are.

 

[Ronald Held]

Never is a long time, and we do not know everything needed to definitive say, "yes' or "no".

 

[Zachary Smith]

I'm thinking that the only way I'd ever consider teleportation is if, when the duplicate "me" is manifested at the destination, the original "me" and the duplicate are linked in some perhaps quantum fashion and I have the AWARENESS of being in two places simultaneously. Then and ONLY PERHAPS then, would I consider allowing the original "me" to be dismantled. I want to know where the ESSENTIAL "me" is--the consciousness that I am presently aware of, before I'd allow "me" to be disintegrated (though my disintegration might please any number of my detractors).

 

[Tom Riley]

I don't think we'll see people tyransported. I think pretty much along the same lines as they did in s1 of ENT (sorry to bring it up) - that any kind of inanimate item can be transported, but noit people. Seriously, what happens to who you are? Is what arrives at the toehr end a copy? Yes, it's made of the same atoms, but they've been disassembled and reassembled, with the software readded and rebooted, if you see what I mean. You won't feel any diferent, but in a way the old you will have evaporated to be preplaced by the reconstituted you 2.0.

So I'm with McCoy (as seen in TMP) on that one.

The only flaw with that explanation is this... think of a computer... you can take it apart and put it back together somewhere else and it is the exact same computer with the exact same programming and the exact same files in it's memory. A human would be the same. all of your thoughts and memories are physically there inside your head in the form of chemicals and electric signals and pulses. If a transporter did take every molecule, atom, subatomic particle and put those exact ones back together after sending them somewhere else, it WOULD be you. There is nothing inside of you that is made of anything other than matter and energy, and if a transporter took all your matter and energy and converted it to energy and sent it somewhere and converted it back into that same matter and energy, then every bit of you will be there.

However, I am with FinalFrontier on this, the Heisenburg Uncertainly Principle says it can't happen.

 

[Australis]

I stil think I'm right. In the last week I have taken my PC to bits restored it, rebooted it. It's the same biox, the same software, but... it's still different, behaves differently in little ways, some for better, some for worse.

Anyway, I don't tink it'll be an issue in the foreseeble future. And If I go to the stars, I'd prefer a solid dck beneath me

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I'd prefer replication to teleportation. That way I know that the me who is me, stays me. All the other mes can go explore, while I can stay home and live off their wages.

 

[STR]

The only flaw with that explanation is this... think of a computer... you can take it apart and put it back together somewhere else and it is the exact same computer with the exact same programming and the exact same files in it's memory.

A conventional computer can be reassembled without issue, regardless of how far down you tear it apart. The kind of forces and structures one would deal with are vastly smaller than even a transistor. While not yet demonstrated (since one doesn't exist), a quantum computer would not be able to be taken apart component by component, rebuilt, and function completely the same. Heisenberg bites again.

A moot point, as we'll all be long dead and forgotten long before humanity utilizes a transporter. Even when humanity does, a rarified few will get the pleasure. The amount of energy needed to pull one body apart and another together eclipses the yield of several nuclear weapons.

 

[Saturn0660]

Didn't some lab transport one photon of light a few years back? A step in the right direction?

 

[Mr. B]

I can see inanimate objects being 'beamed' someday... but a human brain with neurons firing coming out alive on the other side, pretty hard to imagine.

Of course on Star Trek you slap in the "Heisenberg Compensator" and everything is hunky dory.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I can see inanimate objects being 'beamed' someday... but a human brain with neurons firing coming out alive on the other side, pretty hard to imagine.

Of course on Star Trek you slap in the "Heisenberg Compensator" and everything is hunky dory.

Thats right..and dont you forget it!!!

i think the transporter will be inter-dimensional travel guised as a transporter. Kind of like sliders

Rob

 

[Tom Riley]

I stil think I'm right. In the last week I have taken my PC to bits restored it, rebooted it. It's the same biox, the same software, but... it's still different, behaves differently in little ways, some for better, some for worse.

My dad builds computers as a hobby. He tought me by having me take my computer apart and put it back together, it was exactly the same afterwards... Now, you erase the hard drive and re install it and yes, it will work slightly differently. However, like I said, the way the transporter supposedly works, it wouldn't be erasing your memories or your mind at all. It would still all be there.

The only flaw with that explanation is this... think of a computer... you can take it apart and put it back together somewhere else and it is the exact same computer with the exact same programming and the exact same files in it's memory.

A conventional computer can be reassembled without issue, regardless of how far down you tear it apart. The kind of forces and structures one would deal with are vastly smaller than even a transistor. While not yet demonstrated (since one doesn't exist), a quantum computer would not be able to be taken apart component by component, rebuilt, and function completely the same. Heisenberg bites again.

Also why I said

However, I am with FinalFrontier on this, the Heisenburg Uncertainly Principle says it can't happen.

I was arguing Devil's Advocate.

 

[Meredith]

I like the digital conveyor...