Cool stuff.
Beaming people in “Star Trek” fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality.
Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split second.
But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter.
“It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium,” Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday.
The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended further.
The only question I have is the one that Bones asked from the very beginning: what happens to your soul when your body is teleported?
The greatest Canadian who ever lived, William Shatner, predicted this in “I’m Working on That,” give it a read as it is rather intresting and comical.
I like Shatner, he is smart enough not to take himself seriously and just have a ball.
Neurobiology covers it all, Bones.
What happens to your soul? It’s held in the pattern buffer and is only rejoined when you return. Think of it as the future of biometrics.
Yea I think the pattern buffer and the Heisenberg compensator will take care of that minor detail. That is unless Quark is manning the ops station. By the way Terry nice use of pattern buffer, I’m glad to see Star Trek science is somewhat well known.
4,
That’s the problem. I don’t know the nature of a soul either, but I know there’s some kind of spark in there.
it will be an interesting, if not startling, find if we do succeed in teleporting a living human, related to the question of the soul….
are we talking astral or etheral?
Teleporting humans isn’t what excites me about this technology. I have my doubts that living matter will be so easily manipulated. Yet what is clearly in sight now is the ability to communicate over vast distances without delay.
Currently, we must wait multiple minutes, hours, days, and weeks to communicate with space probes in various parts of the Solar System. If I recall, communication with the Mars rovers takes something like 8-10 minutes. This makes human exploration tricky, as extensive ‘tech support’ from Earth is necessary even for LEO shuttle flights. With quantum entanglement of photons and – now – matter, the very real possibilty exists that such support would be available for the most distant intra-solar missions. Not to mention the ability to communicate with friends & loved ones (and even medical doctors & psychologists) in ‘real time’ – I’m sure that will help the explorers endure the prolonged periods of isolation.
When you also consider things like value of a standard time signal, beacons perhaps acting as ‘lighthouses’ along the Lagrange points throughout space, and probably dozens of other needs for regular passage throughout the solar system … it becomes very exciting to think of the ramifications.
Obviously more work needs to be done, especially in extending the distance that such teleportation of information works. But if one assumes that such things can be worked out, this could be the single most important breakthrough in getting us off the planet.
Ah, the legendary ansible is coming within reach! Imagine, during your off hours exploring the asteroid belt for minerals, being able to watch a quantum-entangled episode of Will and Grace or Old Christine. The mind reels. And reels. And reels.
I was told the soul is in the same place as the excitement in a motorcycle
what happens to your soul when your body is teleported?
Or, what if the ‘original’ is not actually moved, but copied?
The Saga of Cuckoo (Farthest Star/Wall Around A Star) by Fred Pohl and Jack Williamson.
J/P=?
7. My dog too?
RBG
Goofy question of the day:
Would you be concerned if teleportation involved sending an exact copy of yourself and then vaporizing the original?
RBG
#14: If all my memories were in the copy, then it would be fine with me.
Goofy follow-up for the day:
Wait a minute. Sounds like you’d have no problem doing a suicide bombing knowing 19 virgins were waiting for you on the other side.
And if that doesn’t stick, how about this:
I’ll bet the original you might have something to say about that just before lights out. Like: “wait a minute – I just had a better idea.”
RBG
And the best part is: No light sabers whatsoever 😉
well I am going to let my geek side show on this one. The teleportation in startek involves a theoretical process in wich subspace tunneling is used and your body is converted to pure energy with no loss, teleported through subspace then converted from the energy state to the matter state with no energy loss, so in actuality you are simply phased and broadcast and un phased meaning you are still you and your spirit is still with you because all matter is simply solidified energy
ouch now my head hurts
Live long and prosper Pmitchell.
“Single atoms,” should be stressed, the human body has astronomical number of atoms. For example: someone weighing 154 lbs. (70 kg), on average has approx. 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. Which presents the problem of where you’d store the information (which would be a number just as astronomical). There’s also the problem of putting each atom in the the back in the right place, which is nearly impossible.
Objects made up of very few atoms are much easier.