Teleporting Information

**zoobernut** · 2009-01-29 14:26

Teleportation Is Real – But Don't Try It at Home - TIME

This was a somewhat interesting read after the whole invisibility cloak discussion (which is even mentioned in the article.)

I thought some of the more hardcore physics nuts around here could pick this apart a little bit more. I am sad there will be no human teleporting though

**Dimmauk** · 2009-01-29 14:40

Originally Posted by zoobernut

Teleportation Is Real – But Don't Try It at Home - TIME

This was a somewhat interesting read after the whole invisibility cloak discussion (which is even mentioned in the article.)

I thought some of the more hardcore physics nuts around here could pick this apart a little bit more. I am sad there will be no human teleporting though

Jeff Goldblum disagrees.

**Max™** · 2009-01-29 14:44

Eh... it's a LONG ways off, but you could store an amount of energy equivalent to the mass of a human, and conceivably "write" the information representing you onto atoms at anew location...

You'd probably have to destroy your original self beforehand though, as recording the information would, by definition, alter all of the states it was recording... the best way to do that would likely seem rather destructive to something as squishy as we are.

So then it becomes a question of, if you were completely destroyed, and an exact copy of you was created right down to the positions of the electrons in your molecules relative to one another, but two feet to the left... would you be you still? Would you remember the recording process?

Would you be aware of the information transfer?

Would there be anyone at home inside your head?

We'll need orders of magnitude more powerful computing than we have now, and a much better understanding of how the Universe works (a theory of everything would be a key part of doing this right), but it shouldn't be impossible.

Just difficult, and you are still limited by the transition time from sender to receiver... as far as we can tell.

**Rhinox** · 2009-01-29 14:48

even if it was possible the US would be one of the last countries to legalize it because of the evangelicals. hi2u human cloning.

**Dimmauk** · 2009-01-29 14:50

Originally Posted by Rhinox

even if it was possible the US would be one of the last countries to legalize it because of the evangelicals. hi2u human cloning.

They have no power now.

**Max™** · 2009-01-29 14:52

Shit, it brings up worse issues than just cloning.

Murder?

Suicide?

As far as I can tell, you'd literally have to walk into as close to a disintegration beam as we could make, have all the information about your quantum states recorded as it's destroyed, and then be un-disintegrated on the other end.

SUICIDE CLONES!

That's a pretty emo band name if I ever heard one.

**zoobernut** · 2009-01-29 14:53

I thought the prospect of a pile of informationless atom goo was pretty funny. I wonder what it would look like.

**Max™** · 2009-01-29 14:55

A block of chalky clay?

**Dimmauk** · 2009-01-29 15:00

Originally Posted by zoobernut

I thought the prospect of a pile of informationless atom goo was pretty funny. I wonder what it would look like.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/...215b923c09.jpg

**zoobernut** · 2009-01-29 15:01

Hmmm Bacon Mat... Quick someone post that recipe in the recipe thread!

**Dezzimal** · 2009-01-29 15:04

There is a better article on what went down at that experiment:

Teleportation Milestone Achieved | LiveScience

Basically their system has 90% packet loss right now.

**0ni0n** · 2009-01-29 15:13

Originally Posted by Dezzimal

There is a better article on what went down at that experiment:

Teleportation Milestone Achieved | LiveScience

Basically their system has 90% packet loss right now.

Hah, 90% packet loss is hardly acceptable, but cool stuff nevertheless.

**Zhais** · 2009-01-29 15:16

Originally Posted by Dezzimal

There is a better article on what went down at that experiment:

Teleportation Milestone Achieved | LiveScience

Basically their system has 90% packet loss right now.

I think you misread?

In the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science, the scientists report that, by using their protocol, atom-to-atom teleported information can be recovered with perfect accuracy about 90 percent of the time — and that figure can be improved.

so 10% packet loss

**alt** · 2009-01-29 15:23

Originally Posted by Max™

Shit, it brings up worse issues than just cloning.

Murder?

Suicide?

As far as I can tell, you'd literally have to walk into as close to a disintegration beam as we could make, have all the information about your quantum states recorded as it's destroyed, and then be un-disintegrated on the other end.

SUICIDE CLONES!

That's a pretty emo band name if I ever heard one.

I wouldn't want to be the first to try it...

Maybe take a dog who's personality you know really well, then try teleporting him to see if it still acts like the same dog when he un-disintegrates.

**Dezzimal** · 2009-01-29 15:40

Originally Posted by Zhais

I think you misread?
so 10% packet loss

for each pair of photons, four color combinations are possible — blue-blue, red-red, blue-red and red-blue — as well as one of two polarizations: horizontal or vertical. In nearly all of those variations, the photons either cancel each other out or both end up in the same detector. But there is one — and only one — combination in which both detectors will record a photon at exactly the same time.

The article doesn't say which combination is needed, but we can say that its 1 out of 8. That is a 12.5% chance, coupled with a 10% failure rate on reading we then see a 11.25% chance for successful transmit.

Gotta read the whole article to get that and not just the part where it looks like you get to contradict me

**thebearofscience** · 2009-01-29 15:47

if you teleport yourself, would the old material of your body be destroyed, then new material would be brought together? so as said earlier you're killing yourself but have the same memories and mindset.

but what if you don't have the same conscience? would it be 'kept' with the old material? so if you believe in heaven you just have a shit load of versions of yourself just looking down thinking "what the fuck", watching the new you just walk around and shit?

**Zhais** · 2009-01-29 15:53

Originally Posted by Dezzimal

The article doesn't say which combination is needed, but we can say that its 1 out of 8. That is a 12.5% chance, coupled with a 10% failure rate on reading we then see a 11.25% chance for successful transmit.

Gotta read the whole article to get that and not just the part where it looks like you get to contradict me

oh fine then >

**Cow_k** · 2009-01-29 15:54

That's assuming that we can create something with a 'soul' of sorts. As stated by Max, we might be able to create a complete replica of a person (Assuming you're destroying and recreating), but would it actually be alive? We haven't really made a human from spare parts and ever made it dance around on it's own as far as we all know.