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The Star Trek teleporter problem.
a year ago
I'm sure we're all familiar with the Star Trek teleporters by now. They scan you, turn you into energy, beam that energy somewhere else, then rebuild that energy into you.
I'm pretty sure we're all also familiar with the arguments that the teleported person is no longer "you". It's a copy of you, and the original has been destroyed.
Is that right, though? One of the main points in the argument is that you're turned into energy, so you must be dead. But consider fantasy for a moment, and look at people being turned to stone. Be it by curse or the gaze of some monster, people can be turned to stone. Later, magic (or sometimes slaying the monster) can change them back to flesh and blood. Nobody questions that it's still "them", because what they got turned into is easy to see and track. But if you turned someone to stone, shipped the stone form across the country, then changed them back? That's a crappy teleport, but it's still basically how the Star Trek teleporters work. Right? The stone form isn't alive or dead, it's in stasis because stone doesn't live or die. The same holds true for energy. You're not "torn apart" when you're converted, you're just converted back and forth.
The other problem is that the teleporters in Star Trek have been known to copy people. The implications of that are creepy, but again I don't think that means that the person dies during transit. Being able to make a clone of someone doesn't actually affect the original, no matter if it's done by cloning or powerful magic that just wishes them into existence. The Star Trek teleporters can make a copy by scanning in the original while transporting them, then using that information to shape more energy into the correct patterns. Someone turned into stone could be copied, though, with a new one carved from matching stone, then turned to flesh with magic. Creepy, but with the right magic, totally acceptable without "killing" the original.
Anyway, that's just a thought that's been bugging me lately. It's late, and I should be getting to sleep a few hours ago.
I'm pretty sure we're all also familiar with the arguments that the teleported person is no longer "you". It's a copy of you, and the original has been destroyed.
Is that right, though? One of the main points in the argument is that you're turned into energy, so you must be dead. But consider fantasy for a moment, and look at people being turned to stone. Be it by curse or the gaze of some monster, people can be turned to stone. Later, magic (or sometimes slaying the monster) can change them back to flesh and blood. Nobody questions that it's still "them", because what they got turned into is easy to see and track. But if you turned someone to stone, shipped the stone form across the country, then changed them back? That's a crappy teleport, but it's still basically how the Star Trek teleporters work. Right? The stone form isn't alive or dead, it's in stasis because stone doesn't live or die. The same holds true for energy. You're not "torn apart" when you're converted, you're just converted back and forth.
The other problem is that the teleporters in Star Trek have been known to copy people. The implications of that are creepy, but again I don't think that means that the person dies during transit. Being able to make a clone of someone doesn't actually affect the original, no matter if it's done by cloning or powerful magic that just wishes them into existence. The Star Trek teleporters can make a copy by scanning in the original while transporting them, then using that information to shape more energy into the correct patterns. Someone turned into stone could be copied, though, with a new one carved from matching stone, then turned to flesh with magic. Creepy, but with the right magic, totally acceptable without "killing" the original.
Anyway, that's just a thought that's been bugging me lately. It's late, and I should be getting to sleep a few hours ago.
The Physics of Star Trek goes quite in depth on this problem, particularly how the transporter works in contradictary ways depending on plot demands.
