Is Teleportation Possible? The Reality

So, I am sitting on my home and writing about this fictional technology of a strawberry world, which is Teleportation.

So, if you don't know what Teleportation exactly means, here's a very quick and simple explanation. Teleportation means to transfer a matter from a location to a remote location, instantaneously, without traveling through interstitial space.

The Possibilities

Teleportation has been depicted in popular media through three general forms: psychically, magically, and technologically. The first and second methods are inexplicable because the first involves a mental ability to transport matter, the second uses mystical forces so we are left with one option that is technologically or scientifically. So, what does Science say about Teleportation? That's what we are going to discuss in today's article. Let's go deeper.

Science of Teleportation

The current science is looking into the very real possibility of transmitting data faster than the speed of light, through quantum entanglement. The theory is that two quantum entangled particles change states at the same point in time, regardless of distance, which should not be possible under conventional physics, as a signal between them should not travel faster than the speed of light. This means that there is either a form of energy that travels faster than light, or entangled particles have a connection that is not exchanging energy, but communicating in another manner.

Keep in mind that this is for transferring data only, not transmitting energy or matter, which is what teleportation would require. So, unless we fully understand the means of quantum communication and discover a way to use it to transmit energy and matter, teleportation is not likely in this manner.

Theoretically, if we can fully understand this phenomenon, and scale it up from the atomic level, then there's the possibility that we can be in two places simultaneously, and control which position remains after transfer. But as of now, that potential is both remote and highly questionable. For practical purposes, this technology is being investigated for computing and transfer of data, not large quantities of matter.

Remember, just because we can transmit data or energy over large distances quickly, doesn't mean we can do the same thing with the matter. It is risky. And it brings us into a world of Science Fiction.

But, is it all just a Science Fiction? Isn't Teleportation not possible at all? If you're confused then these facts might surprise you.

Real Facts about Teleportation

1. Teleportation by ANY definition has been done only on the micro-level as an experiment. This is as far as we are likely to get.

2. There seems to be no technical barrier to someday "teleporting" small lumps of some inanimate material -- or even shaped objects -- short distances at vast cost. But why bother?

3. The process would surely always be more expensive than conventional transportation. Even the highest levels of technological civilization will be constrained by cost-benefit calculations. Humans will not do everything that can be done, because they prefer to expend resources on the fun.

4. Teleportation -- as now imagined -- doesn't actually move anything. It converts matter-information to EM-information, sends the EM somewhere (no faster than light speed, let us recall), and uses the data to replicate the original from energy or matter found at the destination. What is gained? This seems useful only if you have precious information encoded in a physical object -- detailed artifacts for study, a new invention, etc. -- and you need to send that information faster than your starships can go. But how often will a physical incarnation of information be so vital?

5. As for teleporting people, it would take days or weeks to scan a human body down to the quantum level, even with the luminal speed in the scanning gear. The term for undergoing this process is "getting vivisected." The nervous system is slowly reconstructed at the receiving end might or might not suffer from this, but the sending end -- well, you volunteer. NOT ME.

6. Several respondents have rightly raised the issue of "identity." This is a vastly hard question that we do not understand and would be foolish to trifle with. Star Fleet may be delighted with the perfect replica it teleports on a mission, and the replica may feel that he/she has the identity of the original. But that doesn't prove the original identity may not still be there, locked in the disintegrating original, screaming in physical and psychic pain, and wishing he had chosen a different career.

The End Notes

That's all in this article. I hope you liked it. Please comment your views below. It will really appreciate us a lot. And if you have some more views on this topic. You can publish them easily on the Research Forum-It's free and will be forever. I am also writing more on a Science-Fiction perspective of Teleportation in Research Forum, you can join me there.

Cheers!