could teleportation and transporters like the one shown in the film Star Trek be possible?

Answer 1

Sure... didn't you see ***** Wonka transport that Chocolate bar?

Seriously, could you transport an inanimate object? I think someday we might be able to figure that out.

Can we "transport" a biological life form? I doubt it. After all, aren't our experiences and memories more than just gray matter? How do you transport a soul? Or would the soul "find" the body if it were relocated? Pretty deep stuff!

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible at the level of sub-atomic particles. See recent articles in New Scientist magazine listed in the Sources section below.

But a more interesting question is: If it were possible for a whole human being to be teleported in this way, would you step into the machine?
Think about the process in a bit more detail. There are actually 2 distinct steps. First, you use quantum entanglement in some clever way to re-create a copy of you at your destination. Then, presumably once you have checked that the copy has been created safely, you have to destroy the original - otherwise it isn't a teleportation machine but a copying machine.
Would you be happy to be obliterated, once the confirmation signal had come through that "you" had arrived safely at the other end?

Answer 3

This is an age old ambition of quantum physicists. Great minds are working on it. Very small (atomic or subatomic ) particles have been teleported. The physics involved requires an Einsteinian mindset. I am not a physicist or engineer, but I read a lot. I also read a lot of good science fiction. I personally believe it is certainly possible though it will take a long time. However, keep in mind, growth of knowledge can be exponential. Sometimes a small discovery in an entirely unrelated field leads to tremendous advances in other fields of science. The research is expensive and is mostly done by government research labs and a few private labs. Probably not in our generation, but I hope our children will be able to see this miracle of science. You never know what can happen. As Sir Arthur C.Clarke wrote, a sufficiently advanced technology is like magic to someone who has not been exposed to it. Maybe an advanced civilization will teach us a few things! Just imagine, if you could take a DVD player to the medieval times, they will probably brand you as a witch/warlock and lynch you. I am comvinced it will happen, but it may be several decades before it may become feasible.

Answer 4

Probably not. To be optimistic it is possible in the far future but still dangerous. At best it is possible to use teleportation and transporters on inanimate objects.

If you look at the principle of a teleportation devised that people are assuming your molecular structure and DNA is analyzed. The copy send to the destination site. You are then broken down and rebuilt to the destination. Its like killing and cloning you.

How does one justify if your dead or the one in the destination isn't a clone. How can one say teleportation is safe when the mere fact that the person is desintegrated and replicated.

What guarantees experience and memory, DNA are replicated untouched. In case of a breakdown or communication lost what happens then. Let's say the original information is the original site. Who guarantees that it is not deleted if so many are transported. And in case its there how many errors are tolerated to recreate you to the destination. How messy could that be eyes and other body parts scattered.

What's stopping a person from trying to be immortal. After all, all that's needed is update your memory and knowledge. Keep the structural and DNA information of ur ideal age. And you can recreate the younger you over and over. What's stopping someone from hi jacking a persons identity. Just copy the DNA and structure sequence of ur target from the teleportation site. Insert your memory and knowledge and viola u on someone's physique.

Answer 5

Absolutely teleportation can be possible, anything which we are capable of conceiving can be made to become a reality with respect to ingenuity.

It is only when we have all given up on an idea that we become incapable of achieving the desired outcome.

Although I will tell you that I have given this particular matter great thought, and while teleportation through transporters would offer a desired outcome, the larger picture is being completely ignored, as once we have achieved teleportation, we will also have conquered immortality which I find the larger good.

Answer 6

Teleporting and transporting shown in star trek may not be possible today but I'm sure that someday scientists will invent something like that and that we all will be living happily.Everybo
-dy asks is this possible or is that possible the thing is don't ask, what you think work hard and
make it possible because- NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

Answer 7

Yes it is.

Many years back when I was in school, I had read a success story in Physics/Math for you. They had mentioned that researchers have tried it with teleporting an electron.

I still keep wondering on the same. Didn't find time to followup.

The main issue is to retrive the properties of the object intact after the process.

Also let me know when u get something interesting on this.

Answer 8

At this point, only one particle has been able to be "transported". But, it would take computers like we can barely now imagine to un-assemble, keep track of, transport and then re-assemble properly all the particles in an organism. So, not even with the phenomenal growth rate of processor capability that we have seen over the last 20 years can we expect "transporters" in at least the next century.

Answer 9

they are working on it, a year or so ago they teleported a single atom and then just recently they did the experiement again doing succcesfully teleporting several atoms, so maybe in the future you never know, I think it would be pretty fascinating if they get one that people could go through

Answer 10

Scientists teleport two different objects

POSTED: 4:36 p.m. EDT, October 4, 2006
Adjust font size:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- 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.

"Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by two teams but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a millimeter," Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, explained.

"Our method allows teleportation to be taken over longer distances because it involves light as the carrier of entanglement," he added.

Quantum entanglement involves entwining two or more particles without physical contact.

Although teleportation is associated with the science-fiction series Star Trek, no one is likely to be beamed anywhere soon.

But the achievement of Polzik's team, in collaboration with the theorist Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, marks an advancement in the field of quantum information and computers, which could transmit and process information in a way that was impossible before.

"It is really about teleporting information from one site to another site. Quantum information is different from classical information in the sense that it cannot be measured. It has much higher information capacity and it cannot be eavesdropped on. The transmission of quantum information can be made unconditionally secure," said Polzik whose research is reported in the journal Nature.

Quantum computing requires manipulation of information contained in the quantum states, which include physical properties such as energy, motion and magnetic field, of the atoms.

"Creating entanglement is a very important step but there are two more steps at least to perform teleportation. We have succeeded in making all three steps -- that is entanglement, quantum measurement and quantum feedback," he added.