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The dilema of teleportation

Author
Doreen Kaundur
#1 - 2014-05-15 08:48:58 UTC  |  Edited by: Doreen Kaundur
I was watching a doc (@40:34) on quantum physics and it touched on the possibility of teleportation. The quantum state of a person is broken down and replicated elsewhere but destroying the original in the process.

Which brings the question: are we just the sum of our parts?

If I had a magic machine that was able to reproduce every elementary particle in my body...would it be me? Or just a perfect copy of me?

In StarTrek when you "beam" somewhere...are you being killed and replace with a perfect copy?

And is there any way of testing "is it me" with a perfect copy?

Or does our "quantum state' define who we are?

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Grimpak
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2014-05-15 08:52:40 UTC
Doreen Kaundur wrote:
Or does our "quantum state' define who we are?




I guess that's all up to you.

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[quote]The more I know about humans, the more I love animals.[/quote] ain't that right

Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#3 - 2014-05-15 11:12:14 UTC
Oh this topic again

It's a copy of you, right?

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!

Webvan
All Kill No Skill
#4 - 2014-05-15 13:49:00 UTC
Doreen Kaundur wrote:
broken down and replicated elsewhere but destroying the original in the process.

Then that wouldn't be teleportation. More like telecommunication. Tele- (distant) -portation (transportation). Tlelcommunication is a facsimile. What you describe is a facsimile, so don't go leaping into that Star Trek transporter with Captain Kirk just yet.

Quantum teleportation deals with portals of some form (imo, it's really unknown), through quantum entanglement. Like some sort of singularity phenomenon observed only at the atomic level thus far. So you could burst atoms through and communicate digitally, or a future possibility to do so. Current results are just random bursts as far as I'd imagine, just been about measuring the time it takes to communicate from point to point, at it's basic form.

Maybe to understand how it functions one could open a large unified connected portal between two points, sort of like folding space together through 'universal extra dimensions'. Of course unless quantum entanglement has something to do with gravitational physics: if gravity is actually an extra dimension. But by the time we understand that, we will probably have already built a dyson sphere around the sun.

I'm in it for the money

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Doc Fury
Furious Enterprises
#5 - 2014-05-15 15:31:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Doc Fury
Think like a Dinosaur

The equation must be balanced.

There's a million angry citizens looking down their tubes..at me.

Doreen Kaundur
#6 - 2014-05-15 20:05:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Doreen Kaundur
Doc Fury wrote:
Think like a Dinosaur

The equation must be balanced.




I just got done watching it. Thanks for sharing.

There are two scenarios we are faced with:

1. Displacement of the subject.
2. Replication of the subject.

One involves moving the subject from point A to point B....piece by piece.

The other involves reproducing the subject at point A, at point B....piece by piece.

All dependent on the technology.

It has been shown that when cattle are cloned and kept in herds, they develop their own pecking order. Their own social hierarchy. There are leaders and followers, even though they are all identical, genetic reproductions. So there is some unique individuality regardless of genetics. Obviously we see that in identical twins as well. Yet they all posses their own individual psyche. They don't share their "awareness." If one twin dies the other doesnt expereince death as well.

What makes up this psyche and awareness, I don't know. Is it a result of quantum interactions at the subatomic level or something else?

We know that all matter is energy, so perhaps there is something unique about one person's "energy."

I guess the big question is "what makes me...me?" How much of my physical being do you remove before I cease to be me, and if those parts are put back together..is it me, or someone who is a just a copy of me? At what point does one become and exists?

EDIT: see Psychological/Philosophical zombie

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Doc Fury
Furious Enterprises
#7 - 2014-05-15 20:15:51 UTC
What makes us who we are

Bonus: Morgan Freeman.

There's a million angry citizens looking down their tubes..at me.

Akita T
Caldari Navy Volunteer Task Force
#8 - 2014-05-15 20:41:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Akita T
Doreen Kaundur wrote:
Which brings the question: are we just the sum of our parts?

Short answer: YES.

Long answer: Yes, to a (sufficiently) high degree of confidence and within (mostly) acceptable tolerance levels.

NOTE: That is, provided that by "we" you mean the entirety of our "wetware" (or, if you prefer, "firmware").
Also, provided that (in an implied fashion ) by "a certain person" you mean the very rough approximation of an entity which constantly changes to some degree (the "you" of right now is not exactly the same as the "you" from a few seconds ago or a few seconds later, and is probably noticeably different from the "you" from yesterday or tomorrow, and radically different from the "you" from a few years ago or in the more distant future, but you still perceive yourself as just "you").

P.S. If that's NOT what you mean by either of those, then probably (barely) no.