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My friend and I are doing a project for the Supercomputing Expo on Teleportation. We have theories on how it could happen, but no actual info about how it could be done and if it is actually possible. Any information that you could give us would be much appreciated.


Replies:
Depends what you mean by teleportation. The "FAX machine" is a kind of teleporter already, although really what it does is duplicate whatever's on a printed page on another page some distance away. Something operating on the same principles might work, but it is probably not what you would really want in a teleporter (every time you teleport somewhere you generate a new copy of yourself). Now it turns out there are certain aspects of quantum mechanics that seem to forbid copying, so if our "quantum state" has any relevance at all to our consciousness or anything else, that part could not be duplicated. However, the associated information can be teleported - ie. moved along transmission lines of some sort much faster than the associated object itself could move - so that again might make teleportation more like what we expect from Star Trek.

Arthur Smith


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