Location Transport

If you go through a transporter will you die?

Obviously this technology doesn't exist. However, if this ever exists someday. Would it kill you and create a copy with your memories on the other side on the transporter?

Public Comments

1. No. Too freaky
2. The whole copy thing just blew my mind, thank you sir.
3. It would take a lot (like the energy of the Sun) to do such a thing....so if you can solve that problem, yeah it probably will. It will most likely kill you and create a clone of you and transfer all the info.
4. In theory, yes. But your new self won't know the difference.
5. A metaphysical point. If the copy was perfect. With the same thoughts, memories, physical structure etc then the copy would certainly THINK it was you. It could remember entering the transporter. I think therefore I am.... So is it really you or not? Does it have the original soul? And what if instead of disassembling the original it merely created a copy, or several copies. All of whom naturally KNOW that they are you, then which one is real and which ones are copies? Or are they all you? If there truly was something called a soul, does each copy have its own soul or are they all collectively one and the same? If each copy collectively had one and the same soul then disassembling the original wouldn't destroy any soul so it couldn't be called killing. The original could be reassembled any time you chose with no ill effects. Remember that in normal life all of our atoms and cells are replaced many times over so there is not a single atom within you that was a part of your body a few years ago. Are you now the same person or are you now a completely different person? None of this is physics of course. Probably much closer to religion than anything else.
6. If you can analyze each molecule in your body and its location, and then create a copy of it in the right location, you could fax it to another location. It would be something like the 3D printers that are available now. But to be able to scan every molecule, you would probably have to destroy the original. Besides the analysis and creation, it would take a lot of memory and a lot of bandwidth. You would have to store all the information before you started the reconstruction, because you would need to start the scan from the head down, and then build from the feet up. And do both really fast. Of course, you could wait a while before sending the data to the other location. When you were reconstructed, you would think the transporting had just happened. Would it still be YOU thinking that? I don't know.
7. As I understand the transporter process, all of the molecules and atoms in your body are scanned and mapped, then the mass of your body is converted to energy, beamed to other location where the energy is converted back into matter, with your metabolism and memories intact. The question "do you die" during this process is a more philosophical question than a "physics" question. There is not a dead original left behind, so the only copy is a digital copy in the computer data-banks. Since your metabolism is still operating, you did not "die"technically during this process. You question reminded me of Dr. McCoy arguing with Jim Kirk or Mr. Spock almost every time he got onto a transporter pad, because all his molecules were going to be scrambled, and he wasn't sure they would be put back together again correctly. Speaking as someone who has 17 years experience with GIS software (and 8 years outdated), the technology is nowhere near being able to scan and accurately map the molecules and atoms of a 3 dimensional inanimate object, much less a living, moving organism. Dr. McCoy's paranoia in the original series clear through many of the movies is a legitimate psychological fear. Yes, something similar is done when you get an MRI, but the computer puts all those 2D cross-sections into a 3 dimensional model of your body digitally. Your mass is not converted to energy during the MRI scan (Yes, Ive had one, in 1983.) (I've just realized that an MRI is a fourth example of science fiction becoming science fact within my life-time.)