| We see teleporters used all the time in Sci-Fi,
who could forget the now famous phrase "Beam me up Scotty"? So, how realistic is
it? Suppose we have a man who weighs 60 kg
(there are 2.2lbs to a 1kg in case you're not familiar with imperial
measurements). Now, in order to teleport this man, first you need to know where
every atom in his body is located and how that atom is connected to its
neighbours in order to recreate the person. For this example let's assume that
the man is made of carbon (this is a very poor assumption as we are made from
lots of different types of atoms).We know from Avogadro's number that there
are 1023 atoms of carbon for every 24g of material, so that totals
2.5 x 1026 atoms. We would need to know the (x,y,z) co-ordinates of
each atom in relation to time and how they are located to every other atom at
that time. Even this simplistic approach illustrates the huge amount of data
storage required.This illustration is assuming a very basic level
of physics, if we go up a gear in complexity we require further information on
the instantaneous configuration of the atoms themselves. At such small
dimensions quantum effects become very significant and it becomes an impossible
task to assign fixed positions for everything.Even if we could then the amount of data would
require a hard disk bigger than our solar system and a phenomenal energy source
to create the matter. Supposing even that were possible, it would mean that it
would be possible to create an exact copy of yourself, complete with your own
thoughts and memories. What would you do with the original copy? For a
teleporter to work the original you would have to be destroyed (perhaps to aid
the energy requirement) or there will be multiple copies.In summary, we don't ever see a day when
teleporters will be invented. The random quantum fluctuations would mean that it
would be impossible to create an exact duplicate of an original person, even if
you could generate the vast amount of energy required and use it to form matter.What about just using a wormhole to open a
doorway and then "walking through". This is certainly much more feasible as it
doesn't rely on breaking the individual down to their component parts. The
question is just how simple would it be to create the wormhole in the first
place. We know that space time is like a fabric and with sufficient mass
impressions can be made into the surface. The more mass the deeper the
impression. Theoretically, it is possible for two such impressions to be joined
together to create a "tunnel" linking to locations which could be any distance
apart, maybe even a different universe. We think it's more feasible than a
teleporter but it's a very very long way off our basic understanding.
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