Will we ever be able to Teleport?
Every science fiction buff has wondered, will we ever be able to teleport?
In films teleportation is normally portrayed in the following way:
Alice steps into some sort of teleportation pod. She is broken down into tiny fragments
and those are sent across to final her destination where her fragments are reassembled.
We have not found a way to do this however scientists have found an alternative called
quantum teleportation.
A phenomena called quantum entanglement between two particles connects them in such a way
that when the property or rather quantum state of one particle is changed an instantaneous
and opposite change in the quantum state of the other particle occurs.
So, if we have a set of entangled particles, particle A and B, simply by knowing the quantum
state of one particle we can know the quantum state of the other.
This ability to know the quantum state of particles using quantum entanglement have
allowed scientists to teleport particles.
Here’s how it works:
two particles are entangled and separated by a large distance. A third particle, particle T,
is brought in and this is the particle that we want to teleport. Particle T interacts
with particle A and we learn how the quantum state of particle T relates to particle A,
this information is then sent across to where particle B is kept.
As particle A and B are entangled, this information about how the quantum state of particle T
relates to particle A will also reveal how the quantum state of particle T relates to
particle B.
Particle B will then be manipulated to replicate the quantum state of Particle T becoming an
exact copy of particle T.
Meanwhile the original particle T is destroyed as it’s information was extracted and sent across.
So if we can do this for one particle and humans are after all made up of nothing but
particles will we eventually be doing this with humans?
Well a single human being contains a huge amount of particles - the number would have
twenty eight zeros behind it - that would mean an immense amount of data would need
to be transferred for human teleportation. Transferring this amount of data using the
means we have today would take upwards of a quadrillion years.
At the same it opens up a philosophical debate of whether particle T is actually particle T
or a precise copy of Particle T.
Imagine that human quantum teleportation became a reality.
Say Alice wants to travel from London to Tokyo.
Two chambers of entangled particles would be in each city.
Alice would step into a scanning device and the quantum state of each individual particle
would be measured in relation to the chamber of particles in London.
This information would be relayed to Tokyo and there the chamber of particles would be
manipulated to replicate the quantum state of each of Alice’s individual particles
creating an exact replica of Alice.
Meanwhile the original Alice in London has been destroyed.
The question is, as the original Alice dies in the process of teleportation but is reconstructed
at her destination in Tokyo, is the final Alice still Alice?
Tokyo Alice is identical to the last atom as the London Alice and is in full possession
of London Alice’s knowledge, experience and memories and Tokyo Alice even believes
she is the London Alice while the original London Alice no longer exists to debate the
issue with her.
It’s a philosophical and ethical dilemma but it may not be one we will need to face.
As we have discussed human teleportation would be extremely difficult and although theoretically
it is not impossible it is improbable.
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