Think Star Trek: You are here. Do you want to go there? It's just a matter of teleportation
If this news had not appeared in a reputable source like Space.com, it might have been difficult to address it. In any case, is there a connecting line between the quantum jumps of atomic particles, something that scientists have recently managed to do as a matter of routine, and the ability to launch humans through space?
Thanks to laboratory experiments there is a growing number of believers in the theory of teleportation, but at least the same number of skeptics. However, in recent years, researchers have successfully launched beams of light in the laboratory. Also, some amount of trapped calcium ion was released to another calcium ion in a controlled manner. But the reference to these and other experiments in the scientific journals is ambiguous.
The reports would surely have found their way to Einstein's bedside table. Basically, it's an exotic mash-up of a few things, like quantum here and quantum there, wave function, quantum computer and polarization as much as the uncertainty principle. Enthusiasm and entanglement. Apparently using such high physics to "radiate" a person from point-to-point is far away from us... Well… maybe… maybe not.
A trillion trillion atoms
In his new book, "Teleportation - The Impossible Leap," author David Darling claims that "one way or another, teleportation will play a major role in our future. This will be a fundamental process at the heart of quantum computers, which in themselves will radically change the world." According to him some forms of classical teleportation and copying (replication) to inanimate objects seem inevitable. But it remains to be seen if this will be possible for humans as well.
Screening a human being would require a machine that would separate, evaluate and track the trillions of trillions of atoms that make up the human body, then launch the data to another site to unify the components - hoping not to cause endarlemosis in the physical and mental makeup of the launchee. "One thing is certain: if this impossible leap is just difficult - a question of overcoming a technical challenge - one day it will be feasible", predicts Darling. In this context, Darling wrote that the quantum computer is "the joker in this pack of cards, the factor that will change the rules of what is possible and what is not."
Just last month, in fact, scientists at Hewlett Packard announced the formulation of a new tactic for manufacturing a quantum computer - utilizing light beam switches instead of the transistor fatigue-laden devices common today. The hardware that awaits us on the horizon is capable of performing calculations billions of times faster than any silicon-based computer.
With networked quantum computers, Darling felt that today it would not be far before teleportation of atoms and molecules is routinely performed. This will lead to the teleportation of macromolecules and microbes.. with, perhaps, the teleportation of a person, later on.
Space teleportation
What could be the contribution of teleportation to space efforts?
"We can see the first flickers of teleportation in space exploration today," Darling replied to a Space.com email from his office in Dundee, Scotland. "In the narrow sense, teleportation is: getting from point A to point B without going through the points between A and B. In other words, something evaporates in one place, and then simply materializes in another place," Darling said. He pointed out that the "Spirit" and the "Opportunity" were launched to Mars by conventional means, but their mission is controlled by orders from the Ministry of Defense. "So by projecting instructions, we successfully complete configurations of the spacecraft. Also the camera eyes and other equipment on the patrols serve as indirect extensions of our own senses. It is possible, therefore, to say that the impression is as if we personally were launched before Mars" Darling added.
Scary actions at some distance
It may be that in the future it will be possible to assemble a spacecraft "on the spot" using local material. "This will be a step forward along the road to true teleportation," Darling added. When nanotechnology enters the scene, it will be possible to take this idea to its logical end point, continues Darling, and when it is mature, it will be possible to launch an automatic assembly machine to its destination. Upon reaching the destination, she will build the necessary patrol robot at the molecular level. "Innocent quantum teleportation, which would apply to space travel, means sending a supply of particle entanglement to a destination world and then using what Einstein called 'spooky operations at a distance' to precisely assemble another collection of particle entanglement back on Earth." Darling adds that this opens up a sincere hope of sending a robot vehicle – or even an entire human crew – on interstellar travel. "Without a doubt, if we can teleport people," says Darling, "we can see people jumping to the moon or other places in the solar system, with the same ease and speed with which we transfer data in the Internet environment today."
The connection to UFOs?
If we really do become a space teleportation culture, what about advanced civilizations orbiting distant stars? Maybe they already control mass transportation via teleportation? It is even possible to consider the mode of transport in connection with the planned visits of the UFOs to the Earth. "Any strange movement of arrival and departure is an excuse for teleportation, even though all mundane explanations should be ruled out initially," Darling responds, "According to reports, some UFOs appear and disappear unexpectedly, in a manner consistent with the basic idea of teleportation." Darling says that interstellar teleportation would be one way to bypass the light speed barrier, "although, as we know the process now, sublight travel would be needed first to place a teleportation receiver and assembly machine at the destination."
Quantum teleportation, Darling points out, is exactly the kind we can do at the subatomic level in laboratories today. And it requires equipment at both ends to be able to work. "An extraterrestrial intelligence that is thousands and millions of years ahead of us will most likely send experts," suggests Darling, "if it is possible to apply the technology at the visible biological level."
What is the possible result, then, of technical success in improving the ability to teleport?
"We can expect advanced extraterrestrials, who will project themselves, sometimes, to check the progress of our species" concludes Darling.
