Would you use a teleporter?
Poll: Would you use a teleporter?
Total Members Polled: 89
Discussion
It’s a funny one.
The person who dies can’t ever say they died, they’re gone.
The one who arrives is like “yay it worked here I am, do it again!”
If no one raises the prospect of the transportee being destroyed, does it actually matter?
As someone earlier said, the chap in the film The Prestige doesn’t seem to care.
In Star Trek I think they make this nature clear in The Next Generation where Riker is cloned.
Both the same chap up to that point.
The person who dies can’t ever say they died, they’re gone.
The one who arrives is like “yay it worked here I am, do it again!”
If no one raises the prospect of the transportee being destroyed, does it actually matter?
As someone earlier said, the chap in the film The Prestige doesn’t seem to care.
In Star Trek I think they make this nature clear in The Next Generation where Riker is cloned.
Both the same chap up to that point.
deckster said:
So here's another, yet related question.
You are involved in a car accident. You lose both your legs. Medical science has advanced to the point where they can grow you new legs, indistinguishable from the old ones. Do you accept them?
A few years on, your body is still in perfect working order (due to the above advances in medical science) and there is no reason, physically, why you can't carry on for another 100 years. But you are diagnosed with Alzheimers and are doomed to a slow and unpleasant decline. Medical science comes up trumps again and is able to construct a replacement brain, identical in every conceivable way to the one you have now except that it is immune to the effects of Alzheimers. Do you accept it? If you do, and you didn't want to use the teleporter, what is different?
DependsYou are involved in a car accident. You lose both your legs. Medical science has advanced to the point where they can grow you new legs, indistinguishable from the old ones. Do you accept them?
A few years on, your body is still in perfect working order (due to the above advances in medical science) and there is no reason, physically, why you can't carry on for another 100 years. But you are diagnosed with Alzheimers and are doomed to a slow and unpleasant decline. Medical science comes up trumps again and is able to construct a replacement brain, identical in every conceivable way to the one you have now except that it is immune to the effects of Alzheimers. Do you accept it? If you do, and you didn't want to use the teleporter, what is different?
Would I commit suicide so that a replica of me appear somwhere it’s impossible for me to get to? No.
Would I do so if this was to only way to achieve something that is more important than my life? Different criteria for the decision entirely.
In your second situation, does creating a fresh replica benefit those I’m leaving behind? If not then I’d prefer a suicide booth
I remember that one too. The Raft is also in that book and both stories kinda stay with you.
Transporters were invented as expedient means of getting people to and from planets without a more costly shuttle sequence, but Star Trek did play on it in the first movie:
That one haunts me more than anything. I've a feeling this scene was deleted from the cinematic release and they just went with the last line.
Transporters were invented as expedient means of getting people to and from planets without a more costly shuttle sequence, but Star Trek did play on it in the first movie:
That one haunts me more than anything. I've a feeling this scene was deleted from the cinematic release and they just went with the last line.
Yes, I would.
Interesting thoughts regarding death and cloning of a new individual at the destination. I am made up of cells that die all the time. I don't morn their loss. When I grow new cells I don't think of them as unwelcome intruders.
Wherever my consciousness lives at the moment is 'me'. If I happen to be inhabiting a body that was assembled from pure energy seconds ago, that doesn't bother me.
As for the possibility of being horribly mangled by a transporter malfunction... I could be mangled walking to the post office by a car that mounts the pavement. If the technology was proven and acceptably safe, I'd be off to Bondi beach after work most evenings.
Interesting thoughts regarding death and cloning of a new individual at the destination. I am made up of cells that die all the time. I don't morn their loss. When I grow new cells I don't think of them as unwelcome intruders.
Wherever my consciousness lives at the moment is 'me'. If I happen to be inhabiting a body that was assembled from pure energy seconds ago, that doesn't bother me.
As for the possibility of being horribly mangled by a transporter malfunction... I could be mangled walking to the post office by a car that mounts the pavement. If the technology was proven and acceptably safe, I'd be off to Bondi beach after work most evenings.
Simpo Two said:
SpudLink said:
If the technology was proven and acceptably safe, I'd be off to Bondi beach after work most evenings.
Might mess up your sleep cycle though!That’s gotta be worth dematerialising my old body.
Terminator X said:
Captain Smerc said:
I’ve read The Jaunt by Steven King so no
Is that the one where they say don't teleport awake? Foo kin scary short story if so!TX.
I just read that so the answer is no, I'll stick with flying.
Available here, like most Stephen King no happy ending
https://ia801904.us.archive.org/35/items/the-jaunt...
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