35 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

It would literally kill you because, when you rematerialise, your heart won't start beating without stimulation. Also, if you are completely reduced to individual atoms, you would lose all your memories and accumulated knowledge.

It would kill you because the dematerializing and scanning process would almost certainly be so destructive as to obliterate the original body. Rematerializing you (probably from matter stored at the destination point) would almost have to necessitate a process that took into account both the location and direction of all your atoms at the moment of scanning, which should be impossible. (Heisenberg again)

Star Trek acknowledged that in later years by putting a box in the transporter room and mumbling from time to time about "Heisenberg compensators".

Assuming such a thing was possible (think of the bandwidth and the amount of data!) and your control of matter was that advanced, there should be no way of distinguishing what comes out at the receiving end of a transporter from that which entered it.

And once you have a person's "pattern" (Like a modern 3d printer) you can probably spit it out again and again at will, like Xerox copies.

If you know how to successfully and repeatedly manipulate atoms at that level, it would make our version of medicine worse than cavemen. You could derive a person's perfect physical template and transport only the brain, or the recorded electrical patterns of thoughts into the replicated body....

Hmmmm..... At that level of technology you are waaaaay post scarcity, and everyone probably owns a private planet..... 🤣

Just like we are almost all unbelievably well off and rich (and healthy!) beyond the dreams of kings, by medieval standards.

Harkening to the title of the thread, Imagine the adaptations human society would have to make to accommodate even non-atomic-level replication of nearly any item. (even food, and homes from basic raw materials)

Assuming we survive, and with AI's by our side, humanity is on a path into terra incognita.

Edited November 29, 20232 yr by HiFlyer

9 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

and everyone probably owns a private planet..

Why does the name Elon Musk come to mind?

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

the atoms and most cells in your body are replaced slowly over time and you are barely the same "you" atomically as you were a few years ago. 

 

Except that brain cells don't regenerate as we age, like other cells do. Although we do grow new neurons when we learn new skills. 

There's also a big diference between slow replacement and having the entire brain destroyed instantly.

I think its worth considering that our names aren't written on our atoms, they are no different to atoms on the other side of the galaxy. So makes no difference that its the same atoms that form the new you.

I'm sure you remember the Trek episode where two Rikers were created. Which was the real one? I say neither.

4 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

Why does the name Elon Musk come to mind?

Assuming he was still around, he would own a private galaxy, or be living eternal godlike fantasys in a self created Matrix.... 🙃

1 minute ago, HiFlyer said:

Assuming he was still around, he would own a private galaxy, or be living eternal godlike fantasys in a self created Matrix.... 🙃

 

I know you jest, but Musk has no interest in owning private galaxies, solar systems, planets countries or even visiting another planet himself. Just making sure the human race (not him) is multiplanetary so all our eggs aren't in one basket.

9 minutes ago, martin-w said:

xcept that brain cells don't regenerate as we age

Which is why I said most cells.

9 minutes ago, martin-w said:

There's also a big diference between slow replacement and having the entire brain destroyed instantly.

I've always thought that a difference that makes no difference..... makes no difference. The people and culture of such a hypothetical future time will/would probably take it all in stride, except for apparent outliers like Mccoy.....

9 minutes ago, martin-w said:

I think its worth considering that our names aren't written on our atoms, they are no different to atoms on the other side of the galaxy. So makes no difference that its the same atoms that form the new you.

And probably makes no difference if they are not the same atoms. The question remains: are we meat, or are we the continuation of our genetics, personalities, thoughts and dreams.....?

Are we our bodies, or are we our souls? (whatever those are)

Edited November 29, 20232 yr by HiFlyer

44 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

would literally kill you because, when you rematerialise, your heart won't start beating without stimulation. Also, if you are completely reduced to individual atoms, you would lose all your memories and accumulated knowledge

 

I suspect your heart would be beating. The cells in the heart would be intact and functioning thus delivering the appropriate electrical signals. 

1 minute ago, HiFlyer said:

Which is why I said most cells.

 

And what we refer to as YOU resides in your brain. So YOU would be dead as soon as you were transported and a new copy of you created. Our consciousness, our personality, our sentience, resides in our heads, in the complex arrangement of 80 billion neurons. So your "your cells regenerate so what does it matter" does matter in regard to the essence of YOU.

7 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

 

7 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

probably makes no difference if they are not the same atoms.

 

 

Well yes, it would in regard to whether, after transportation you are the same person or a copy. 

2 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

And what we refer to as YOU resides in your brain. So YOU would be dead as soon as you were transported and a new copy of you created. Our consciousness, our personality, our sentience, resides in our heads, in the complex arrangement of 80 billion neurons. So your "your cells regenerate so what does it matter" does matter in regard to the essence of YOU.

As far as the transported person is concerned, he is you, with all the thoughts and even the exact same arrangement of neurons. From his or her perspective, life continues as usual, with only a slight philosophical hiccup, which any society with such technology will/would either ban, or come up with some acceptable mental accommodation/gymnastics to continue accessing the tech.....

Replicate three guns at an atomic level from an original. Now randomly sort the guns and hand them out. Which one is the original? Does it matter, from a practical standpoint? Especially if the recipient's do not know the guns are replicated?

Now do it with Gerbils. (Building up to it) does it matter now, except philosophically?

Now let's destroy the originals (Gerbil or gun, your choice) and also don't tell anyone. Does it make a difference now? To whom?

If it pretty much does not (unless everyone including the replicated person, knows that a switch has been made) then why does it matter at all except for a moral queasiness that's completely susceptible to societal change?

42 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

Well yes, it would in regard to whether, after transportation you are the same person or a copy. 

Doctor McCoy had Transporter Phobia, and legitimate reasons for it. I am going with Bones on this one, I wouldn't use them either 🤣

32 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

Doctor McCoy had Transporter Phobia, and legitimate reasons for it. I am going with Bones on this one, I wouldn't use them either 🤣

Well, I wouldn't want to use one either, if I knew it was destroying the original.

But then, I'm a product of my society, which is gonna get the heebie-jeebies from that sort of thing...

I'm not going to assume though, that some future society, that had absorbed that tech into the guts of its civilization, is going to feel the same way; and honestly, if I was old and about to die anyway, I might just hop right into a transporter, if a healthy, younger me was going to hop out the other side and in that way leave at least some semblance of me to continue the adventure of existence....

4 hours ago, charliearon said:

trigger

👍😄

@Mike A  Isn't he stuffed and sitting in a museum somewhere??  I get it!.....Possible gun joke!