The fact that two Rikers existed is all the proof I need to be full Luddite. Save your death machines for the next person, thanks!
And they treat the one on the planet like he's a copy when he'd logically be the original with the one on the Enterprise being the duplicate.
They are both copies. They explain that the guy operating the transporter was losing him, so he used a second beam to try to compensate. On beam made it through, the other bounced off the st uff in the atmosphere that was causing the problem and rematerialized him on the planet. I'm pretty sure this explanation was in the episode in order to establish that both Rikers are equally real.
Except that that explanation means Tom was made with the original Riker materials and Will was made from matter reserves on the ship using the original Riker as a template.
i always felt that it was wrong that they gave the riker that got out a promotion; but wouldn't do the same thing for the riker that didn't get out even though he was the one who paid the price for his heroism while the other riker simply got lucky and both did the same thing that earned that promotion.
This is why I want monsters Inc style linked door-wormholes. It's less... Reconstituted flesh.
Less room for duplicates, more room for halfsies I guess
I'll take the small chance of being cut in half over the guaranteed murder box, thanks.
Good news, I'm pretty sure holes in reality are more likely than the reconstitution beam.
Everyone remembers his irascibility in the film but ignores that, for the three original years, he transported without complaint in nearly every episode. And it was a reliable, proven technology that apparently only got worse and more twitchy a couple of decades later.
I think I've explained this too many times to do it again, but: teleportation doesn't have to be "destroy and reconstitute" any more than going through a door necessitates killing you and reconstituting you on the other side of the door. The key is establishing continuity of your mind across the intervening space, which is mostly an engineering problem.
Star Trek transporters are "destroy and reconstitute" though. They are explicitly described as such. The whole Thomas Riker situation even requires it to be the case.
Star Trek just throws all its rules out from one episode to the next. The Star Trek franchise is the McDonalds of sci-fi; you don't choose it because it's good, you choose it because it's available.
I think we are still in the realm of a physics problem for teleportation lol
Fusion is an engineering problem. the sun does it. We've done it. We just suck at it.
Teleporting is not possible as far as we know ....unless I missed something huge in science news
Typical McCoy. Calls turbolifts elevators and transporters teleporters.
I still can't believe we are this many years out from ebaumsworld and still people are putting fucking watermarks on memes.
Me with brain chip implants, especially those with non-libre software
Not only that, but they‘re also literal bombs. Remember E=mc^2? With a technology capable of converting 100% of matter into usable energy, you‘d have a pretty scary bomb bomb.
"But what if it kills you, but no one can tell?"
this is pascal's wager for nerds
I think McCoy was more afraid of accidents than existential factors.
All that could have been avoided by having a drop pod launched to the surface containing a mechanical avatar. The crew member just sits down in a chair to remotely control the avatar using an FTL link for instant control. Of course the avatar has a hologram projector so it looks exactly like the crew member. But that would be too safe and not dramatic enough.
Tbh the same logic can be applied to sleeping. If our consciousness is akin to computer ram and sleep is the brain cleaning up that ram, how can you know that when you wake up you're still the same person that went to sleep last night?
This is a cool thought because it's not about being copied but more about the Ship of Theseus.
Why do we sleep?
"The body needs sleep."
No, the body needs rest. Our physical self just needs down time and relaxation and then it's good to go again. Our BRAIN needs sleep. Specifically, REM sleep to process all the new data that was taken in. Converting short-term memories into long-term memories. Sorting and organizing data. A kind of hard drive defragmentation.
Our sleep is normally presented like a sine wave. We regain base level consciousness cyclically several times a night, which is why we dream. Which is why our dreams are usually tied to recent memories. The more good sleep we get, the more our brains can deal with recent experiences.
When we wake up, it's like rebooting a device after an OS update. It's us, but with altered software. We are as much the person we were yesterday as the Ship of Theseus is still the Ship of Theseus after having pieces fixed and replaced. The whole is who we are, not the bits that changed.
"Devil's Elevator" hahahaha, have an upvote
I'd like to know or see a Star Trek series about the development of Star Trek technology.
Like the history of flight or the first ancient sea captains, .... when it comes to the history of the humble teleporter, how many freakin people did they have to reconstitute, recombine, turn into a puddle of goo, teleport into a wall, remove their brains, reconfigure their organs, teleport into a bulk head or reanimate into empty space before they perfected the technology.
*"...I teleported home one night, With Ron and Sid and Meg. Ron stole Meggie's heart away, And I got Sidney's leg." *
Teleportation Blues, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The thing about transporters is that if we had them right now, people would use them for everything. Transport me to the toilet. Transport the TV remote into my hand. Transport a fork into my hand. People would never get out of bed.
Transport the waste out of my bladder right into the matter recycler.
Transport the nutrient and vitamin mix into my stomach.
Transport the fat from my body.
I never understood the problem people seem to complain about here.
A perfect copy, is perfect. There's no detectable, no measurable, no identifiable difference.
So what are you talking about? Unless you don't think perfect is actually perfect.
Because it's still a copy, so you still die. Imagine if there was a delay between the copy being produced and the original being destroyed, long enough for them to see each other if transported within the same room.
But is the copy me from my conscious point of view? I don’t care that it looks the same externally. Will I still be inside the ship?
From an outsider's point of view sure, but does your consciousness dies when dematerialized, only to have a copy of your consciousness going on in the rematerialized body as if nothing happened?
The best take on transporters was in a 'Buzz Lightyear' cartoon.
Buzz tells his team that a scientist has developed a transporter. The farm boy says that it sounds like a great invention; with a transporter the ship can stay up in orbit and the crew can teleport to the surface.
Everyone just looks at him like he's an idiot.
I liked the method described in "Old Man's War." It wasn't teleporting exactly, but the premise could be used here too. The consciousness of the person was being transferred to another body and during the process, The singular consciousness was aware of being in two places for a short while.
Dark Matter (the other one: the Canadian sci-fi show) had something called Transfer Transit kinda like that.
They scan you and rapidly grow a clone at your destination with all your memories. Clone has like a 3-5 day lifespan, but is otherwise "you". It goes and does whatever you planned to do at the far end.
The main you stays behind and does whatever until the clone returns to a Transfer Transit pod on the far end. It's memories are then uploaded to you and the clone disintegrates. You now " remember" everything the clone did on your behalf as if you did it personally.
Not to mention, if we have the technology to construct human bodies and minds on the other side of that teleporter, what is to stop them from modifying the machines to change your brain (or body). I have lost any trust I once had in any government or company to believe them if, hypothetically, they tell me they have the know-how to change my opinion of Coca Cola upon reconstruction.
Dunno if this is just the millennial in me but I'd use one even if I was directly told it clones and kills me. Better than TSA.
Also I don't fear going to sleep or general anesthesia.
I am not. You are already a process, a continuous state of going in and out of existence.
And yet despite this being philosophically sound my student loan people do not agree.
I'd prefer the interdimensional travel they use in Earth: Final Conflict.
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