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Relevant Mini Fantasy Theater
Depends on whether they would work by actually moving me through space (using a wormhole or something) or by disintegrating me at point A and creating a copy at point B. In the latter case, I probably wouldn't use them.
Yeah, I'd risk it walking through a Stargate, but the Enterprise transporter can fuck all the way off.
Like a solid 4th of trek episodes involve some sort of transporter malfunction. I'm not getting in one either.
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There's no difference. The universe could be destroying you and recreating you every Planck second, and it's indistinguishable from continuous existence.
The problem with that line of thought is that even if it is true, it doesn't apply here, because when you create a perfect copy of yourself, you don't magically get a shared continuity where you experience the continuity of both the original and the copy. There would now be two independent chains of experience, and even if every chain of experience is endless destruction with continuity just being a trick of memory, there would still be two divergent continuities now, and one of those would end.
True but that's already happening in theory. All copies would argue they are the original even if their futures diverge. None would think otherwise or have an experience any different than our moment to moment continuity as it stands now. That's only apparent to a 3rd party.
From the perspective of a 3rd party, it's a technicality. From the perspective of the original continued consciousness, it's not.
They would both have the exact same continued consciousness, that only diverges later. Only an outside party can tell there are 2 separate lineages.
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So confident about something we aren't even remotely close to understanding
I am thinking of a case where it is 'disintegration' and 're-integration', but making use of some physics that prevent making a copy. For example, let's say that the mechanism relies on a step for which the 'no-cloning theorem' applies. In this hypothetical scenario, a commonly held belief is that the inability to make a copy retains the person's identity. It is a similar logic to how a person remains who they are from childhood and through adulthood despite the atoms that compose them changing over time.
Of course. Fastest travel = best travel.
And the whole "you might die" sounds like big oil propaganda to me. I bet car accident deaths are way more likely.
hmmm, I have to disagree there. Some of my best memories ever were made on trains and boats, during long hauls (at least a day, most often several days).
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If teleportation machines were mainstream, I don't think they'd be optional for participating in society.
I imagine even if there is a strong philosophical argument that it’s a “you die and it’s a copy/clone that comes out” in this scenario that people would still use it just from social and economic pressures. It would become normalized to work on the other side of the planet and just teleport there, your friends might be scattered across the globe, and not using the tech would put you at a massive disadvantage to everyone.
It’s a fun one to think about though - our consciousness is interrupted at different levels all the time (Sleep, injury, anesthesia etc), would a teeny tiny interruption from being rebuilt, make you any less you? Perhaps the scary thought is “you” aren’t something continuous, and that teleporting (dying/being rebuilt) isn’t really that different than just normal living.
All that said - I’d probably grow up with the technology and use it while trying my best to never ever think about the details!
I think similarly...
Hypothetically: I spent my childhood and early teens using teleportation machines and I never had an issue. As a teenager, I learn about people who are strongly opposed to teleportation. People around me talk negatively about these people, and are perhaps annoyed at the laws that are made to accommodate those who choose not to teleport. They are seen as a nuisance because they complicate workplace dynamics because they don't want to do something simple and convenient that most in society do. The belief they hold makes most people uncomfortable because of the philosophical implication.
So, as a teenager, I realize that to become a 'non-teleporter' I need to accept that I have already chosen to destroy myself multiple times, and that my family and friends who leave are not the same that come back. It would be so difficult to make this philosophical mind-shift and stop teleporting so that copy #4,242 gets to live.
I would. Never understood why people are scared of having their consciousness cut and pasted. I have files from 25+ years ago that have been moved between numerous hdd's, that's still the same file. (Always assuming everything works as intended, of course)
It's never been the same file. It's been a copy of it. Which is irrelevant in every scenario, and to everyone involved, except from the perspective of the original file, and even then, only if it were conscious.
If we give the original file consciousness for your hypothesis, that consciousness gets duplicated to the copied files, but consciousness doesn't get removed from the original. And there are now a bunch of distinct consciousness streams, all of which smoothly continue on from the original, but none of which are the original. And if you delete the original, you delete that stream of consciousness, which makes no difference to anyone, except the original consciousness, for which, it's a cessation of existence.
From the outside, the copy is the same as the original. But from the originals perspective, not so much...
Doesn't make a difference to me. I get that people seem to see a difference and I am indeed slightly unnerved that I don't but it is what it is.
The difference is that you'd be dead. There would be a copy of you running around that thinks it is you, but you, your chain of continuity would not be that copy. To literally everyone else, including the copy, you may as well be the original, but the journey from your personal experience would be over. You would be dead and the world would continue on with a copy of your in your place, which you wouldn't experience.
For all I know I've been cut and and pasted 20 times in the last 5 minutes. There'd be no practical difference and I'd feel the same. This is only an issue if you think there's something like a "soul".
You wouldn't feel anything. A copy of you would be the one not feeling the difference.
That copy is me though.
You have absolutely no reason to believe that.
What happens if there's a malfunction in the machine and the copy is made at the other end without the original version being destroyed? Do you think you would experience both perspectives simultaneously?
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For me, yes. I like the duplicator transporter thought problem, but I've always come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter. If what comes out doesn't know the difference, and the version left behind just stops existing, what's the difference? Maybe if the old version suffered from it I wouldn't, but if they just cease to exist then what's the functional difference between the two? If you believe there's a soul then maybe there's an issue, but I don't.
Instantaneous Ship of Theseus
That's an excellent Ska band name.
ITT: People who haven't seen The Prestige
I would encourage everyone else to use it. So roads will be less crowded and I can enjoy nature in its true beauty. Assuming of course Big Corpos haven't completely ruined it.
"It's eternity in there."
-- Rudy Foggia
Get out of bed (written from bed)
Is this before or after the great oil and transportation war has taken its casualties?
It is still possible to use regular transportation at a similar cost as today
I would be scared that the person on the other side is just a clone rather than me.
There's nothing to guarantee that every night you go to sleep that doesn't happen.
Thank you, came here to say this. People like the phrase "continuity of consciousness" but the problem of persistent identity is much more fundamental than this thought experiment lets on
What if:
- It is physically impossible to make a copy
- Your family and friends use it daily
Different person but:
-
I am concerned about continuity of consciousness, not about copies. From an earlier comment posted, you mention disintegration and reintegration. If we're just transcribing the data into new atoms on the other side, continuity of consciousness will not transfer over. Well, to be more precise, the individual on the other side will believe it has, and to the rest of the world I will be functionally the exact same being. This doesn't matter to me though, because my specific consciousness no longer exists. If we're actually using the exact same atoms after disintegration, I couldn't tell you if that would work. I sure as shit wouldn't be trying it though.
-
My family and friends do things daily I am not interested in, including things which they find to be convenient or important to their daily lives. I'll be fine, but I also wouldn't bother stopping them either. From my perspective, their original continuity of consciousness is irrelevant to me. They will live, feel, and act the exact same regardless. It only matters to the self, and the new iteration will always feel as if their continuity is unbroken.
Schlock Mercenary has a great story arc on this.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/
They use various teleport technologies over the years .thé trek version was used un a very troubling spying schème.
I remember watching a documentary about teleportation that said that the biggest issue doesn't seem to be how to reconstruct the body rather than how you reconstruct the consciousness
Well, for a robust teleport function it should first make a duplicate of you at the target location. Check that it went well and if all good, then blast the original you into a cloud of red fog.
In this climate? Hell nah. If the situation was different. Maybe.
Third parties promise not to store your duplicate information and never use it to implant memories and desires into your subconsciousness. They promise!
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this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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