Teleportation

What Is Teleportation?

Teleportation - also known as teletransportation or matter transmission - involves the (near) instantaneous movement of people or objects across space. It is arguably the ultimate in psi abilities and is a staple of science fiction.

It is also one of the least documented examples of psionic ability. Even anecdotal accounts are rare.

The traditional psychic approach to teleportation is simply of "thinking" oneself to another place. This has been known by various names such as "jaunting". Certain obvious questions arise: Would just the body be transported or also clothing? What about something being held? What about someone being held? How exactly would the psychic "aim" their target point?

Pure thought driven teleportation is likely to remain in the realms of science fiction. More interesting is the possibility of mechanically assisted teleportation, either of people or objects. This is normally what is meant by the term "matter transmission".

Transportation or Reproduction?

Some ideas in modern physics such as quantum mechanics and wormholes might allow for the possibility of teleportation or matter transmission. These posibilities remain theoretical and, currently, limited to the world of particle physics and not the macroscopic, large scale world which we inhabit.

Theories of teleportation usually fall into one of two camps: either the object is instantly transported, or it is broken down at one end, encoded, and rebuilt at the other.

Instant transportation would be preferrable, however it is difficult to reconcile such instantaneous travel with the current laws of physics except by considering wormholes or other "twists" in the fabric of space time. Effectively we would be taking "short cuts" through the universe.

Reproducing an object might be more appealing on a theoretical level. If it can be encoded then all that is being sent is information and this can travel at light speed. One disadvantage would be that such a form of teleportation would be dependant on a fixed "receiving" station and hence less flexible. In addition, it poses huge moral, philosophical and religious questions with regard to the transportation of human beings. Even assuming the technology exists to scan "me" in exact detail, if I am destroyed here and recreated there... am I still me? And what about my "soul", whatever that might be?

If matter transmission depended on reproduction then it might be better to restrict its use to inanimate objects.

The teleporter beloved of science fiction still remains a distant dream. It's fairly certain that in our lifetimes we won't be able to teleport down to the store to buy a pint of milk! We may never be able to do so. But in some far future, might it just be possible to contact the store and tell them to teleport a pint of milk straight to our kitchen?