Poll of the Day > Star Trek teleporter is a death machine

(+) Yeah! (+)

Don't fall for it. It's a trick.

Gotta be better than this reality, whatever it is.
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it's ok, i'm not wearing a red shirt
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Agreed that it's your replica that comes out the other side.
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I can't recall exactly but in the beginning those transporters were used only on non-living cargo, right?
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KJ StErOiDs posted...

Agreed that it's your replica that comes out the other side.

Or sometimes both sides:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geMGo2P94j4" data-time="
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NeoSioType posted...

Don't fall for it. It's a trick.

How do you know? Have you ever tried it? Thought so.
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InfestedAdam posted...

I can't recall exactly but in the beginning those transporters were used only on non-living cargo, right?

Yup.
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An episode the Outer Limits covered this idea more explicitly, whereas other shows (like Star Trek) have technology that dances around the idea.
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It seems like that is only sometimes the case, other times people retain consciousness and can interact with things during teleportation.

No you're mixing up a transporter and an agony booth cadet.

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Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture if you want to see what happens when the transporter has a glitch. It's a mite unsettling.
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KJ StErOiDs posted...

Agreed that it's your replica that comes out the other side.

yea. i've been saying this for years. I would never use one

is it really death if you get copied exactly, body and mind?
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

is it really death if you get copied exactly, body and mind?

the idea the way I see it is this

your mind is copied, but the old copy doesn't survive. and the old copy is you. think of it this way

here is the perspective of both copies

original. in otherwords, YOU: steps into the teleporter and gets disassembled. NOW DEAD. unless afterlife exists, this is the end of your consciousness

teleported copy: emerges into existence, basically just born. copy of mind so it doesn't know it's a copy. thinks it's the original and that nothing is wrong. has no idea it just started existing

I_Abibde posted...

Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture if you want to see what happens when the transporter has a glitch. It's a mite unsettling.

This is why you are not clearing your Pattern Buffer until it is confirmed that the target is fully transported.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IipR1LUYRZI" data-time="
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What about the episode where Barclay was conscious during his transport and he saw those creatures?


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Perhaps, but are they as dangerous empty barrels with no honor who crush spines?
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The_tall_midget posted...

Perhaps, but are they as dangerous empty barrels with no honor who crush spines?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAK3KBCiRS8" data-time="
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

is it really death if you get copied exactly, body and mind?

Yes. Because the original you essentially dies and the copy is, well, a copy.

Consider it a different way - if I somehow manage to clone you, and the clone has your exact body, personality, and memories so they're "you" in every way anyone can test or tell, and then I shoot you in the face, does that mean I'm NOT guilty of murder because "you" are still alive? Would you accept that the clone IS you, or is it just "your clone"?

The only real way we can accept the idea of continuity of identity is if there's a soul involved in the process, and the soul literally transmigrates from the old body to the new body in some way. But Star Trek's never really established that (and in some ways, has blatantly contradicted it).
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Molitheus posted...

NeoSioType posted...

Don't fall for it. It's a trick.

How do you know? Have you ever tried it? Thought so.

It's a literal part of Star Trek lore that the transporter just rips apart your molecules as it scans you and creates a copy at the target location. It's possible for it to create copies of people as a result as someone else already showed. There was even an episode where they used the transporter to remake someone who was dying into a version of themselves that was young and healthy using the memory in the transporter.

It's just said that the people in Star Trek don't care because they are above being worried about being personally alive, since their copy is functionally the same and can do the same things for society.

It's kind of hand waved why they don't always use the transporter stop people from dying though.
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O lt. Barclay, horrible actor....
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TigerTycoon posted...

It's kind of hand waved why they don't always use the transporter stop people from dying though.

The most likely scenario is that there would be borderline draconian laws against doing so. Because any society that somehow achieves functional immortality pretty much needs to follow it up with insanely strict birth control or outright sterilization to prevent massive overpopulation and immediate depletion of resources.

To avoid having to deal with that problem, they could just establish that anyone who tries to use it that way can be severely punished (or outright killed) for doing so.
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What always bothered me more about Star Trek transporters from a technical sense was that it's not just transporting you, it has to transport everything *with* you as well. Clothes, personal effects, gut biome, the millions of eyebrow mites on your face, your intestinal tract contents, etc.
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^ Yeah, I had to think of the Voyager episode "Tuvix" after what you described there. Disgusting lol.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

TigerTycoon posted...

It's kind of hand waved why they don't always use the transporter stop people from dying though.

The most likely scenario is that there would be borderline draconian laws against doing so. Because any society that somehow achieves functional immortality pretty much needs to follow it up with insanely strict birth control or outright sterilization to prevent massive overpopulation and immediate depletion of resources.

To avoid having to deal with that problem, they could just establish that anyone who tries to use it that way can be severely punished (or outright killed) for doing so.

But the thing is, they don't say any laws like that exist. There are actually laws against time travel after they made time travel fairly easy in the original series. Although later, while the same time travel laws exist, time travel suddenly isn't easy anymore.

There are episodes where it's critical that someone doesn't die, like if this person died it might start a war, but they still don't fix them with the transporter.

And like I said, there was an episode already where they do heal a dying person with the transporter, and they didn't mention any existing law that says they shouldn't do that.

"Laws" is actually a common reason in Star Trek to explain why they don't do things, like not interfering in cultures of lesser technology, or abusing time travel.
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