R

E

A

D

T

H

I

N

K

C

R

E

A

T

E

In a few seconds, you will soon be removed atomic atoms, and then, after an instant, rematerialized African continent disappeared. Everyone's done before this, he and you have nothing to worry about. A slight tingling feeling is all you will understand that it, because if someone switching off lights and split them to come back a second later. Some people to lose their somewhat in the first few jumps, because of the sudden changes in the surrounding environment, but I think this problem. All the same, you feel uneasy. Stealth do, after all, the destruction of the original. What will appear on the other side, may be a perfect copy, rather than particles out, but it is still a copy. It does not share a single atoms in common with your old body. What troubled you that, in spite of people that the person is really you will not be teleported.           Who Are You? Where Are You Going?     Imagine it's your first time to be teleported. You're standing on the pad waiting for the process to start. In a few seconds you'll be quickly dismantled atom by atom and then, an instant later, rematerialized a continent away. Everyone who's done this before tells you there's nothing to worry about. A slight tingling sensation is all you'll feel; then it's as if someone turned off the lights and a split second later turned them back on again. Some people get a bit disoriented on their first few jumps because of the sudden change of surroundings, but that's about it.   All the same, you feel uneasy. Teleportation does, after all, destroy the original. What appears at the other end may be a perfect copy, with not a particle out of place, but it's still a copy. It won't share a single atom in common with your old body. What bothers you is that, despite what people say, the person that's teleported won't really be you.   Look at it practically, say your friends who've made the jump. An atom is an atom; they don't have personalities or differences. Every oxygen atom is exactly like every other oxygen atom; one carbon atom's indistinguishable from any other carbon atom. (True, there are different isotopes—three of them in case of oxygen, 16 O, 17 O, 18 O—but teleportation makes sure each of these is copied correctly too.) When you get down to the atomic and subatomic levels, nature just stamps things out identically. So it doesn't matter if all your atoms are swapped around for a different set. No test, in theory or in practice, could distinguish the teleported you from the original you.   You also have to bear in mind, as those who've gone before point out, that the stuff in your body changes anyway. Even without teleportation, atoms and molecules are continually streaming into and out of your body, so that over time every bit of matter of which you're made is exchanged. Materially, you're only in part the same person you were, say, six months ago. We're all made of matter that's from a common cosmic pool and is endlessly recycled... So teleportation, its supporters tell you, doesn't do anything qualitatively different from what happens in the normal course of events. Teleportation just happens to replace all your particles in one fell swoop rather than over a period of time.   But there's more to a person than a mere heap of atoms and molecules. Something happens when you put those tiny building blocks together in a certain way. Emergent properties appear: thoughts, memories, consciousness, personality—life itself. Yes, but those same emergent properties will arise from an identical pattern of atoms and molecules. Because quantum teleportation produces a perfect copy, right down to the subatomic level, it also, inevitably, leads to the same higher-level properties. It re-creates your brain, down to the last synapse and synaptic impulse, so that the person who steps off the pad at the other end is thinking exactly the same thought that you were, and has exactly the same set of memories that you had, when you were disassembled just before the leap. Original or copy: surely it doesn't matter what word we use as long as you feel the same and look the same, and there's no test on Earth or in the universe that can prove you're not in fact the same.   Still, you're not completely happy about this business. For one thing, whatever anyone says, teleportation involves a complete break. Normal changes to a person take place gradually—you lose and gain atoms a few at a time—so there's always a link with your previous state, a material connection with the past. When you teleport, that material link is broken. You're the same person in a figurative sense, but a completely new person in a literal sense. This discontinuity leads to two different ways of looking at human teleportation, and they're disturbingly contradictory. It's either the ultimate form of transport or a very effective way of killing someone.             — David Darling, Teleportation: The Impossible Leap, Chapter 10 – Far-fetched and Far-reaching                   Indexes/13