Teledisruption
Imagine the ultimate copy machine that could make an EXACT facsimile of a 3-dimensional object atom by atom. For instance, taking an apple and scanning all of its information then blasting it through the air waves to a base on the moon for reconstruction. There is only one catch- because of the high precision involved in scanning the fruity information some weird law of physics dictates that the original will be destroyed. Like a shredder come fax machine, not too dissimilar from the teleportation scenes that we have seen in so many movies. Sounds fantastic eh? Well maybe. The fellas at IBM Research think it is possible, at least in principle.
The scanning bit might seem straight forward enough, but why does the process of copying destroy the original? In quantum theory there is what is known as the uncertainty principle, which states that the more accurately an object is scanned, the more it is disturbed by the scanning process, until one reaches a point where the object’s original state has been completely interrupted. In other words, it means that the harder you look the more the thing you’re looking at changes until you are looking at something completely different. If this is making your head spin, then don’t fret. Just accept that some egg heads somewhere have the theories to back it up and let’s get back to the shreddercopier.
So we are a long way off from having these devices built in our refrigerators to restock as soon as we run out of milk, but can you imagine scientists at some point boldly going where none has gone before and testing it on humans? Let’s just assume for one second that we are merely biological machines. If this device can copy us in our entirety, destroy the original in the process and zip our essence throughout the solar system does that mean we will commit suicide every time we follow our travel itinerary. Sure, every copy believes everything went dandy, unaware of the fact that the original just annihilated itself out of existence. There would be no way of knowing if you are indeed the original essence or just the exact copy of it as you kill versions of yourself a thousand times without even blinking.
See also:
Quantum Teleportation by IBM.
Take-away: Considering the uncertainty principle, are we changing the universe the more we observe it?
February 9th, 2007 at 11:36 am
The fact that we are thinking about it and analysing the possibilities, we may be destroying the theory before it is realised
Maybe if we analise the Egg Heads we will erase them too! *evil grin*
February 10th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
The process sounds amazing, and I would love for something like this to be possible. The fact that humans have souls could kind of screw up this whole process can’t it? Since Sure you copy the physical but the spiritual is still part off the original that was just killed?
February 13th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Alfling, by analyzing the egg heads, you might become one in the process…
Afflict, yes there are quite a few unknowns- it could be as controversial as brining soldiers back from the dead. However, if it does indeed exist, doesn’t a perfect copy include copying the soul too?
February 28th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I prefer originality. Just because something exists doesn’t mean you need more than one of it. Everything has a genetic print and instead of trying to manipulate and change everything that exists we might consider asking ourselves why it exists in that state. As for the uncertainty principle, I’ve always found the name very ironic, because scientists (and I hope to call myself one someday) are generally uncertain about everything….and I like that.
March 31st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Angela, the concept of originality may not be as clear as it seems. Our very existence today is derivative of things of a time before. The mere difference in location differentiates a copy from the original. The continuation of time in a location, or our perception of it, increases the differences between the copy and the original. Like identical twins who share exactly the same DNA, but turn out to have defining personalities. In the scope of the article, the original is destroyed in the process of copying- this makes the resulting copy original in a sense, don’t you think?
Look at this video for a nice example of the battle between science and uncertainty.