Teleportation is real. Well at least on a quantum level it is. Kinda.
Before we get to the philosophical issues we first need to understand what is happening and that means a little bit of quantum mechanics.
The observer effect states that the act of measuring (interacting) a particle, changes the particle. You can never the properties of a particle with any certainty because the act of knowing, changes the properties. Albert Einstein was not a fan of this idea as he believed that quantum mechanics treated reality like a dice game and that reality could not be so unreliable.
There is one particular paradox that seems to go against everything that Einstein believed and that is the 'Quantum Entanglement Paradox'.
On a quantum scale it is sometimes possible for a pair of particles to become connected in a way that by affecting the properties of one will alter the properties of the other, instantaneously regardless of distance.
Einstein's theory of relativity states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light yet somehow quantum entanglement defies this. If changing one particle also changes the other, then some form of information transfer much occur in order to create a change. Yet if this change occurs instantaneously regardless of distance then the transfer must be fast than the universal constant.
Despite the contradiction of both theories, both remain true. Einstein coined the term 'Spooky action at a distance' to describe this phenomenon.
Teleporting Photons
By sending entangled photons in to space scientists have been able to transmit the information of a third photon from the ground to a satellite without actually moving the third photon.
Teleporting People
So is it possible that we could use this technology to transmit people? Yes in theory. However it would involve entangling every particle in your body with an equal amount of particles in another location. Every particle would be scanned and uploaded and sent to the entangled particles which would instantly assume the state of the original particles.
The issue here is that of the observer effect. Just the act of scanning all of the particles in your body in order to transfer the information would cause the original to cease to exist whist at the same time create an exact copy.
So the question is would the new you be the same as the old you? Physically and on a molecular level it is the same thing, but is it?
Would you jump into a machine that will eliminate you from existence yet at the same time create you somewhere else? If there is such thing as a soul, would that too be teleported?
let me know you thoughts and philosophies.
