From: Wayne Hayes (wayne@cs.toronto.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 11 1997 - 10:12:18 MST
Max More <maxmore@primenet.com> quotes:
>Note that this scheme
>transports the particle's properties to the remote location and not the
>particle itself.
This is the crucial bit of (disappointing) information. I looked
carefully into this when the idea was originally annoucned, and decided
that "teleportation" was definitely the wrong word. It is *not*
teleportation in any sense whatsoever. It is the merely the ability to
transfer the exact quantum state of one particle to an identical
particle. The second particle has to exist at the destination; the
only thing that is transfered is the quantum state.
It is almost certain that the quantum state of a normal, everyday object
(like a brick, or a human) is completely irrelevant when it comes to
true teleportation. For example, the exact quantum state of the atoms
inside the neurons in our head is almost certainly irrelevant to our
consciousness. This is why people can put their heads into MRI scanners,
and nobody has ever come out of one as a vegetable, an axe murderer,
or anything other than a little bit peckish.
So, unfortunately, it's not teleportation at all, and the guy who
decided to use that term for this effect should be shot for trying
to make the effect look like so much more than it actually is.
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