From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Fri Dec 12 1997 - 10:27:47 MST
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Wayne Hayes <wayne@cs.toronto.edu> On Thu, 11 Dec 1997 Wrote:
>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.
What more you could possibly demand of teleportation?
The quantum state is all there is to say about an object, it's meaningless to
say that the object was destroyed here an another one with the exact same
quantum state created there, it's the same object.
The only thing we know about Homer is that he was blind, lived in 800 BC and
wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey it would be meaningless to say that those
epic poems were not written by Homer but by another blind man in 800 BC who
coincidentally just happened to have the same name, "Homer".
>For example, the exact quantum state of the atoms inside the neurons
>in our head is almost certainly irrelevant to our consciousness.
The exact quantum state of your brain is almost certainly far more
information than you'd need to duplicate consciousness, but it's definitely
not irrelevant.
>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
An MRI scanner will change the quantum state of your brain and thus it will
change you, so will reading this post or being bitten by a mosquito.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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