Cutting edge technology

[Wraith_Boy]

just found some interesting articles:

invisibility cloak

and beaming/teleportation

The Japanese already have the basics of such a cloak done as of right now. It's really about improving & refining it as they go along.

Article 1

Article 2

[AvatarIII]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive

[Randy_Watson]

That was debunked a week ago.

Arstechnica

yeah, that seemed rather dubious to me. Thanks for the link.

[Randy_Watson]

So, if teleporting ever became a reality, I wonder how succesful it would be for human use. I just have a feeling that even if the fatality rate is on par with something like air travel or driving, people will be more freaked out by it and less likely to take the risk. Pointless to speculate now, I realize, but I was thinking about it anyway.

[Wraith_Boy]

So, if teleporting ever became a reality, I wonder how succesful it would be for human use. I just have a feeling that even if the fatality rate is on par with something like air travel or driving, people will be more freaked out by it and less likely to take the risk. Pointless to speculate now, I realize, but I was thinking about it anyway.

The main problem is what does it actually do. Does it work like a fax machine in which it takes the original, transmits it to a new destination, then spits out a copy. The other one is that it takes a person, strips them down to particles, then transmits it to another machine somewhere else on the planet. Then re-assembles them. Thus keeping the original intact.

If it were the fax method, then I doubt many would use it, that's if countries would even allow it to be used. However for non-living goods. It would be a fantastic thing to have. Order something from the other end of the world. It goes through to the depot instantly, then they deliver it that day or the very next morning. It would also cut out a lot of the harmful emissions from cargo planes etc.

The perfect scenario would be for everyone to have one in their home. This way they could order then have it delivered instantly direct from the manufacturer. However such a method isn't feasible because of the risks it contains. Someone could want to kill you, they infiltrate the manufacturer or even the company that develops & maintains the teleportation device itself. The sends a bomb or whatever through inside the product that you ordered. Then comes the terrorism problems, what if they got hold of chemical weapons, nukes or some other weapon of mass destruction. They then send it remotely to the target country without any risks of getting caught. Even if a company came up with it, I doubt all the other countries around the world would let them run it in their respective nations for the security problems. Say it was developed in Russia, China or whomever. Something happens & it leads to a war between them & the US or the EU. They could use the teleportation device to send whatever through to end the conflict right away without any risk to their side. They could use it to send people to certain parts, do assasinations or whatever, then instantly disappear back home again.

Teleportation would be a perfect technology to have. It would cut out us needing to travel by plane, we could even use it in place of buses, taxis etc. So not only would it enrich all our lives, it would also help save the planet. However it would only be a matter of time before some group or country used it for neferious purposes to take care of someone that they had problems with. In an ideal world it would be the perfect technology to have, however this is a far from perfect place & in the end it would be mis-used greatly & it would cost us all dearly in the end. Especially when the military would see the applications for it or some terrorist group.

[AvatarIII]

The main problem is what does it actually do. Does it work like a fax machine in which it takes the original, transmits it to a new destination, then spits out a copy. The other one is that it takes a person, strips them down to particles, then transmits it to another machine somewhere else on the planet. Then re-assembles them. Thus keeping the original intact.

how are they any different? the chances are by the time you die you probably don't share a single atom with the you from when you were born. they are essentially the same technology, just reusing particles in the second.

also with the first technology, you would never need to ship food because the tech could be used to xerox matter, and therefore make infinate amounts of everything, assuming you had infinate raw materials.

[gopher65]

I've read (again, dunno if this is true) that it takes approximately 7 years on average for an given molecule in your body to be replaced and expelled. So just as AvatarIII said, does it really matter if your molecules are all changed at once instead of every few years?

[Randy_Watson]

I've read (again, dunno if this is true) that it takes approximately 7 years on average for an given molecule in your body to be replaced and expelled. So just as AvatarIII said, does it really matter if your molecules are all changed at once instead of every few years?

But what happens if a duplicate is accidentally made? How do we decide which one to kill....

[Womble]

Mini-robots capable of crawling through human body's veins and arteries.

Invention theory (this is not technology per se, but this could allow "creative" computer software capable of inventing stuff.

Biological nano-computers that could fit into a drop of water.

Internal-rotor helicopter.

Of course, not all cutting-edge technology has to be high-tech. For example, wild boars are superior to electronic sensors for sniffing out explosives. This is where Earth will enjoy a definite advantage- we have more pigs!

[Wraith_Boy]

how are they any different? the chances are by the time you die you probably don't share a single atom with the you from when you were born. they are essentially the same technology, just reusing particles in the second.

also with the first technology, you would never need to ship food because the tech could be used to xerox matter, and therefore make infinate amounts of everything, assuming you had infinate raw materials.

The difference is that 1 version actually destroys your original self & creates an identical copy which continues to live. The second version actually keeps your original self & only transports it, re-assembling it on the other side.

I don't have a problem with it but I can see why many people would, ethics would come into play & many religious people would refuse to use it on those grounds.

Here is the way one expert (Dr George Forster) puts it:

“The basic principle of teleportation is that you ‘copy’ every atom of an object or a person then ‘transfer’ it to another location. But what happens to the original?

Captain Kirk is transported from the Enterprise to the surface of a planet. He hasn’t been copied, he has been destroyed then recreated somewhere else. So does he still exist or is he a clone? That’s the fundamental question we have to get our heads round before any of us is beamed off to the Costa del Sol whenever we fancy some sunshine."

Unless you could manage to get the second method working in which the original is kept, many people around the world would refuse to use it. Why do you think about the cloning of humans has such problems around the world. Yet with the first method, you'd be doing it tens of millions of times every day.

Unless you could guarantee the way in which the original remained, you wouldn't be allowed to use it on humans. It would be fine for 'hard' good to transport, but not people.

[Jimbo-DR]

Why not? If you can copy said object without any sort of decay or loss of information, whats the difference?

[Wraith_Boy]

Why not? If you can copy said object without any sort of decay or loss of information, whats the difference?

Ethics & Morality is why not!

Human cloning is illegal around the world because it has not been proven to be medically safe, scientifically sound, or socially and ethically acceptable.

Even if teleportation is proven safe & sound. The rest still remain, a person is destroyed & cloned each & everytime they use the machine whether they like it or not. Many might not have a problem with it, BUT many will given the fact that millions will use it every day for long haul travel. As well as hundreds of millions for short term such as to the city centre for shopping then back home again. This is why unless you can guarantee the fact that the original will remain intact over the journey, then it would be banned almost everywhere around the world for transporting people.

I'm not saying I'd have a problem with it myself, because if I could create it & send it to the world I would & let them make their own decisions if they wanted to be cloned everytime they used it. However if I was the creator it wouldn't be up to me or the people to decide. It would be up to those that make the laws & given human cloning is banned, then technology which clones people millions of times every day will also be banned.

Go check out this article & you'll get an idea of what people feel about it:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...6_cloning.html

[Morrolan]

Ethics & Morality is why not!

Human cloning is illegal around the world because it has not been proven to be medically safe, scientifically sound, or socially and ethically acceptable.

Even if teleportation is proven safe & sound. The rest still remain, a person is destroyed & cloned each & everytime they use the machine whether they like it or not. Many might not have a problem with it, BUT many will given the fact that millions will use it every day for long haul travel. As well as hundreds of millions for short term such as to the city centre for shopping then back home again. This is why unless you can guarantee the fact that the original will remain intact over the journey, then it would be banned almost everywhere around the world for transporting people.

I'm not saying I'd have a problem with it myself, because if I could create it & send it to the world I would & let them make their own decisions if they wanted to be cloned everytime they used it. However if I was the creator it wouldn't be up to me or the people to decide. It would be up to those that make the laws & given human cloning is banned, then technology which clones people millions of times every day will also be banned.

Go check out this article & you'll get an idea of what people feel about it:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...6_cloning.html

If teleportation is similar to cloning, it could not be medically safe. No clone is an exact replica of the original. As use of the transportation device became prevalent, people would end up dying out.

If the teleportation device could overcome that flaw, teleportation would be morally acceptable.

If a scientist created an exact replica of an animal or human, the science would become more and more acceptable. The ethics behind the ban is more about the destruction of a living being solely for the purpose of science. Governments are scared of the failures, not the successes.

[Randy_Watson]

If a scientist created an exact replica of an animal or human, the science would become more and more acceptable. The ethics behind the ban is more about the destruction of a living being solely for the purpose of science. Governments are scared of the failures, not the successes.

I'd have to disagree with you there, I think the possibility of creating an exact replica is definately what freaks a lot of people out and causes an ethical issue.

[SoulReaver]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/14/news...e500/gillette/



"cutting edge" tech