What fictional object do you most want to own?

[O_P_T]

Almost all ideas have been ones that I thought "yeah, that would be really cool!"

Yours is the only one where I would NEVER want that and would be terrified if it existed in real life. Tearing me apart into my component parts and rebuilding me? No thanks!

We already know from Riker and other transporter "accidents" that it's very possible to make 2 of someone, and for both of them to think they're the "real" person. So fundamentally, if you walk into a machine thinking it'll spit you out elsewhere, and you find yourself elsewhere, all from your perspective seems fine. How do we know, though, that the thing that pops out of the other side is truly you, and not some entirely new being that carries with it your mind, experiences, personality etc?

What if upon using a transporter you are utterly destroyed, and some new thing walks around in your life wearing your skin and mind, with no one the wiser? That to me seems like the FAR more likely scenario, and it would be impossible to ever truly know, as the original creature would not still be around to complain about it. If a transporter existed, I just know that I sure as hell would never use one.

Actually, that's how it is supposed to work.

When you step into the transporter, it scans you to "record you" and sends that information to the other end where a "new you" is created by applying that pattern to a different group of atoms.

The "original" you is deconstructed to the constituent atoms to provide the raw material to create an object when someone/thing "beams in".

Think of it this way.

Take an object and put it in a 3D scanner.

Take that data file created by the 3D scanner and send it to a 3D printer somewhere else.

Have the 3D printer recreate the object.

You've just "beamed" the object to the other location.

Oh and don't ask where the atoms come from to create the new you when you are beamed down to a planet, or where the atoms go when you're beamed up. That's a big hole in the explanation of how it's supposed to work.

Edit: I won't even go into the issues with how much data it would require to fully characterize every single atom in your body so it could be reconstructed accurately or that according to Quantum Mechanics and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, you probably can't measure all the properties sufficiently accurately to recreate "you" from other raw material.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Actually the supposed theoretical functionality is converting you into energy, and then using the energy to recreate you. As such the atoms are not needed, you gain the requisite energy to recreate them from their original conversion, and the only thing you need to supply is an amount of energy needed to compensate for inefficiencies in the process.

As matter / energy conversion is frequently used in the show (replicators are making things from energy, not atoms, for example) it's internally consistent, and I suppose if you were constantly burning antimatter you'd have energy to spare, but none of that addresses the concerns, that just because you used the energy from destroying you (essentially) to make the new being with your memories, does not make that being you.

In terms of the amount of data required and the uncertainty principle, those are very fair points, and they certainly play fast and loose with how much information can be kept in the "buffer" and for how long. The heisenberg uncertainty principle is supposedly taken care of by the "heisenberg compensator", which is the equivalent of a flux capacitor, but at least they recognized it as a limiting point

 

[BostonTim]

A Transporter system, a la, "Beam me up Scotty!"

But. Beam you up from where?

Cheers, BostonTim

 

[Undertaker #59*]

But what if, like in Michael Crichton's Timeline (which also adds time travel), every time you beamed, you ended up in a different quantum reality? And there was a different quantum "you" in your original reality?

 

[gomezcat]

Don't listen to the Limey. He was trying to be funny. There is no such rule.

My bad. Humour is lost on you savages. Besides, as an Englishman, we *do* get to make the rules. Ask the peasants in the rest of the British Isles.

---------- Post added at 06:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 PM ----------

OK, I wasn't aware of that "actually may exist one day" thing.

My second choice is a Brady-autographed photo of Goodell's face, taken at the moment when Goodell hands Brady his next Lombardi, while at the same time Brady's smiling and telling him, "GFY Rog!"

I believe this photo has a high probability of existing in the not too distant future.

Sorry, I was being facetious... it was actually a very good answer.

---------- Post added at 06:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------

There are some great answers on here. As well as the above, I'd love a Klingon Bird of Prey. Proper stealth. Get some!!! Get some!!!

 

[Baron Samedi]

We all know exactly what would happen if someone invents a holodeck.

Squeegee sales would skyrocket.

"Computer, download porn program 593,284, please."

 

[Undertaker #59*]

My bad. Humour is lost on you savages.

Not true. Douglas Adams had fantastic humor (note the missing superfluous "u")

Did you know that the UK still has a High Court of Chivalry? And that after being idle for 200 years, sat in 1954 and its first ruling was on whether it still existed?

That's pretty funny right there.

 

[gomezcat]

Not true. Douglas Adams had fantastic humor (note the missing superfluous "u")

Did you know that the UK still has a High Court of Chivalry? And that after being idle for 200 years, sat in 1954 and its first ruling was on whether it still existed?

That's pretty funny right there.

Wtf? That IS some funny shit!

 

[INPatFan]

Right up there with the Ministry of Silly Walks.

 

[O_P_T]

Actually the supposed theoretical functionality is converting you into energy, and then using the energy to recreate you. As such the atoms are not needed, you gain the requisite energy to recreate them from their original conversion, and the only thing you need to supply is an amount of energy needed to compensate for inefficiencies in the process.

As matter / energy conversion is frequently used in the show (replicators are making things from energy, not atoms, for example) it's internally consistent, and I suppose if you were constantly burning antimatter you'd have energy to spare, but none of that addresses the concerns, that just because you used the energy from destroying you (essentially) to make the new being with your memories, does not make that being you.

In terms of the amount of data required and the uncertainty principle, those are very fair points, and they certainly play fast and loose with how much information can be kept in the "buffer" and for how long. The heisenberg uncertainty principle is supposedly taken care of by the "heisenberg compensator", which is the equivalent of a flux capacitor, but at least they recognized it as a limiting point

Ummmm you do realize that energy and matter are the same thing, yes?

That's what E=mc^2 means.

Energy on one side, mass on the other.

You can convert mass to energy, and vice versa.

It happens all the time with what are known as "virtual particles".

It's also how any particle accelerator (e.g., LHC) "create" those particles. They create energetic collisions which produce energy that in turn becomes those particles.

So if the transporter turns your atoms into energy to store in a battery, capacitor, etc. or a bunch of atoms to put in a jar, is a matter of design, not substance.

 

[Pneumonic]

I would probably enjoy being 16 again while being the only fertile man left on earth.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Ummmm you do realize that energy and matter are the same thing, yes?

That's what E=mc^2 means.

Energy on one side, mass on the other.

You can convert mass to energy, and vice versa.

It happens all the time with what are known as "virtual particles".

It's also how any particle accelerator (e.g., LHC) "create" those particles. They create energetic collisions which produce energy that in turn becomes those particles.

So if the transporter turns your atoms into energy to store in a battery, capacitor, etc. or a bunch of atoms to put in a jar, is a matter of design, not substance.

Yes I realize that and that is entirely the point of the post. That is one of the fundamental premises from which I was speaking, and an assumed point of knowledge in everything I said. I fail to recognize, however, what the point of your post is. What exactly are you trying to convey, beyond the basic physics premises that I assumed we both knew and were working from?

And yes, that's exactly the point, the transporter by design turns your atoms into a bunch of energy, and then uses that energy to reform a creature with your memories and personality and physical form. That doesn't make that creature "you", however. You're still dead, and the creature wearing your skin is still a totally new being who did not exist until that moment. At least potentially. Just like upgrading to a cybernetic form, and "downloading" all your memories and personality and experiences into it. It gets back to the fundamental nature of consciousness, but I believe that if you were to do so, it would be possible to witness the whole "download successful, destroying waste" message and watch yourself be incinerated as the cybernetic "you" wandered off to live your life.

 

[subroc]

a lifetime supply of NZT

 

[tehmackdaddy]

I would probably enjoy being 16 again while being the only fertile man left on earth.

That's a great T-shirt idea: "I'm the last fertile man on earth."

 

[tehmackdaddy]

The transporter sounds like a path to immortality. Download a young version of yourself and reincarnate to that version when you're old. :tmack:

 

[AZPats]

The transporter sounds like a path to immortality. Download a young version of yourself and reincarnate to that version when you're old. :tmack:

Lots of things you can do with a transporter system...

 

[TipRoast]

I was thinking about this the other day, and one thing I would like to have is a multiverse radio.

The idea is this - somewhere in the multiverse, every song that ever existed is just starting up on a radio somewhere.

So anytime I want, I can tune in and hear Boston's own Eric "Two Scoops" Moore playing "The Big Buffet."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZK1VoagSpQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[BostonTim]

I was thinking about this the other day, and one thing I would like to have is a multiverse radio.

The idea is this - somewhere in the multiverse, every song that ever existed is just starting up on a radio somewhere.

So anytime I want, I can tune in and hear Boston's own Eric "Two Scoops" Moore playing "The Big Buffet."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZK1VoagSpQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Would be fun, but I bet that would cost! But hey, all you really need is a device which can store the music (with a speaker or audio out port and a cable to some other speakers) .

Is there anything out there like that. It would probably be cheaper. Good luck.

BostonTechnologyTim

 

[imapig]

I want that Dildo thrown in the Buffalo game. Put in a glass case on the mantle right over my fireplace. Im positive this will set the mood for all my female dates while we lay on the bear rug drinking champagne.

 

[benhamean]

Syndrome's island from The Incredibles