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From: peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sf-lovers,net.rec.birds
Subject: Matter Transmission
Message-ID: <151@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Aug-85 12:17:55 EDT
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Posted: Sat Aug 31 12:17:55 1985
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> 	Interesting question! I have a little thought experiment which
> might amuse anyone who's interested in the answer to it. Let's pretend
> that someone has invented a "matter transmitter", a device whereby a
> person can step in a transmitter in, say San Francisco, and step out
> of a receiver in London a fraction of a second later, having been transmitted
> from one to the other. However, it's not *really* a matter transmitter;
> physically sending the atoms that make up your body half-way round the
> world would not be economical. Instead, it simply sends all the *information*
> required to duplicate your body at the other end, using materials closer
> to hand. The result, nevertheless, is an exact duplicate down to the
> molecular level, with both the "mind" and the body not detectably altered.

[followed by some discussion about whether it's really the same person,
and describing a couple of possible accidents that could lead to duplicates]

This has been bandied about by SF writers for years, with various variants.
But let me throw in a couple more...

The machine knocks you out & chops you up like a side of beef at a butcher's
shop. At the other end an autodoc (ala niven) puts you back together. Would
you travel this way?

Comment: It's probably a lot more reliable than the matter transmitter
described above.

The machine breaks you down to individual cells and proceeds as above.

The machine takes a brain recording and a cell sample & plays you back into
a clone.

The machine takes a scan but doesn't destroy the original.


My own conclusion: I'd want to be damn certain that the process would be
reliable before trusting my information to it.

Last thought: What would this do to manufacturing processes? To farming? To
Friends of the Earth or the Audubon Society (don't worry about the whooping
cranes, they're all on file).

Postultimate thought: if you put yourself on file could you ever truly die?