We’re all aware of the concept of human teleportation, whereby a human being can be instantly transported to a far away location via the linking of separate teleportation machines. It’s a classic Hollywood trope, seen throughout various science fiction and space movies and perhaps most notably depicted in Star Trek.
Could teleportation – as seen in Star Trek – ever be possible?
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And it certainly
stimulates the imagination. Picture a world in which a journey from the UK to
Sydney Opera House lasted the blink of an eye. Or imagine a time in which human
geologists could quickly nip over to Mars to collect a rock sample and return
to their lab to study it in a matter of minutes. Human teleportation is an
amazing prospect, but will teleportation, as seen in Star Trek,
ever be a real possibility?
Human teleportation could allow humans to beam aboard spacecraft throughout the Solar System with ease.
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It’s always risky
to say “no, never”. But it is has to be said that teleportation is extremely
unlikely. A Star Trek-style transporter must do three things:
firstly, pin down the position and type of every atom in a person’s body; then,
transmit that information – presumably at the speed of light – to a remote
location; and, finally, use the information to assemble atoms into a perfect
copy of the person.
Until relatively
recently, it looked as if the task would fall at the first hurdle because,
according to quantum theory, it is impossible to know everything about an atom
with 100% certainty. However, physicists have discovered a trick called
‘quantum teleportation’, which ingeniously allows them to create a perfect copy
of a quantum particle at a remote location.
In fact, they can
now achieve the feat at multiple locations. This is called ‘quantum
telecloning’. However, the Achilles’ heel of the Star Trek transporter
is neither pinning down the position of every atom in a person’s body, nor
assembling an exact copy (although both would be very difficult). It is
transmitting the volume of information needed to describe a person that presents
the major hurdle.
Billions of times
more information is needed to transmit the make-up of a human being than is
needed for the reconstruction of a TV image. The obvious way to send it is as a
series of binary ‘bits’. If the information is to be sent quickly, the pulses
must be short. But ultra-short pulses require ultra-high-energy light. As
Arthur C Clarke has pointed out, beaming up Captain Kirk would take more energy
than there is in a galaxy of stars!
So, sadly, Star Trek-style teleporters aren’t likely to appear any time soon.