Would Teleportation Be Morally & Ethically Acceptable?

I'm watching Sci Fi Science with Dr. Michio Kaku. Tonight, he's presenting teleportation (ala the transporters on Star Trek) and the path he's on is to transform a human in to raw data and transmit it from origin to destination where, at the point of destination, would be reassembled. As cool as this is, I do have a question.

If a person can be reduced to data and transmitted via a computer system, is it possible for a computer system to save a copy of that person? I'm assuming the answer is yes, and I have a few problems with this.

1] If a person can be stored and 'reprinted', then wouldn't this effectively make the person immortal? For example, say you have the money to keep a copy of yourself as a backup. On a regular basis, you update your copy and in the event you are killed (murder, accident), a clone is assembled and activated and all you have is a little bit of lost memory. Sound familiar? This was essentially what they did with the Vorta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

2] What if this fell in to the wrong hands? Suppose a Hitler-type of bad guy got ahold of this technology and started to rewrite the data codes of soldiers, essentialy to program clone troopers...

3] What is the same Hitler-type activated clones of himself?

4] Along the lines of example 2, the rich and famous would be able to reprogram their bodies to look a certain way.

5] If we're able to teleport, we'd have no more use for borders or nations.

6] Like many other things in life, this would become a luxury for the wealthy.

7] The most important and scariest (to me) no more God. If a human cannot die, then a human does not need God.

Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Just to prove that she's the idiot that some of us have been saying she is, Senator Babs Boxer wants to go after the Russian hacker that broke in to the computer system of a British institution, stating that the hacking is a criminal offense and that these people need to be brought to justice and will apparently push for congressional hearings to accomplish this. Has anyone mention to Boxer that we as Americans do not have jurisdiction in Russia or England? More importantly, why is Boxer insisting that we pay more attention to bringing the hackers to justice over further investigating the actions that have turned climate change in to a fake science?

One potential answer: boxer is part of the problem. Senator Boxer is the chair of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Her work is based entirely on this fake science that is costing people millions of dollars world wide.

We need common sense in the Senate, common sense that Senator boxer does not have... and don't get me started on the fact that she wants to limit the ability of parents to raise their children.

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

I Hope She Likes It

In an ongoing effort to make our Christmas presents this year, I finished a scarf for my brother's girlfriend. They are supposed to be visiting later today, so I will go ahead and give it to her when they come over. I hope she likes it.

Yet Another Dr. Who Scarf Update

In search of new colors and fresh ideas, I decided to start a thread in the Simply Nonsense for The Sake Of Fun group at Ravelry, offering to knit two rows of pink for each of the ladies that replied to the thread. I ended up with 20 replies =) Here's the result!

If you notice in the lower left corner, the result of my Thanksgiving day knitting is showing. While i originally didn't want to include multi-colored yarn in the scarf, it came out looking really neat! This scarf is going to end up having a lot of meaning to me.