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.
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.
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