# Star Trek: Transporters and Immortality **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382 "2010-05-31T13:53:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/41 "2010-06-01T23:20:54Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > While you guys are hashing this out, I’ll be in the holodeck. Do not disturb me. Fine. Leave me alone with a garage full of flaming/flying/smoking/LASERing simiams. I’ll make out fine, no problem! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/42 "2010-06-02T00:03:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Fine. > Leave me alone with a garage full of flaming/flying/smoking/LASERing simiams. > I’ll make out fine, no problem! > :rolleyes: I have dispatched a team of flying robot sharks to deal with the monkeys. No charge, but as the sharks lack fingers you will have to deal with the cleanup your ownself. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/43 "2010-06-02T00:32:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > An example of the sort of hand-waving explanation I’d mentioned earlier. If Gold, Diamonds, or anything else valuable can be replicated, you need some sort of commodity that can’t if you’re going to keep a social system at all like ours. > I’d forgotten about latinum not being replicable. **Can it be transported via transporter?** (my bolding) I’d never thought about this. Replicators and trasporter are related technologies. If you could transport it, replicating it would not be that difficult. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/44 "2010-06-02T00:37:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If **trabsporters** and replicators could be used… I hope your code in the node gets better soon… have a tissue… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/45 "2010-06-02T00:42:47Z")
This wasn’t brought up in Star Trek (just a scientific answer), but if the transporter is reproducing quantum states of particles in people’s bodies, it would be susceptible to the [No-Cloning Theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-cloning_theorem), which says that if you produce a copy of a quantum state, you must destroy the original. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/46 "2010-06-02T02:05:34Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I have dispatched a team of flying robot sharks to deal with the monkeys. No charge, but as the sharks lack fingers you will have to deal with the cleanup your ownself. Christ, now I have to buy an industrial strength shop vac? Don’t sharks eat things? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/47 "2010-06-02T02:15:47Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Christ, now I have to buy an industrial strength shop vac? > Don’t sharks eat things? Dude, they’re SHARKS. Of course they eat stuff, but they don’t have thumbs. Or fingers. Or for that matter palms. They’re messy. Just be glad they’re programmed not to eat anything with 23 chromosome pairs. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/48 "2010-06-02T02:24:21Z")
And let me guess, humans and flying monkeys have 23 pairs, right? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/49 "2010-06-02T02:45:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > And let me guess, humans and flying monkeys have 23 pairs, right? Humans have 23 pairs. Howler monkeys have 22, I think. Obviously I don’t need to send any flying robot sharks after you, as you are apparently under attack by the flaming monkeys. That would not be a good use of my resources, and flying robot shark fuel is expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/50 "2010-06-02T03:06:24Z")
Dude’s garage is full of self-cooking monkeys and monkey brains, and he’s bitching about it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/51 "2010-06-02T03:25:48Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Dude’s garage is full of self-cooking monkeys and monkey brains, and he’s bitching about it. Y’all come on down, bring a big shop vac and barbecue sauce. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/52 "2010-06-02T21:46:20Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > So how did Riker get effectively cloned? You could fanwank an explainantion. One of the Rikers was pulled from a near identical alternate universe. Way more identical than the mirror universe or the reboot universe, at least before Riker got pulled away. Now they the prime universe has two Rikers and that alt universe has none. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/53 "2010-06-02T21:51:13Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > You could fanwank an explainantion. One of the Rikers was pulled from a near identical alternate universe. Way more identical than the mirror universe or the reboot universe, at least before Riker got pulled away. Now they the prime universe has two Rikers and that alt universe has none. So…the prime universe lost a bet, right? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/54 "2010-06-02T22:14:23Z")
I like to do the “Riker Head Tilt” at people. Makes me seem important yet humble. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/55 "2010-06-02T22:42:04Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > self-cooking monkey user name! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/56 "2010-06-03T10:24:31Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > important yet humble Band name! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/57 "2010-06-03T12:22:37Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > You could fanwank an explainantion. One of the Rikers was pulled from a near identical alternate universe. Way more identical than the mirror universe or the reboot universe, at least before Riker got pulled away. Now they the prime universe has two Rikers and that alt universe has none. Yip. It’s the only way traveling to the mirror universe sense. Heck, the conditions that caused both malfunctions were pretty similar. It just makes sense that, in the other universe, they failed to get him back. Still doesn’t work for the DS9 episode, though. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/58 "2010-06-03T23:25:53Z")
> [@Fang](#): > > This wasn’t brought up in Star Trek (just a scientific answer), but if the transporter is reproducing quantum states of particles in people’s bodies, it would be susceptible to the [No-Cloning Theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-cloning_theorem), which says that if you produce a copy of a quantum state, you must destroy the original. Hey, that’s neat. So is that stating that it is not possible to duplicate a consciousness, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/59 "2010-06-03T23:51:46Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Hey, that’s neat. > > So is that stating that it is not possible to duplicate a consciousness, I wonder? I shouldn’t think so. I see no reason to think that consciousness is an emergent feature of neurobiology. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382/60 "2010-06-04T00:01:03Z")
That’s one of my core beliefs. Different strokes, I guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-transporters-and-immortality/541382.md?page=4)