Teleporting into the future
Quantum mechanics is famously difficult to comprehend, but in some cases, actually understanding why something happens is less important than making it happen on command to see what you can do with it. That is the perspective of Dr. Christopher Munroe at the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute. Not thinking too hard about why quantum entanglement works, he creates experiments that illustrate the effect of quantum entanglement, using lasers, vacuum chambers and complex electronics. He was able to use two experimental atoms as buffers, which would be essential should the technique ever be able to carry information—the kind of information needed to reassemble a complete human being.
Quantum entanglement
Teleporting objects and people great distances instantaneously remains science fiction for now, but scientists are starting to put theoretical foundations under the fantasy. Dr. Munroe is using the strange ability and demonstrable ability of any two electrons that were once close together to “sense” and replicate what is happening to their partner. This happens instantaneously, faster than the speed of light, whether the electrons are separated by a meter or a galaxy. Einstein was so baffled by this effect that he called it “spooky action at a distance," and scientists are still far from consensus about how it works.
Scaling up
The information travelling via spooky action is random, but if this communication channel could be harnessed and slowed down to less than the speed of light, theoretically one could send the characteristics of atoms over great distances and locally entangled atoms would take on those same attributes. With large objects, meaning those composed of trillions and trillions of atoms like human beings, the person would be destroyed in the process of getting the information to send. So would the atoms at the other end actually be the same person or just an atomically exact facsimile? How would we tell the difference?
Atomic soul
Although it is not terribly controversial to play around with these ideas using the odd photon, once people start thinking about teleporting humans, things can get quite heated. Some scientists note that at the atomic level, or smaller, humans are nothing more than information, vibrations that can be measured, just like those in a hammer or a house plant. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to recreate a person with all their memories and consciousness using just atomic information. However, as we would have to destroy the person first, some philosophies maintain that the new version would have to have a new soul, too, making it a different person entirely.
True telepathy
“Spooky action at a distance” is an exciting concept for people who believe it may offer a scientific explanation for phenomena like telepathy, psychic viewing or reincarnation. As most hard scientists consider these to be superstitions, they strongly resist these suggestions and point to examples of experiments disproving their existence. However, the quantum and logical explanations of the observer effect—that experimental results are absolutely entangled with the observations of the person doing the experiment—mean that the debates will rage on.
