The dream of Star Trek-style instant travel has officially crossed the line from pure science fiction into a chilling philosophical reality.
Scientists from the University of Rochester and Purdue University have made a major breakthrough in quantum mechanics, showing that teleportation has come closer to reality, but at the quantum level.
According to quantum teleportation, the researchers found it possible to transfer the quantum state of one particle to another distant particle through ‘entanglement’ without moving any physical matter.
The entanglement-based phenomenon links distant particles regardless of distance.
Unlike sci-fi transporters popularized by Star Trek for 60 years, which magically move physical matter through destruction and reconstruction, quantum teleportation only transfers information between particles over a distance.
“At its core, nature is quantum,” said Jason Orcutt, principal investigator at IBM Quantum, “you are quantum information.”
Scientific progress
The first experiment took place in the late 1990s and showed that quantum states could only be transferred over shorter distances.
However, subsequent research debunked this concept by proving that quantum teleportation is also workable over longer distances, even to and from low Earth orbit.
In 2017, Chinese scientists achieved a milestone by successfully demonstrating teleportation between Earth and an orbiting satellite.
‘Do not copy’ rule
In classical teleportation you cannot transform matter without destroying its originality. For example, if you want to send a document, you can scan it and send it to someone else while keeping the original.
Unfortunately, the no-cloning theorem prevents this in the quantum world, meaning you can’t make an identical copy of an unknown quantum state without destroying the original.
Implications for future science
Although quantum teleportation won’t lead to human travel, this breakthrough is the cornerstone for building a “quantum internet” and advanced quantum computers capable of solving problems impossible with current technology.
“There are problems that are very hard, the age of the universe hard, that we’re not going to be able to solve with classical computing,” Orcutt said.
Even these quantum computers may one day simulate the molecular world along with complex chemical reactions with remarkable accuracy.
Consequently, this would help researchers produce better agricultural fertilizers and revolutionary new materials.
Can people ever be teleported?
This technology offers little hope for human-based teleportation. When it comes to scaling this technology from particles to humans, it raises ethical concerns and existential questions. Worse still, it sparks a long-running philosophical debate: is the person who materializes out of nowhere actually the same person, or a copy?
The destruction of primordial beings will give rise to a dilemma defined by a society in which duplicate human copies would roam freely.
Orcutt explained, “That’s all completely based on speculation.” “Right now, the question of whether you can teleport a human being, let alone an atom, is entirely within the realm of science fiction – and so is any answer to that question.”
While the concept of teleportation seems interesting, it also comes with a haunting question: Is the convenience of instantaneous travel worth sacrificing our basic sense of self?
