Was captain kirk snuffed out every time he stepped into the teleporter? Would that be him on the other side or just a copy?

Ah, teleporter theorizing! I love it.

Quick summary of how the teleporter works: it breaks down your body into its molecules and creates a huge array of that data. It is only that array, that data that is transmitted to or from the ship, not the actual particles themselves. The transporter then reconstructs the object at the destination.

How does the teleporter transfer a soul? This is the underlying question of the discussion. For me this isn’t a problem as I don’t believe in a soul thus the question is moot. However, for those who do believe in a soul, it would have to be a physical molecule in order for it to be transferred via the transporter, and since people go through it without losing their soul (from what I’ve observed) we must presume it works and transfers one’s soul.

The transporter also asks a question about what we really are. The transporter, by its functionality, says that we are only what we are comprised of, and by its standards since the person/object going in is molecularly identical to the person/object coming out, it would be Kirk and not a copy.

However, the transporter has been known to make a copy. The Next Generation SPOILER: Riker has a transporter clone made of him accidentally due to cosmic interference. This is Thomas Riker. The show goes into a few episodes talking about how they were the same but are no longer, etc. They are some of the best episodes in the show, I feel.

My final thought is that we are the same person that enters and exits, as I believe we are the sum of our knowledge and experiences in the form of our brain, and as long as the transporter can copy that exactly, I see no reason why it would not be me.

@dynamicduo
I don’t like writing a lot so I’ll keep this short. I had the question on me before “Do you believe in a soul” I could hardly tell you what a soul is, does or anything about it for that matter before I can evaluate is it real. I think the fact so many people believe in a soul shows how sentimental we hold that we have consciousness, or free will, when it could be an elaborate illusion in our heads.

I don’t see how the soul really comes into the equation. A copy is a copy. Michael Crichton explored this a little in Timeline and it was part of the plotline in the Hugh Jackman movie The Prestige.

New bits constructed in precisely the same manner as the old bits are not the same.

@robmandu
This really depend on how the teleporter actually work tough Robmandu.

I don’t have the answer, but it always reminds me of the TV scene in Willy Wonka…where they’re broken into a zillion little pixels.

@Myndecho, why?

If I could acculmulate, manipulate, and coordinate particles down to the quantum level with my own hands and took an identical set of particles to those that comprise your body and then assemble them to look exactly like your body… then kill you (the original)... the copy still would not be you.

In Star Trek and the two other stories I mentioned, that’s precisely what’s going on. Instead of human hands doing the construction, it’s a mechanical device. There’s no transmission of the original material (i.e. you)... just data describing their construction parameters. Those data are then used to piece together a new body from new parts. Sorry, but that’s a copy any way you slice it.

@robmandu, I’m interested to hear why you think that a molecularly identical copy of you would not be you. A copy of a digital file is identical in every way to the original, and as far as I can tell it, the transporter is a digital system which interprets the datastream of your molecular structure. As such, I think that the transporter’s output is an exact copy, just as a copy of an mp3 is an exact copy.

From a human point of view, the thing that makes me authentically me is the continuous chain of memory and consciousness. If I’m broken down into my component quarks, converted to energy, converted back to component quarks, and reassembled, as long as I have that chain of memory and consciousness, I’m me.

Of course, this sets up the possibility of there being a perfect copy of me who also thinks he’s authentically me. I think that’s happened on Star Trek before too.

@cwilbur – yup, with Riker. I believe Riker’s transporter clone believed he was the actual Riker until he met the real one.

@bythebay
If only Gene Roddenberry was silly alive writing good plot lines. I’ve never seen that episode, does anyone know which one it is?

Your question has been adressed before in novels I’ve read by James Blish, Michael Crighton, Stephen Baxter, and Robert J. Sawyer. If you are breaking something up into its individual componants, converting that matter into energy, then back into matter again and finally reconstructing the thing you started with, of course you have a copy. The truth of the matter is we are all copies of our original selves. No one cell that is a part of you lasts more than seven years. They die and are replaced by another. The real question here is if there is continuity of thought and no one can answer that, except philosophers.