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Old October 6th 06, 01:32 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Wayne Throop
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Default Scientists teleport two different objects

: Alan Anderson
: It's called "teleporting" because it involves moving the quantum state
: of an object from one place to another. There is classical
: transmission of information involved, but the result of the entire
: process is indistinguishable from sci-fi teleportation.

And so is beaming a description of an object and rebuilding it.
Or actually moving the object, but very fast. Or any number of
other things that aren't teleportation, but are "indistinguisable".

Basically, since a particle has to move between source and destination,
you haven't done anything in terms of moving a macroscopic
object that you couldn't do with a cathode ray tube. But nobody calls
that "telportation of electrons". The fact that lots of people *do*
call *this* teleportation, and Star Trek gets mentioned prominently
in all media coverage of it, is mainly interesting because of its
relevance to human psychology and linguistics.


Wayne Throop http://sheol.org/throopw