“Beam me up Scotty” from the Star Trek series has been more than a catchy phrase, and we have definitely made it to the meaning of teleportation. The phrase was all about a desire to be elsewhere or to escape from an undesirable situation. It was never been spoken in the original series but rather used as a misquotation.
It had moved an inch towards the concept of teleporting, extending the meaning of the phrase to the transporting of a group of people instantly from one location to another without the meddling of any sort of obstacle. This was all about fiction during the 1960s, and as time passed, there had been people discovering the validity of this conception, as well as the mediums through which it could be initiated.
Moving an inch of science-fiction to a more real aspect, have developed some views about the subject, and there is a list of techno-physical ways we could also develop such teleportation technologies.
Table of Contents
Is Teleportation: Reality or Sci-Fi?
What’s so interesting about teleportation that many have pointed out its reality and fiction over the years? It’s the technology and possible outcomes that the majority of curious people have been trying, and they have opened new rooms for making teleportation a unique topic altogether.
The continuous discussion over the passing of information or matter through light and concepts like dark matter, atoms, and photons have further pushed the scope of teleportation to a newer dimension. Some of the explained technologies for teleportation are as follows:-
Time-space Wormholes
Quantum teleportation
3D Printer Teleportation
Time-Space Wormholes
We always ask ourselves if it is possible to teleport an object? If it is possible, then how?
Many scientists (Stephen William Hawking for example) think that the Time-Space continuum is not at all isotropic and that there are wormholes from one point in space to another point in space.
These wormholes – which are so far only theoretical structures, also called Einstein-Rosen bridges – could exist because of some natural reasons – for instance, the presence of extremely high gravity objects nearby.
These theoretical wormholes would contain no physical matter but only “true vacuum” or “Hyperspace” following the General Theory of Relativity.
The object put into such a hole, immediately reaches another exit with minimal possible time – lesser than the time which requires an electron to change its orbit.
How To Detect Time-space Loopholes?
Discharging Velocity
The loophole possibly could work as a pump, pulling everything – the time-space itself, particles, etc.
In that theory, wormholes would act with some similarities with ‘small’ black-holes. They have been described as white holes, the opposite of black holes.
How To Detect Teleportation Wormholes?
Advanced data transmission lines use counted photons to carry data. If the line is tapped, the photons just get consumed and disappear, so we can detect it.
On the other hand, sometimes such lines malfunction and lose all data. How can the photons disappear?
Easy: the escaped via wormholes. So, we can make even portable devices to detect the existence of a ‘nearby’ wormhole.
Therefore, providing that wormholes really do exist, we could technically create a teleportation portal by detecting them and using them for teleporting objects (or people) from one point in space to another point in space.
Teleportation based wormholes may require complex engineering, using what is known as exotic matter, to get stabilized, which hasn’t been discovered yet.
There are a few pros and cons about teleportation wormholes:
Cons:
They can only allow teleportation from a fixed point to another fixed point, which locations depend on only the space-time ‘topography’, thus greatly reducing the choices in the destinations.
The wormholes would not only allow travel through space but also through time since they are the deformation of the space-time continuum itself!
There would be no guarantee of a ‘return ticket’, e.g. that reverse teleportation would be possible
High radiation, dangers of sudden collapse, and potentially dangerous contact with exotic matter.
Pros:
The wormholes could allow interstellar and even intergalactic travel, e.g. to such distances that even with engines going near the speed of light it would take billions of years
The teleportation wormholes would not cost anything in terms of energy or maintenance because they would act as ‘natural’ gateways (e.g. some sort of ‘stargates’)
The quantum entanglement provides a more ‘realistic’ method of creating teleportation technologies.
Quantum entanglement is a quantum phenomenon that occurs when the quantum state of each particle in a specific pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of each of the others.
In other terms, two given particles A and B can be paired, and they will always share the exact same quantum state no matter where A and B will move from each other.
This means that if A is located at a distance of – say – 1 million kilometers from B, if A changes its quantum state, B will change its quantum state accordingly without any visible matter communication between A and B.
This mysterious phenomenon is actually real and vastly unexplained and remains, for now, a deep and extremely puzzling mystery of modern physics.
There have been several validations of quantum entanglement and this also may imply communications faster than light, e.g. real teleportation, if not of the matter then of signals.
Real Experiments & Results
Starting with the first quantum teleportation experiment in 1997 by IBM & the University of Innsbruck, naturally gave way to opening possibilities towards quantum teleportation. During this experiment, two photons were entangled instantly, making the other photon change its position and move far away from the already changed photon. Thus, quantum entanglement had got its first-ever touch of experiment!
Later on, in 2012, nudged for satellite-based quantum teleportation, between two islands in the Canary Islands, enabling 143 km apart of teleportation. They used high-powered lasers to transfer the quantum states between entangled photons and transmission of the quantum state was successful without even losing one over the distance crossed.
There is still a need for concrete signal teleportation despite the recent experiments made by a team of Chinese scientists who claim to have done quantum cryptography operations over a distance of 1,400 km using entanglement (published 28 July 2020 on Arxiv )
Another Chinese team claimed in 2017 that they have teleported a photon from the ground to a satellite orbiting more than 500 kilometers above.
As for objects (e.g. with strictly positive mass) teleportation using quantum entanglement, this is another story. There is no reason to believe that any technology could allow entanglement to teleport matter.
There are a few pros and cons about quantum teleportation:
Cons:
The technique could only allow the teleportation of information.
Since information travels already at speeds close to the speed of light, this reduces the interest of such a technique
Pros:
This technique could allow real interplanetary communications, with speed and reliability similar to the internet
The choice of the entry gate and of the exit gate is complete
This is a realistic method of teleportation of objects.
If an object A has been created by a 3D printer, the object is assimilated by the entry gate and converted into digital information (and eventually destroyed, e.g. becoming de-assembled) then the digital model is transferred using digital communication and finally, the object is reconstructed to the identical using a 3D printer at the exit gate.
The 3D printed object can be extremely complex and contains morphogenetic codes for instance here there wouldn’t be much difference between a Fax machine and making a copy.
There are a few pros and cons of 3D printer teleportation:
Cons:
This is not a ‘real’ teleportation technique but more a facsimile
Only objects created with 3D printers could be ‘teleported’ (or ‘downloaded’)
Pros:
The technology already exists to develop efficiently such teleportation
The answer is yes. Refuting techniques or mediums because of the inexistence of certain particles or technologies only brings about futuristic opportunities. Because teleportation for now cannot end with a single opportunity, as multiple facts would only give rise to more methods, which can only advance the subject knowledge.
Matter Reconstruction is a method of breaking down matter, and after teleporting that matter, it regains its original form. If a person wants to teleport, he/she is made of several atoms or matter and will be broken to be transported and regain the original shape in another dimension. This process would require scanning each atom and storing the data for smoother transportation. Still, the question arises whether the person on the other side will be us or not. Because we can’t be sure if the physical existence is just the data or our body.
Quantum tunnelling method is another one that is practically possible for the teleportation of tiny particles. This is also a phenomenon where a particle needs this amount of energy to break the barrier for moving into a new place. With the principle of uncertainty, particles do have a chance of appearing on the other side without crossing the physical barrier. As controlling altogether is difficult, quantum tunnelling has very little scope with tiny objects, distancing it from the teleportation of humans.
Dark Energy and Exotic matter are also other theoretical concepts, that haven’t yet been discovered. Dark energy is a force causing the expansion of the universe at an accelerating rate and is believed to be harnessed to warp space-time for teleportation. Exotic matter was discussed while explaining the wormholes, which is known as hypothetical matter with negative energy or mass. What this matter does is to keep open the wormholes so that teleporting can be done smoothly
The Dangers Of Teleportation Technology
Teleportation is very present in the popular Sci-Fi culture (Stargate, Star Trek). The series of horror films “The Fly” has featured the unfortunate adventure of a scientist who invented the teleportation machine but who got ‘merged’ with a fly during the teleportation itself!
In the Star Trek universe, teleportation accidents are common. Some people do not go where they want to go, some others get amputated or some others get even more horrible fates by having their DNA structure irremediably damaged.
Should teleportation technology exist one day, it would be highly dangerous and probably hazardous technology and considerable efforts and energy consumption should be required to minimize the risks involved with it.
Teleportation technology may thus be, in reality, used only for information and objects rather than for living beings.
As we saw previously, teleportation of information may become possible in the near future using quantum technologies. Even if information travels at the speed of light: – 299,792,458 m / s – or close to it, a signal may take a long time to reach a distant world.
For example, if we consider a human colony on the planet Mars, radio signals will be scrambled, especially by cosmic rays, and will need important energy to be transmitted while a quantum-based information teleportation system would be instant and with almost no loss of data.
Teleportation Of Objects
Objects created via 3D printers can be teleported, in fact, cloned to a distant location.
Indeed, by using a combination of 3D printer technology and information teleportation technology, one could teleport objects, or in fact more precisely, the model of the object.
Why is Teleportation Necessary?
Teleportation has been a curious question out of the fantasies, yet it has never been asked why it could be used in future. Humans have different fantasies and fiction, with the universe having endless possibilities, not just teleportation, but for similar kinds of interesting equations and curiosities. If teleportation ever comes out of the box, we can also list some real-time uses, It could have:-
Redefining the reality and realm of physics in particular.
Chances of travelling beyond the concept of borders and travel restrictions.
Assistance like food, water and medicine on time, when crises are bound to happen.
Explore space as much as possible, and explore more than just fiction.
Move onto another planet when it’s time to shift there.
Conclusion
We hope that you enjoyed our tour of teleportation technologies mixing a lot of science-fiction and hypothetical physics entities or theories with real and actual technologies.
Strangely enough, the most realistic way of doing real teleportation for humans is also the most complicated: using the wormholes, and we haven’t quite the technology – yet – to do so.
Other teleportation technologies than wormhole based may consider objects – or even living beings- as a collection of atoms, a DNA sequence, a set of quantum parameters, and they may simply ‘delete’ them and re-create them, so in fact, this won’t be teleportation but an instant copy (cloning) involving deletion of the source and immediate remote re-creation as a target.
It’s not difficult to understand that nothing can be right with that method when considering teleporting human beings.
If we use the wormhole technique, this is the space that changes, not our bodies, so our local referential stays the same but how ‘freaking’ this must be to walk through a space tunnel a tunnel inside the space-time continuum itself!
But real teleportation systems may now look a bit closer than what you expected!
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Rithesh Raghavan, Co-Founder, and Director at Acodez IT Solutions, who has a rich experience of 16+ years in IT & Digital Marketing. Between his busy schedule, whenever he finds the time he writes up his thoughts on the latest trends and developments in the world of IT and software development. All thanks to his master brain behind the gleaming success of Acodez.
