Clarkson will theoretically be 80. He might still be around.

I don't like teleporters. I subscribe to the theory that teleporters kill you, from the moment you use one you will experience nothing ever again, but nobody else will be able to tell.

If we're in imaginary world you might as well imagine them too.

Elon Musk's underground vacuum tubes will be everywhere by then. You'll be fired in a capsule at 7 times the speed of sound to exactly where you want to go!

I don't like teleporters. I subscribe to the theory that teleporters kill you, from the moment you use one you will experience nothing ever again, but nobody else will be able to tell.

You'll be like a chewed up Pepparami in a Fleshlight.

I don't like teleporters. I subscribe to the theory that teleporters kill you, from the moment you use one you will experience nothing ever again, but nobody else will be able to tell.

Perhaps in future times they'll have uncovered the secrets of consciousness and those questions would no longer be philosophical. You won't catch me in one, though. I'll tell you that!

Perhaps in future times they'll have uncovered the secrets of consciousness and those questions would no longer be philosophical. You won't catch me in one, though. I'll tell you that!

I've often wondered about that. A true teleporter that actually sends You (capital Y) instead of just a reanimated copy of you would need to break down your matter into energy and send the actual energy to be reassembled. If it was just scanning every atom and rebuilding it from raw material at the other end, then does it just annihilate the original?

Imagine the Scene: The first time a Starfleet officer uses a transporter.

"ENGAGE"

The machine whirrs, lights flash and... nothing. The officer remains where he was. A technician comes out of a side room.

"Hello, Ensign. The machine has cloned you and sent a copy to your destination. You, the original, are no longer required for the mission. Here are you discharge papers and a ticket for your return journey by shuttle. Have a nice life!"

All of the Star Trek characters are just copies of the originals, who are living it up on Riza.

Thread split?

Perhaps in future times they'll have uncovered the secrets of consciousness and those questions would no longer be philosophical. You won't catch me in one, though. I'll tell you that!

The future will be about remote manipulation rather than sending yourself somewhere.

You heard.

Telepresence, in VR, with full immersion. Better than life, you might say.

More human than human

Telepresence, in VR, with full immersion. Better than life, you might say.

Unless they add Ed Sheeran.

Imagine being the first member of the public to die in a Musk-Tube accident.

It feels like a very unedifying way to go. You'll be like a chewed up Pepparami in a Fleshlight.

No, because I'd really rather my mind and thoughts and feelings couldn't be boiled down to an algorthim. It'd make it all somewhat pointless.

I imagine it just spraying you out the other end in a sort-of aerosol mist. The controllers would know you'd hit a loose access panel half the way along but wouldn't be able to stop you, and so would just continue pumping you through the tube.

Of course, if souls don't exist and there's no afterlife, what are we but crudely animated sacks of meat?

I have the grace of a gazelle.

...our consciousness is little more than a rollercoaster ride and free will is an illusion.

I don't like teleporters. I subscribe to the theory that teleporters kill you, from the moment you use one you will experience nothing ever again, but nobody else will be able to tell.

I appear to have missed, well, lots of posts. I'm not entirely sure how.

It's one of the ways they might work, for sure - scan you down to your atoms, break you down into mulch, and build a new you somewhere else.

The important thing to consider here is that what's stopping it not destroying the original, or building fifty copies? Serious restrictions and rules, I guess, but hackers will get in there eventually.

It's a good philosophical question.

What if that happens every time you fall asleep. If every time your stream of consciousness is broken it ends and then another one takes over just with the same memories. When you go to sleep you actually die.

In the China Mieville book, 'Kraken', there's a character who has the ability to teleport a la Star Trek, and he is permanently haunted by the ghosts of his dead past selves, as every time he transports it does indeed kill him and build a new 'him'.

In the same body?

I appear to have missed, well, lots of posts. I'm not entirely sure how.

Yeah, what is individual consciousness except the experience of having had an unbroken stream of experiences, of always having been you. What if every time the activity within the bits of the brain that cause consciousness stops and then starts up again it's like rebooting a computer the actual "you" stopped when you nodded off, then some other identical cunt wakes up the next day with all the same memories utterly convinced that all that stuff happened to them.

Yeah, what is individual consciousness except the experience of having had an unbroken stream of experiences, of always having been you. What if every time the activity within the bits of the brain that cause consciousness stops and then starts up again it's like rebooting a computer the actual "you" stopped when you nodded off, then some other identical cunt wakes up the next day with all the same memories utterly convinced that all that stuff happened to them.

http://www.melaniephillips.com/cruel-ignorant-campaign/

Melanie Phillips on the, frankly, fucking awful Gard case. Worth a read.