Question Break Answers 1

So I had one question but it was a good one so I figured it deserved a post rather than just an answer in the comments. So Philip wrote in the comments:

So, Carlee, is it...now is that pronounced CAR LEE or..what am I thinking, there's only one way to pronounce that.

So, Carlee. I've always wondered what it would be like to teleport. You must inform me as to how it feels. Now I am given to understand that the way a teleporter works is to identify the quantum state of matter of the item in question and transmits the pattern to another location for reassembly. Now if this is true, you would not have actually transported the item, but in fact destroyed the item and recreated it elsewhere.

So I guess my question is, how does it feel to be completely disintegrated and recreated? Can you actually feel the disintegration process? Are there any side effects that future scientists should be weary of?

Thanks. I'm a big fan.
Phillip

Phillip,

Thanks for your question and yeah Carlee is pronounced exactly like it sounds, Car like the vehicle and Lee like the southern civil war general.

As for your question on teleporting, well I’m not really qualified to talk about the theory. I’m struggling in Algebra II – do you really expect me to know how teleporting works? To me it’s sort of like magic. Luckily, my brother is an android and knows more about that sort of thing.

I can answer the how does it feel question. It sort of feels like your entire body fell asleep. I mean it’s pretty instantaneous but for this brief moment you feel tingly all over like right before your foot goes completely numb.

Man, you’re going to make me terrified of transporting with all this talk of destroying the item and recreating it elsewhere. Sort of reminds me of that movie the Prestige.

So now on to John for the technicalities.

Transporting: A Short Synopsis

The first transport device was invented by a species called the Yzbauir nearly seven hundred thousand Earth years ago (approximately 3,000 Yzbauir years). The device was investigated extensively by the Intergalactic Technology Regulation Administration (ITRA). After one hundred Earth years of investigation and use by the Yzbauir people with only a few minor incidents, the technology was approved by ITRA for use throughout the galaxy. By this time, other civilizations had developed their own transporter devices. Currently 7 forms of transport devices have been approved by ITRA for use.

Transporting is generally safe, though accidents have been known to happen when multiple transport devices are used in the same area. That is why transportation is heavily regulated by the Intergalactic Transportation Administration (ITA). Except in extreme emergency situations or on planets (like Earth) where absolutely no other transportation is taking place, all transports must be scheduled and approved at least three months in advance. This means that transportation is a technology mainly used by the important. The average citizen of the Universe generally chooses to travel by shuttle or spaceship.

How transporting works depends on the technology, and currently there are seven different forms. One transporter did take the person being transported apart on the molecular level as was described in the question. It is not, however, one of the 7 approved forms of transport. This transporter, though, approved as safe by the ITRA was taken off the market six hundred thousand years Earth years ago by the Intergalactic Council of Morality and because it was not selling. People were afraid to use something they thought might be killing them every time they used it.

The most popular transporter actually creates small tactical wormholes around the item or person to be transported. The actual matter is then transported in its entirety. The second most popular transporter shifts matter into energy and then shifts it back into matter on the other side, not destroying the traveler since energy and matter are connected and interchangeable. Many species made of matter still avoid this method, preferring the wormholes, but it is extremely popular among species composed of energy, who have no need to worry about matter shifting.

As stated before, transporting is not a common form of travel. Our transportation from Earth to the Ovleen spaceship was a rare occurrence, only allowed since landing on a primitive planet is strictly forbidden, it was a culture contamination emergency, and there was no possibility of anyone else transporting from the planet. The transporter that was used was one of the tactical wormhole transporters.

I hope this answer is satisfactory.

~John Earhart

Thanks John for your long, Wikipedia-esque answer. That was the only question on the blog, but a while ago Alisha asked a question on facebook (what’s that? You didn’t know I was on facebook. I may not be on Earth but I’m not that far out of touch). So I am adding our exchange after one of my status updates here.

Carlee Earhart wishes Ven and John would stop arguing for five minutes and find some way to fix her internet permanently instead of the quick patch throughs they keep coming up with.

Alisha: Hey Carlee! I’ve been following your blog, but you’ve only mentioned who John is, not Ven, so who exactly is he?

Carlee; Hey Alisha, Ven is a friend of ours who comes up a little later in the story of our adventures. I know I have not explained him yet. He’s a human (though not an Earthling – he’s third generation not Earth), and he helped us escape the Society of Anthropologists.

He doesn’t come into the story for a few more posts, but all you really need to know is that he’s around twenty and he doesn’t think Androids are real people. Needless to say he and John don’t get along very well.

He also owns the spaceship we’re traveling in, so until we get our own spaceship we sort of have to deal with him.

Alisha: Ahh ok. That’s silly that he doesn’t believe androids are real people, I mean look at Data. He sounds like a younger version of Mal the captain of Serenity. Oh well best of luck with getting the Internet patched I know how that feels. I look forward to reading more of your adventures.

Carlee: He wishes he was as awesome as Mal. But he doesn’t know who Mal is. Being not from Earth and all he doesn’t really follow Earth science-fiction, even if Firefly is awesome.

Well that’s all for questions being answered. If you have any more questions feel free to ask them on any of the pertinent posts or on future question days. You can also ask me any day on facebook!