Your Favorite Pop Science

[Anoria]

We're all here because of the many-worlds theory, right? That seems to be the favorite of today's authors looking to make their settings a little more interesting or introduce a new dimension to their plotlines. But of course, that's not the only idea out there that has started in scientific circles and then caught the imaginations of the greater public. What's another object of speculation or research that you could talk about around the water cooler at work? Teleportation? Faster-than-light spaceships? Graphene-cable space elevators? Cloaking technology? String theory? ...okay, maybe I'm getting a little bit removed from the water cooler there.

Where is your pet topic going in the world and how does that compare to where you'd steer it if you were in charge?

[Alexandra]

I really love discussing teleportation with people. Say a teleporter worked by scanning your body, mapping where every single atom is located, and then transmitting that information to a remote location and reconstructing your body from entirely different atoms, and then destroying the original copy.

First, this would cause problems for people who believe in souls (which I assume is the majority of the human race), because only the physical part of the person was recreated. Some would say this means the teleported version is a clone, and not the same person, perhaps without a soul since it's man-made, and therefore you have just murdered the original copy. I don't believe in souls, personally; I think your personality, feelings, and thoughts are all part of your physical body and so the transported person would be 100% identical (assuming a flawless transporter). There would still be the problem of getting rid of the original copy, because say there was a problem in the transportation and the copy malfunctioned... you wouldn't want to get rid of the original until you were sure that the copy was safely constructed. But, then there are two copies for a period of time; would you really want to let yourself be killed?

I get fuzzy on this part, because we don't understand consciousness. As far as I feel, I wouldn't want to let myself be annihilated and just assume I'd just keep living in another body. It wouldn't feel that way, it would feel like there was another me, entirely identical, but different. My rational side thinks there wouldn't be a problem but... how does consciousness work? Which is another issue, because from that moment on the two copies are different people; they experience different things, and given enough time they'd feel different. So it wouldn't be just getting rid of one copy, it would be actual murder.

I've thought about this a lot, and I can't come to a good conclusion about how a hypothetical teleporter would work without horrible repercussions.

[Soapy]

If that's the only way to teleport then I'll stick to walking, thanks. The very idea makes me cringe. Not in the least because presumably you would still be aware when they got rid of your original body, and i can't imagine that dying every time you need to teleport would be pleasant... unless they knocked you out.

[Peter]

Have you read The Theory And Practice Of Teleportation by Larry Niven? It's old, but a good grounding in the subject. You'll find it in a number of Niven collections, e.g. All The Myriad Ways (The title story is a many-worlds tale).

Obviously, the many-worlds hypothesis and exoplanets interest me

[bee]

My most recent water cooler discussion (well, around the -20 freezers... similar to a water cooler, yeah?) was about mind control. Apparently using electromagnetic ...stuffs (probes? plates? not quite sure) placed on the outside of the head (no surgery!) the researchers were able to influence basic abilities like speech, ability to count (they had one guy just count and then when they put the magnet in a certain spot, he couldn't figure out what numbers to say anymore), and ability to distinguish morality. The last one was the most interesting... They had a bunch of people watch a video clip in which a man poisons his twin brother. And all the people said that was bad/evil/morally wrong. Then they had a set of people watch the same clip but with the electromagnetic device positioned at a certain part of their heads and these people didn't see anything wrong with poisoning your twin brother.

Super fascinating. (This came up because of a PBS special featuring some of this research, and also information about new AI work... I'm going to try to track down the series to see more!)

[Soapy]

My most recent water cooler discussion (well, around the -20 freezers... similar to a water cooler, yeah?) was about mind control. Apparently using electromagnetic ...stuffs (probes? plates? not quite sure) placed on the outside of the head (no surgery!) the researchers were able to influence basic abilities like speech, ability to count (they had one guy just count and then when they put the magnet in a certain spot, he couldn't figure out what numbers to say anymore), and ability to distinguish morality. The last one was the most interesting... They had a bunch of people watch a video clip in which a man poisons his twin brother. And all the people said that was bad/evil/morally wrong. Then they had a set of people watch the same clip but with the electromagnetic device positioned at a certain part of their heads and these people didn't see anything wrong with poisoning your twin brother.

Super fascinating. (This came up because of a PBS special featuring some of this research, and also information about new AI work... I'm going to try to track down the series to see more!)

Really? You got any references for that? Would love to have a looksies.

[Bellerophon]

Lodestone Resonator?