Beam Us Up

For those who look at films yet question their importance, and that of other creative works to our daily lives, the recent headline in science this week is evidence of how much of our lives, as we know it, began with the imagination.

On the BBC News website the headline ran ‘First Object teleported to Earth’s Orbit’. I went in search of the information. Which object? Turns out, even international news headlines can be dramatic.

As I gathered, it was not actually an object but a photon.

A photon, for those of you, who, like me probably need to read ‘Quantum Physics for Dummies’ (There is actually a book with this title), is an elementary particle that includes electromagnetic radiation such as light. Basically the recent breakthrough has to do with the transference of information from Earth to a satellite in orbit without actually moving an object.

Though experimentation on teleportation began since the 1990s, it is the first time that this has been achieved over such a long distance. The core concern here however, is, how far are we from human teleportation? What will that mean for us in the future? And what are the responsibilities of creative work? Films and literature have played with the concepts of time travel and teleportation since the 1960s beginning with Star Trek.

And it’s always useful sometimes to look at films with an eye and ear for the issues and questions that they raise. In recent years, coupled with teleportation, questions regarding the nature of consciousness and who we are as humans also come into play.

This is where science and philosophy begin to merge for scientific experimentation is not exempt from the ethical concerns that they raise.

One supposes that the whole point of life is to push the limits of our imagination as far as we can. Many scientific works have emerged from works of artists and writers who have dared to imagine possibilities.

We have the case of the Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci, whose notebooks contain plans for automation, the helicopter and parachute, long before these were realities.

As children, many of us may have played with the concept of the smart watch even before smart watches became a reality.

Dick Tracy popularised that with his watch that doubled as a walkie- talkie. Today we have a large wave of sci-fi films, among which ‘Transcendence’ ‘Lucy’ and the Netflix series ‘Sense 8’ are just a few that explore the nature of the human mind and consciousness and what happens when the gifted goes rogue on us. It is the next consideration in these new scientific imaginings, for teleportation naturally brings forward this issue.

In a very simple explanation on the Big Think channel, the physicist Michio Kaku explains the concept. Basically, for teleportation to occur, you are dematerialised.

In other words, you are essentially dead. You reappear at the designated location but your atoms have been rearranged though this teleported version that carries your memories and personality.

This one simply thinks it’s you.

In essence, who you were initially, is now no longer you at an atomic level, if this makes sense.

If this sounds complicated do have a look at ‘Michio Kaku: The Metaphysics of Teleportation’ on YouTube.

These experimentations, while exciting and groundbreaking, come with a dark side, as most things do. The nature of consciousness is one of them. Are Johnny Depp’s memories (Transcendence, 2014), uploaded onto a giant computer, still him even though his body is no longer there? And what is he capable of in this new form? Are we as Kaku asks, just storehouses of information? The question of who we really are, remains unanswered for we simply do not know.

Perhaps one of the major concerns - given that human beings are by nature prone to greed and negative uses of power – is, whether or not we are capable of the intelligent use of this technology.

In an age where strife seems to be the prevalent motif, this week’s discovery, even at this early stage, will have a significant impact on how we wage wars, create power and relate to other nations. Change is inevitable but its negative or positive quality depends on who holds the reins of power. And this begs the question: are we are capable of managing this new responsibility in an already f r a c t u r e d world?