TV - "Future Fantastic" EPISODE 2: Teleportation

Chris Hind (chind@juno.com)
Tue, 04 Mar 1997 00:11:47 -0800


I enjoyed tonight's episode because of the neato 3D graphics, the guest
appearance of Neil Stephenson (I loved Snow Crash) and the demonstration of
a fully functional metaverse w/avatars, good graphics, and realtime voice
to clear up the public & media's concept of virtual reality. I am intrigued
by the idea of having fuel offboard and beaming it to a flying craft of
sorts by microwave or laser. How much energy is lost in the process? I am
also highly skeptical about any vehicle at all based on solar or wind power
with the technology currently being so weak or expensive to manufacture.
Comeon, a commercial airline-type craft fueled by ion propulsion? It would
be too slow to be viable and did they even explain how you get it in the
air in the first place? I disliked how they had an image of an alien in the
opening because it labels the whole show for UFO fanatics and other
miscellaneous wierdos. Another thing i disliked was that antigravity device
that the Navy turned down due to saying it was an anomoly, that just says
crackpot written all over it. (And I know Mike Lorrey is going to fight me
on this statement). Another thing i had a problem with is that they didn't
go into either side of the teleportation problem, destructive vs
deconstruct/reconstruct teleportation. I for one will not want to travel
with destructive teleporation except for my body, I'd prefer nanites to
carry my brain or perhaps transport it through a miniature controlled
wormhole? I believe that an atom's physical location (although being
undetectable) is a vital element in transporting a living intelligent
object such as an individual. In other words, my atoms are mine. MINE!
MINE! MINE! I look forward to tomorrow's episode on Robotics. Does anyone
know what episodes Max & Natasha are in?

"Risk: You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore."

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Chris Hind (chind@juno.com) Upward, Outward, ACTION!
Email attachments: (bholat@earthlink.net)
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