Re: PHYS: Quantum Teleportation

Brent Allsop (allsop@swttools.fc.hp.com)
Thu, 11 Dec 1997 13:25:25 -0700


John K Clark <johnkc@well.com> responded:

> Communication is transportation if it's good enough.

By "good enough" you mean the addition of a constructor that
can take the communicated information and reproduce (teletransport?)
the subject at the destination? To me, communication is just a part
of this.

> If I want to send a message to a receiver 2 things must happen:
> 1) I must change something in the receiver.
> 2) The receiver must be able to compare that change with something
> else, such as the voltage on a wire now compared to what it was a
> nanosecond ago.

What? If you can't detect any change (#2) how could one claim
a change (#1) has even occured? If it's not detectable wouldn't it be
much simpler (Occam's razor) to simply say the change hadn't really
occured making it all very newtonian? Isn't it simply that for
communication to occur some DETECTABLE change must be caused at the
destination?

Hey, didn't you know I can travel faster than the speed of
light any time I want to!!?? Watch this! There, I just traveled to
the other side of the galaxy and back between keystrokes! And just to
prove I was really there I made a change while over there. Of course
this change (and the fact that I traveled there) is completely
undetectable to anyone, but hey, trust me, I really did make that
undetectable change. ;)

Brent Allsop