Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

I forget, now, how it happened, but earlier today I was eating lunch in our local pub – they do an excellent Sunday lunch, and thankfully it’s very reasonable too – but the topic turned from watching ospreys fishing, to teleportation. And it was quite an interesting discussion.

Someone thought that they thought that the very idea of teleportation was first seen in Star Trek, which, at its beginning was a very low budget science fiction show. In order to cut costs, they apparently just thought that it would be incredibly convenient to have some form of travel where you could move from one place to the next without having to do anything. It was simple, quite brilliant, and you didn’t have to spend money on anything more than a little device and a fancy sound effect.

And now, because of this, we have scientists dedicated to researching teleportation; scientists investigating it and partaking in tests to try and move molecules a certain distance across a river, and all sorts. Whether it’s true or not, it’s quite interesting to think about: it’s the notion that it’s not really science fiction, but science fact. Science fiction has created something that could potentially be very real, and might not have been were it not for its sci fi origins.

But, as I understand it (or perhaps I’m mistaking it for some form of hyper-jump space travel) isn’t teleportation merely deconstructing your body into its constituent, base parts – transferring them, and then reassembling them like lego? It rings bells. And that’s true, then even if teleportation was possible in today’s world, I’m not sure I would want to even try it. I don’t think I could trust a machine to construct me back to a fully functioning, fully working person.