Soon to be a possibility?
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4102018.stm
Selected quotes follow:
Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that, within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic "atoms".
Cameras would capture the movement of an object or person and then this data would be fed to the atoms, which would then assemble themselves to make up an exact likeness of the object.
Professor Goldstein has envisioned that, eventually, the objects will be built with "nano-dust" - tiny objects that can be programmed to bind to each other and move - but currently they are trying to build at a much larger scale, working with objects the size of table-tennis balls.
He said that these cameras would work much the same way as the character of Gollum was created by capturing the movements of actor Andy Serkis in the Lord Of The Rings films.
Mr Serkis wore a special suit and the cameras were able to interpret his movements.
"That information is turned into some representation - a three-dimensional version of an mpeg [computer video file] - like a DVD," Dr Mowry added.
It seems to be more motion-capture than teleportation, but it's still pretty cool.
Comments?
Hmmmm... Could this be a new era for porn? o.o
...What Jaffa said, This would take "Internet relationships" to a whole new level. XD
What about the implications of replicator technology being used to create enough food to feed the entire planet?
Or the possibility that this could lead to a new era of teleportation crimes and terrorist activities?
Or the possibility that even if you were "transported" using this system that you would actually die while a perfectly-generated clone of you was created and then took on your life and your identity? Worse yet, what would stop the operators of these machines from replacing your mind with the mind of one of their agents in a massive bid to take over the world?
Or just the perfect delivery service! You wouldn't have to leave your house again, literally! Buy groceries, get them 'ported over, or rent a video from the video store, or whatever. You could literally live in your house forever that way.
Just wanted to get what could be an interesting discussion out of this one-track gutter.
Are you kidding? I want my 3D porno!
Ladies and gentlemen, humanity at its peak. 
This doesn't sound all that different from the whole quantum teleportation thing that scientists have said is plausible for a while now. It's just been modified to use the internet as a delivery system.
I know what Internet Teleportation is.
It's when you click on a perfectly harmless address in that dropdown menu and it takes you to a disgusting porn site.
Spoken like a true " blatant sex and corruption" spreader.
You have to understand Harley, the internet was built so that if the Army loses all form of communication, they could still look at porn, instead of using those "phone bar" premium cost phone numbers.
IT'S A FACT, PEOPLE
Hey, Jman, I only spread sex and corruption in the MoFo. I don't want to see pictures of naked chinese girls popping up unprompted on my computer screen. If I do go and see them, I want to intend to see them.
Quote:
I don't want to see pictures of naked chinese girls popping up unprompted on my computer screen.
*everyone turns to Jaffa*
I'm SURE she's not refering to me...
Quote:
Hey, Jman, I only spread sex and corruption in the MoFo. I don't want to see pictures of naked chinese girls popping up unprompted on my computer screen. If I do go and see them, I want to intend to see them.
That has never happened on my PC. You wanna swap computers?
I don't want to see pictures of naked chinese girls popping up unprompted on my computer screen. If I do go and see them, I want to intend to see them.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Eh, let's not get this off-tangent with the sex and stuff. There are a lot of things I could say about that whole topic, but suffice to say this shouldn't be discussed here.
So does this actually teleport things, or are they merely reaching that breakthrough in the near future? Can it only affect inorganic objects, how much energy does it take, could it be used to solve world hunger, c'mon, help me out here.
Well, All hologram porn and spyware aside,
Think about this:
If you, as a person, were completely deconstructed atom by atom and "teleported" to a different location, would you really be you? Technically, if your synapses were reconstructed exactly, you would have the same memories, etc., but would it be you, or simply a copy of you? would you remember the agonizingly painful transportation process of having your atoms ripped apart and shot across the internet, or as Terg said, would you be an exact clone? All I know is, if/when this becomes available, I won't be one of the ones rushing out to try it.
Would you even be in one piece, or would your ears be around your ankles? That's what I'm concerned about.
"If you, as a person, were completely deconstructed atom by atom and "teleported" to a different location, would you really be you? Technically, if your synapses were reconstructed exactly, you would have the same memories, etc., but would it be you, or simply a copy of you? would you remember the agonizingly painful transportation process of having your atoms ripped apart and shot across the internet, or as Terg said, would you be an exact clone?"
Those are some interesting points, actually. I somehow doubt the process would actually be painful, unless the deconstruction occured relatively slowly. Pain receptors are designed to respond to specific stimuli such as extremes of heat, pressure, etc. They probably wouldn't notice individual atoms disappearing until so many disappeared that a sizeable chunk of nerve was missing. Hopefully they would get it down to a fast enough process that the brain wouldn't have time to realise what was going before they started testing it on humans.
What's more interesting is the question of are you you when you come out the other side. To an outside observer, the answer is, for all intents and purposes, yes. However, things become more difficult when you consider it from a first person perspective. It all hinges on the nature and transferability of consciousness.
When you're ripped apart and reconstructed on the other side, is your conscious awareness taken with you or does it cease and a new one (albeit with same personality and memories) is started in the product on the other side? If this doesn't make sense, the former case is akin to moving by any other means, while the latter is analogous to making a clone with the same memories, personality, etc. then sending it to your destination and killing yourself (ignoring what may or may not happen to the soul after death).
The worst part about that is, since the difference between the two cases is imperceptible to an outside observer, it can't be tested. You certainly couldn't do something as simple as ask if they remember being on the other side, since either way the answer would be yes. It's a difficult thing to consider or even explain the possibilities of, since it's impossible to imagine non-existence from a first-person perspective and almost as hard to comprehend.
However, this is more to do with teleportation in the traditional sense, rather than what is discussed in the article - the technology described in the news post, as I understand it, is more like copying and pasting a physical object across the internet than teleporting it (which, by the same analogy is more like cut and pasting). Still, it's an interesting thing to ponder.
