RE: I spent the evening with my Son...and Captain Kirk, fun visit for all!
Two or Three Options:
What would be better for Star Trek, all the energy it takes to generate the lasers and the proton phaser or would it be better for the Enterprise and other star ships to carry the weight and the bulkiness of physical missiles, bullets, rocks, etc? I could see that having both would be a good mix.
Tracker Beam, Humpty Dumpty
I wonder if they could, in that fictional world, at least try to put a tracker beam on a missile, a bullet, etc, in order to retrieve it via teleportation after it is fired. Even if a missile were to blow up, what would stop them from teleporting the molecules, the matter, back in order to recycle and reuse them to turn them back into new missiles, bullets?
Beaming People
Which brings up the art of moving people. Did we talk about teleportation yet?
Star Gates
It seems that it would be better to do what they did in Star Gate and also The Expanse with those gates or wormholes where you bend space and time to move from one side of the paper of space to the other side of the paper via bending the paper as opposed to running across the paper.
Star Trek Teleportation
But in Star Trek, they beam people. I wonder how small they go. Well, come to think of it, I think we did talk about this before or it might have been other people. I am beginning to forget. But teleportation can be extremely hard to do when you are dealing with life.
Yogurt Life
Because it is kind of like stirring yogurt or mixing a pile of fertilizer to the extent that you disrupt the soil, the environment, the dirt, where the bacteria, etc, may be disturbed and that may cause problems. Likewise, teleportation may cause problems as the cells may come back distorted. I cannot say if molecules would come back completely the same, organically, naturally, and not synthetically, or virtually, etc.
Microwave Evaporating People
In theory, perhaps Star Trek could evaporate people so to speak, not to be confused with the dangers of a microwave, and then reassemble the molecules or perhaps the atoms.
LEGO People
I don't know if they would have to cut up the LEGO pieces of life into molecule size slices or if they would need to cut everything up into smaller pieces. And who knows if there are no isolated atoms or other smaller things that are somehow not currently part of a particular molecule.
Rocks & Sand
In other words. Molecules are like rocks. But the smaller parts are like sand. So, imagine transporting those rocks in metal cages. The problem might be that the sand could leak out as you transport the rocks from point A to point B. That's the thing about teleporting Picard for example.
One Size Fits All?
The technology may be able to beam over the rocks, the molecules, assuming that every single dot and everything within a human body are contained in molecules and that there cannot be isolated fragmentation of particles or whatever that may not be currently within the borders of the molecules and assuming that the molecules are all the same size, etc, etc.
Humpty Dumpty Molecules
On top of that, the molecules are always moving and if you try to move the molecules, then can you put them back where you find them?
3D Printer Teleportation
That would be the ultimate 3D Printer. I have no idea how fast molecules might move. On top of that, could the transported molecules leak. Plus, could the molecules of the transporter machines leak into the transported molecules similar to how plastic leaks into the bottled water thanks to BPA, etc?
Robot Picard
Before Picard became Borg, he could have became part machine as the molecules of the transporter machines could have fused with his molecules, a little, bit by bit, little by little, as he is teleported over the years. The machines would have to be perfect not to allow for that kind of vulnerability.
Brain Phones
It'd be like putting your mind or soul into the Internet similar to that movie, The Lawnmower Man from the 1990's and the sequel as well which followed with a future world of like 2010 which was the future at that time.
Stuck Inside Computers
There has been some television shows I believe, like the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits where I think a guy got stuck in the computer. Some episodes I think. Well, I can only recall one episode relating to that. But teleportation is kind of like that in that you have to move through the machines like data moves through wires to make its way through the world wide web.
If I designed the Enterprise, I would include more physical weapons beyond the photon torpedoes (with energy yield only). I would include a rail gun and a large bore cannon, as well as missiles. Mixing ordinance preserves options of graduation of scale with weaker ships. I would also fire missiles with anti-matter warheads.
The advantage of energy weapons is that they do not have to be restocked at a resupply point, They already have a pressor (Deflector) beam. Combine that with a tractor beam, and you can shear ships into pieces....
The transporter is an interesting device. We have a quantum entanglement transporter working on single atoms. It may be used to refill fuel tanks in flight. This would allow smaller fuel tanks which are easier to accelerate initially, refueled in flight would still allow deceleration at the end of flight.
The trek transporter supposedly converts matter to energy, then reassembles that energy back to matter. If it worked, I would send a ship with minimal crew quarters, and beam needed crew members into the ship upon arrival. A dozen or so stored crew options would allow you to crew a full starship. You could beam multiple identical crew members as needed, with no logistic loading in transit. The stored crew, could travel in multiple ships. They do the same thing for objects with their replicators....
This would place the crew inside a computer, in storage, interestingly enough.
That's right, they're called proton torpedoes. I forgot what they were called. Can people make proton torpedoes in the real world? I love the gradual approach. Options. Anti-matter warheads, brilliant. The philosophy of turning matter into energy and back into matter again might be as vague as the force in Star Wars. Why don't the doctors in sick bay teleport the sick people out and then back in and simply edit out the germs and sickness out like photoshop?
Their yield is energy in the form of Photons. In Lithotripsy, the sound power is so high that the water changes states, and emits photons. When they pulse it, the transducer faces actually light up. Just a matter of concentrating enough energy in a small space....
The did a transporter filter to remove a contagion in one of the shows, so you are spot on, LOL!
NASA has moved single atoms (Hydrogen) from a to b with matter that is entangled. They really think they can refuel in flight with this process.
If they used Ion drive, they could fuel the engine directly, keeping the onboard tank for maneuvering where large volumes are needed.
I like a rail gun myself, in space there is no 'drop', and the velocity is not bled off by air resistance.
:)>Yeah, I think I saw at least one episode like you said where they used the teleporter to filter out a contagion, and there may have been other episodes with related things, and that just makes me wonder why they wouldn't do it more often. I also wonder if energy is matter and that matter is energy. Like, isn't an electron kind of like electricity which is kind of like energy and isn't light kind of like energy?
Seems like a good option to me too, I'd use it!
Energy and matter are tied, per Einstein. That led to the atom bomb, which is the least efficient machine made by men.
A free electron, traveling in a wire is electricity. Light is a specific frequency of an electromagnetic wave, and comtains energy.
;)>exactly
They have some ion engines running, just needs more efficiency. It could cut the travel time in half, or even better with the quantum entanglement fuel.
:)>What might happen first in our real world, the ability to travel at the speed of light or a star gate? What is easier to do, theoretically? Or what is more dangerous?