this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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If the meme is correct that people are rebuilt at the molecular level, then cell damage would be preserved across iterations.
That said, if you have sufficient resolution and detail to rebuild someone at the molecular level, I see no theoretical limitation that would prevent actively using modified transporters to heal damage, etc.
That said, I subscribe to the philosophy that your subjective experience / perspective / consciousness ends the moment you're first disassembled by a transporter and never resumes (i.e. transporters are actually duplicators). So it's not the fountain of youth in any meaningful sense if transporting is modified to repair damage.
That said, I see no reason why a heavily modified transporter couldn't be used to Ship of Theseus your whole self cell by cell, thereby completely rejuvenating yourcellf without the pesky cessation of consciousness / death. So, yes, it could be the fountain of youth.
If I we're to create a transporter like device, I'd have it copy my brain to a robot at the other end. Then when the robot was done I'd have the new memories added to my own.
I'd possibly add some sort of death expectation to the robot mind too so it didn't seek to continue living, maybe just an acceptance that it'd be used as a tool by possibly thousands of people.
Might cause other problems, but at no point is the human broken into atoms.
This sounds a lot like the book Kiln People (David Brin). The dittos are born knowing they have specific expiration dates and the original human can decide whether to add the ditto’s memories to their own.
So maybe transporters could be used for closing by sending the transmission twice or three times or hell just like don't disassemble the person just rebuild them.
This discussion always gives me that sort of naseus disoriented feeling, in the good 'makes you think scifi' sort of way. Whenever someone brings it up I can't help but try to figure it out and it basically goes through these thoughts each time:
Does consciousness require some kind of continuity that would be broken by disassembling our bodies (death, replacement)? Or does it emerge from the cells in a way that only requires the certain configuration of our bodies (sort of like waking up, or being unfrozen)? And will we ever know because if I teleported the way they do in Star Trek, I'd feel like the same person to me and you, so the me that left that teleporter never gets to chime in about wheter they're still around. But then the person who went to sleep last night similarly doesn't get to chime in either...
Also always think of that one Outer Limits episode, "Think Like a Dinosaur" with the teleporters.