Talk:Transporter (Star Trek)

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It would be nice to know in what episode the Heisenberg Compensator was first mentioned. The Star Trek website seems to suggest that it was in Realm Of Fear (TNG) (see here).

Contents

[edit] Other transporters topic

That new topic addresses only a similarity in the fictional universe of the tv series Dr. Who. I wonder whether it's the case of creating a topic, albeit short, whithin this article to discuss an aspect of another tv show that has its own specific article. I believe it would suffice to link the Dr. Who article in the "See also" category (maybe with a direct note to the fact that it features a similar fictional technology). Unless people object, I will proceed to this within the next few days (giving time for a discussion in this page). Regards, Redux 16:20, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Unnatural selection

"A disease affecting Pulaski is cured, and the damage it has done removed, by transporter."

Is it really cured? I had the impression that Pulaski was "remade" with a previous, uncontaminated sample of her DNA. PrometheusX303 20:22, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Transporters in Current time

I was listening to Paul Harvey today and he mentioned that Physysists in Denmark were able to take a document (single page) dematerialize it (turn it into a ray of light) and rematerialize it 1/2 meter away. Back in 1997, scientists were successful in taking a couple photons of light and transporting it a few millimeters, and in 2002 they were able to do the same, but 55 meters apart, simulating a distance of 2km.
1997 Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/201815.stm
http://www.dhushara.com/book/quantcos/at/tele.htm

2002 Source:
http://p-i-a.com/Magazine/Issue22/Physics_22.htm

Danball1976 01:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comment removed from article

Earlier today, a user at IP address 67.187.176.202 added the following to the "Capabilities and limitations" section of the article. I feel it was more appropriately added here, so I cut it from the article and pasted it here without editorial change:

"its interesting how some of these explanations are from the standpoint of being with in the startrek universe cannon while others seem to activly mock star trek also interesting that any storyline a particular individual cant follow or doesnt understand becomes technobabble the simple truth is startrek is a collection of the works of hundreds of different authors so theirs bound to be some incongruities they tie it together when they can.. just try to enjoy it when they cant"

Dave 12:55, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Transporters beaming through shields

The article mentions that transporters can not beam through sheilds, and then lists a number of times where this was sidestepped through various means. It lists First Contact as being an example of transporting through sheilds. When did this happen? The only time I can think of where an editor might have thought someone was beaming through the sheilds was when the Borg first boarded the Enterprise. It was stated later in dialogue that the Enterprise's sheilds were down when they attacked the Borg Sphere, though I don't think they elaborated on why.--Raguleader 07:56, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I believe the reference is to when the Enterprise beams the Defiant's crew aboard. --EEMeltonIV 20:02, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
Defiant's sheilds were down at the time, and there's nothing to show that the Enterprise did not lower her sheilds to recover Defiant's crew, although they were shown moments before to be taking fire from the Borg, who probably wouldn't stop firing at the Enterprise just because the first shot didn't work (then again, if the Enterprise lowered her sheilds and started transporting crew off a crippled ship, she may have gone down the list of threats and the Borg could have then focused on another ship, but then, this is just fanwanking on my part).--Raguleader 09:04, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
So, is it bad when I read a comment here, think "What the hell is this guy thinking?" and then realize it's one of my own posts?--Raguleader 10:28, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

The Enterprise could have enveloped the Defiant within her shield bubble, thereby facilitating the transportation of the Defiant crew. A possible explination... ----Willie 10:02, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Either that, or Enterprise lowered shields on one small spot only, maintaining shields around the rest of the ship, while being unshielded only in the area required to let a transport beam through--129.241.130.228 06:38, 26 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Transporter rooms & the six spots

I don't know about the "it's unclear why transporter rooms exist" bit. The transporter room is fairly clearly as much a meeting and preparation room as it is an actual disembarkation point. An away team has to meet somewhere to pick up equipment and undergo a final briefing - it might as well be the transporter room. Additionally, I have always got the impression that site-to-site transport is a relatively recent (as of TNG) innovation, so perhaps transporter rooms are maintained out of institutional inertia.

As for the six spots - if you watch away teams materialise, they are often more spread out than they were on the transporter platform. I think that as well as a single annular confinement beam for the whole platform, each of the six spots has its own dedicated sub-beam, allowing up to six people to be beamed to and from six separate locations simultaneously. They probably use the latter when beaming into unknown situations so that a) the away team don’t materialise in a tight group, where they’d be an easy target, b) the team doesn't have to reassemble in one place in order to be beamed up together, and c) an ACB failure caused by unpredictable conditions doesn’t kill the whole team. Has anyone read the TNG tech manual?Denorios 12:33, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


I recall reading in TNG tech manual how transporting from point to point requires more emergy then transporting from the transporter room, which is probably why they are still used. 68.58.66.230 04:27, 24 January 2007 (UTC)


I believe that's right as well... I remember something about the duty cycling being twice as long for site to site transports not involving the pad as part of canon, which is why it's only done for emergencies only. As well, the center section of the pad can be used for molecular resolution cargo transportation while the rest of the living people are transported at the quantum level. --68.42.115.226 04:00, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Philosophical questions

I am not sure I understand what is wrong with the philosophical section. Give me tips and I will see what I can do. RickardV 22:25, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Behind the Scenes

Can there be a small section on describing how the transporter works behind the scenes PRIOR to using the computer to make the effect. I heard about something to do with optical lens but am not sure about the details. 70.70.209.25 14:53, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Philisophical questions

Moved this section of OR to talk page. Please re-add in whole or in part with the addition of citations --EEMeltonIV 05:15, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (October 2007)
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (December 2006)

The discontinuity of the transported object causes theoretical problems in the metaphysical field of identity.

There are several different problems. One problem, akin to the Ship of Theseus problem, has two parts. First, could someone survive in a dismantled form and survive being "reassembled" using new atoms, or do we need the same atom being transported in a dismantled, piecemeal way? When Captain Kirk is beamed to a planet from the Enterprise, he is disassembled on the sub-molecular level and then reassembled at the destination to create an identical "Kirk." Star Trek canon suggests that the actual atoms are transported through space and reassembled at the final location, but in the real world (and in other sci-fi stories) it would likely be more efficient to simply transmit the information about the atoms themselves and recreate the person using matter already at the destination, assuming the enormous technical hurdles common to both are overcome.

It should be noted that while most humans have distinct memories of events that happened years ago, technically speaking they weren't "there," or at least the atoms that comprise their bodies now were not the atoms that comprised their bodies then. Simple, natural biochemical and physical interactions mean that our bodies are constantly ejecting (mostly through sweat, respiration and excretion) and accepting (mostly through ingestion and respiration) atoms that we are constructed from. The concept of a transporter simply means that instead of occurring over a long period, all your atoms are being replaced immediately.

Another issue arises if a duplicate is made during the transportation process: that is, if the information recorded is used to create not one but two identical copies of the source person. In the TNG episode Second Chances, a duplicate of Commander Riker is created. These scenarios in philosophical literature are called branching-cases, and conflicts with the view that identity is a one-one relation, not a one-many relation. It is interesting to note, however, that from the point of view of quantum mechanics, creating an identical copy of an object is impossible. See quantum teleportation and no-cloning theorem.

Derek Parfit in his book Reasons and Persons (1982) uses teletransportation examples to test different intuitions regarding personal identity.

In recognition of these philosophical questions, the Star Trek: Enterprise writers had Emory Erickson allude to these in the dialogue of "Daedalus."

[edit] Influences

I've just been going through the extras on my Forbidden Planet DVD and the deceleration beams are mentioned as an influence on Star Trek's transporter effects, is this enough to be put in the article? Alastairward (talk) 17:00, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

If it were from Gene Roddenberry then you could put it in as established fact. However, if it isn't, put it in as "<this person> said that ..." with the appropriate reference in <ref>reference</ref> tags. You should include in the reference which DVD it is on, which extra on that DVD and how far into that extra (minutes would work because the statement is going to take a few seconds); just use the counter at the top, which most players provide via a button on the remote. — Val42 (talk) 20:53, 11 December 2007 (UTC)