Seriously why don't we have transporters like they do in star trek

[LynneSin]

Really I could be home by now and sleeping

[gratuitous]

1. It's the Republicans' fault

You know, that reason works for everything!

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Because big corporations like McDonalds would use the tech to send actors

dressed as Ronald McDonald and Mayor McCheese into your living room to educate you on the benefits of eating out, preferably at certain chain establishments. No sir, I'm glad that we lack this tech. Good choice, scientists!

[edbermac]

3. It's a crazy way to travel, spreading a man's molecules all over the universe!!

[FloridaJudy]

4. Good question

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eTUz61LNjo

[madinmaryland]

5. I want a transmogrifier

:thumbsup:

[Bake]

6. Because we are more than the mere sum of our molecules.

:hi:

Bake

[YellowRubberDuckie]

7. They promised us flying cars too...

...Damn them!

[csziggy]

24. You can get a flying car now - only $250,000

http://www.terrafugia.com/

The Terrafugia Transition:

[dimbear]

8. We are half way there. We could, at great expense, make you into a beam of energy.

It's just the other end thingy we don't have yet.

[ohiosmith]

9. Here's why:

[ohiosmith]

10. Delete

[eShirl]

11. or a 3D printer that prints food

mmm, bacon ink

[WolverineDG]

22. ahem

http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/3d-printer-french-culinary-institute-prints-food

dg

[sarge43]

12. Like air travel, 99.9% of the time transporters are as safe as mother's arms,

but when they do crap out, that .10% is unpleasant, re ST: TMP "What we got back didn't live long -- fortunately."

[kentauros]

13. Then use a digital conveyor.

It's much safer! }(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPND-I2_1dk

[sarge43]

15. But the animal is inside out ..... and it exploded.

Besides that .... perfectly safe.

I love that movie.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

16. "I see you managed to get your shirt off."

:)
I love Galaxy Quest.

[sarge43]

17. Yup. It's the simple things in life you treasure

Now let's see if there's a pub.

[MilesColtrane]

14. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and not enough raw computing and storage power for starters.

It has been calculated that the number of bits of information required to perfectly recreate an adult human down to the quantum level in a computer is 10 to the 45th power. (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits, and change)

A terabyte can hold 10 to the 13th power bits. So we'd need storage and processing power about 33 orders of magnitude greater than what's around now.

The real problem comes in the fact that it is impossible to determine both the exact location and future momentum of a subatomic particle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

The transporter on Star Trek solves this problem with "Heisenberg compensators".

[woo me with science]

18. Marvelously done.

:)

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Yes, indeed.

[liberaltrucker]

26. Also E=mc^2

Transforming the mass of the human body into
energy to modulate onto a carrier signal would
violate the laws of physics as we know them today.

:beer:

[Ikonoklast]

32. And if one could convert the entire mass of one human body into energy

and send it in a directed fashion somehow, the receiving end would be hit with the force of a few megatons of energy.


It would make a fantastic weapon.

Imagine sending ten tons of lead, the mass of which was all converted to energy, at a potential enemy somewhere out there at the speed of light.

Boom.

Planet-cracker.

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. I read a quote once where a producer for Star Trek was asked by a fan....

"How do the Heisenberg Compensators work?"

"Very well" was the answer!

[LynneSin]

28. I can buy a one terrabyte external hard drive for about $100

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=terabyte+harddrive&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7511261117971571524&sa=X&ei=vpo0TpnRDqj10gHUpuiaDA&ved=0CEIQ8wIwAw


I suspect we'll have the power to compute that soon enough!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

19. There is a radio ad for an employment service

which goes something like this:
Boss: Where's Henderson?
Henderson: Here I am, sir
B: What's this thing? (knuckles on metal)
H: I built a transporter. I live 190 miles from work, but with this I can be here in 1.2 seconds
B: Is this thing safe?
H: I tested it on the family cat (*) this morning (whoooosh....plop, plop)
B: Is that a cat head? (meowww)
H: Uh yes, sorry sir

(*) I feel sorry for cats, people can get away with a lot regarding cats
Can you imagine the uproar if he used the family dog?

[Taverner]

20. Beause if you were disintegrated and turned into radio waves, and then reassembled...

You wouldn't be you....

[baldguy]

21. It's all Seth Brundle's fault.

[Kali]

25. I have been waiting forFREAKINGever, myself!

of course I could just imagine what kind of crappy "pre-owned" POS I would end up with - sending me to Seattle when I just wanted to go to Safeway or leaving my arm back home when I went someplace...:rofl:

[hifiguy]

29. I'd be happy just to have the sort of society

that Gene Roddenberry envisioned - basically socialist and devoted to humans realizing their own potential, with or without transporters. Starships would be mighty cool, though.


"The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity."
- Jean-Luc Picard

[jmowreader]

30. I want the one like they had in Willy Wonka...

that can transport chocolate from place to place. Beaming people around would be too weird.

[HappyMe]

31. Maybe we should be glad they don't just yet.

I'm thinking that there would be a lot of major fuck ups. One arm arrives, the rest of you doesn't; you arrive, your clothes don't...

[saras]

33. The Fly. 'nuff said.

Help me! Helllllpppp mmmeeeeee!