I'm just sayin' - Beam me up, Scottie

Talk about it

“Beam me up Scottie, there’s no intelligent life down here.” This was the famous line uttered by Captain Kirk from the TV series Star Trek in the 1960s. Captain Kirk and a team of explorers had been “beamed” down to an unknown planet to search for life. Folks my age remember it. Those of you younger than us may remember the Star Trek movie series, but I don’t think Kirk used it in the movie series. It is what I often refer to when listening to and thinking about what goes on in Washington, D.C. and St. Paul.

Now, you may be saying to yourself , “There he goes again. Off on another rant about government.” Well, to your good fortune, I am not.

Actually, the “beaming” technology is closer than we think. Gene Rodenberry, who created the Star Trek TV and movie series, foresaw what might be a transportation technology of the future. The technology is called “teleportation” and has been successfully tried by Chinese physicists. When I first read about this, my first reaction was to volunteer some of our politicians for R&D testing. However, I thought better of it when I realized that if it was successful, whoever was the testing “dummy” would then come home to the U.S. and claim credit for inventing it, much the same way as Al Gore claimed to take credit for inventing the Internet.

Within the last two years, Chinese scientists have developed a method of what is called “quantum entanglement.” It is a method of teleporting photons over distances and then gathering those photons into discernible data, while at the same time not altering the data during the transmission. A physical object is not transported, but the data describing it is. The data can then be applied to a similar object in a new location, which effectively takes on a new identity. The Chinese have made it work over distances of 65 miles.

So, let me see if I got this correct. We can take an object, send data about the object at light speed, gather the data, and then reproduce it in another form at the receiving end. It can then take on any identity we would like. I think we could use that!

For instance, I believe my lovely wife would experiment with it and transport my data into something that would look like Tom Selleck. I, on the other hand, would choose her data transported into something that looked like Gisele Bundchen. On second thought, maybe we will just leave well enough alone and promote peace and harmony at home.

Another example would be to take the data from David Petraeus and reassemble it into any Secretary of Defense that you could name over the last few decades. The result would be a combination of intelligence, bravery and leadership.

Personally, my choice would be to take any of the The Beatles, Credence Clearwater Revival, or Lynyrd Skynyrd and insert the data into any band today. Music would be better off for it.

Quantum teleportation and teleporting photons seem like very interesting technologies. Frankly, it kind of makes my head spin. It is fun to think about and write about the potential uses though. So, at the end of the day, all we can do is go on living our lives and trying to do the right things every day.

But then again, I’m just sayin’.

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“Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things”

– Steven Tyler, Aerosmith

Tags: opinion, columns