For years I've had a theory about teleportation that has only recently been brought to mass attention by the movie The Prestige.  Many films have been made about the topic and I'm sure some lesser-known films have covered the idea of copy and kill but not as well as this film.  With such a wide reach across the world, I'm happy that many people are able to see the issue with this concept.  If you think I'm just being a paranoid sci-fi nut, think again because this technology is being actively researched with some success and may actually manifest itself in a human-usable way in the future.

The two basic ideas for teleportation are copy/kill and move. Copy/kill means to take a snapshot of every particle comprising a person at a given instant, construct a new instance of that snapshot in a different location and disintegrate the original. Move is exactly what one would think - to move every particle to a new location.

Both ideas have their own sets of limitations and challenges. For example, moving is constrained by distance. Imagine if you were deconstructed at the atomic level, so every atom in your body was removed one by one. Now take all of the different atoms (mostly carbon, I know) and shoot them through a kind of atomic hose to the new location for reconstruction. Not only do they have to be removed in order, but the energy required to move them would be greater than the energy of the contents themselves. The distance would compound the energy usage.

Copy/kill has potential for more interesting designs. Required for this idea to come together is a component that can "scan" your molecular structure or provide the "snapshot" of all particles in an instant and another component which can produce any particle in any state with regards to any other particle that uses electricity and may some other simple energy source. This was the architecture of choice for the film The Fly in which a high-level scientist developed the machine using a scanner/disintegrator pod and an integrator pod to transport himself. While it seems like it's the move theory, it's really copy/kill as any conversion of matter into energy has the same effect as just starting with energy and assembling.

My fears may have some sort of spiritual connotations because I will be talkin about losing ones very existance, stream of consciousness or as many believe, soul. With that said, I actually don't have as much of a problem with the mover idea because, while at some point during the transport, you are totally disassembled and vulnerable to being lost forever into the ocean of atomic matter, I don't think it's that much different than having your limbs cut off and sewn back on, barbaric as that may sound. I'm sure the disruption to the brain would likely put you in a coma or deliver a severe shock, but at the end of the day, you're still made of the exact same atoms that you started as and at any given point in time there was only 1 of you in existance.

Copy/kill is much harder for me to accept. Just like The Prestige illustrates, at some point there are 2 instances of you. The troubling thing is that both of you will feel perfectly valid in desiring to stay alive. The copy will think it's really you, even though it's simply an exact replica with all memories and emotions in-tact. Frustratingly, one of you must die. Of course it should be the copy, but in that film and like any practical transporter would operate, it would be the original, because how else would the device have any utility?

Imagine stepping into a transporter and feeling a strange, perhaps even very painful sensation surrounding and overtaking you. Before you have time to react, your body is burning and your eyes are slightly raw but coming into focus. You made it! But is that really you? What happened to the old you? What would you do if there was a malfunction and your old self was never disintegrated? Which one of you can have the old life back?

The questions I have are endless and apply to most replication/cloning/time paradox issues but the biggest problem I have is the total disruption to your stream of consciousness. I have issues accepting the new copy of yourself in the new location. Of course you will feel totally legitimate, but are you really the same existentially?

The question is totally philosophical but to sum up my thoughts:  Are you greater than the sum of your parts?  Somehow, I'd like to think so.