Watching science fiction movies and television shows, one of the most common methods of transportation is teleportation. One of the most famous lines from Star Trek is, "Beam me up Scotty." In Stargate, the characters step through a portal that takes them millions of miles away to other planets. The theory of instant travel poses a serious question, especially if some form of this technology turns out to be real one day. If you are teleported somewhere else, are you really you or is it a clone of you that ends up in the final destination.
The movie The Prestige really takes the ideal of teleportation into an ethical direction when Hugh Jackman's character uses a device designed by Nikola Tesla (played by David Bowie), which creates a copy of himself and either himself or his copy is teleported to a spot within a few hundred feet of the original spot. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman's character), sets up a water tank and drowns in what appears to be his original self as he falls through the floor, only for his copy to enjoy the standing ovation from the upper deck of the auditorium. The survivor of this magic trick by Angier, is essentially a clone, but can it be said that he is soulless? If it is a clone, it definitely poses a question to those who are religious at the very least. The clone believes he is Robert Angier, but how could he be Angier, if Angier is also drowning underneath the stage at the same time?
The same can be said for Star Trek. The transporter essentially breaks down a person's molecules and reconstructs them in a new location. If you are deconstructed though, have you not essentially been killed off, only to have a clone of you created somewhere else? Even taken out of a religious context, if you're atheist, would you not have died if you were transported and sent to an endless blackness/nothingness abyss? From a religious standpoint, has the man operating the device played God by creating a new person, regardless or not if the clone has a soul?
Another question that could be asked is if you are religious, would the man operating the transporter be held accountable for murder? Or could the person who is transported be considered a suicide, especially if they believe that it is a copy of themselves that ends up on the other side?
On a side note, could a transporter such as the one on Star Trek be used for medical purposes. The transporter takes you apart and re-assembles you at another location, but if it is able to do this, could ailments such as cancer or other life threatening conditions be left out purposely?
While a teleportation device might be necessary in the future and probably end up being practical (I.E. Star Trek), will it pose some sort of ethical or even self-preservation issues in the future? Possibly. Will people feel peer pressure if they are unwilling to be teleported somewhere? As seen in Enterprise, a Star Trek series prequel, some of the characters do feel pressured by others to teleport. It's a scary thought that an individual could be pressured into basically killing themselves to save some travel time.
Photo: Still from Star Trek the Next Generation
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