The point of teleporting is to create the object at a different location.

In the world of normal human experience this means going from London to Paris without traversing the space between. But in a quantum world it may, and I emphasize "may" mean that the object at the second location is identical to the one that had been at the first location. It does not mean that we put little shipping labels on each and every gluon and quark and package them for shipment.

An alternative explanation of Star Trek technology might go something like this:

In the transporter room I record the quantum state of Captain Kirk and then destroy him. Then I create an entity, identical in all respects on the planet's surface. There is no requirement that "he" be "transported". The result is indistinguishable.


DA Morgan