> If matter is equal to energy or maybe matter is made of energy, why couldn't you convert matter to energy and send it like email to where ever you wanted to convert it back to matter? Wouldn't it then be the same matter? I really think that is the way Scottie does it? Doesn't the person (matter) fade away on the transporter and then fade in at the selected place?

I'm no physics guru, but I don't suppose matter could be transported in that way. I mean, even if you could convert matter into energy, I don't think it would be possible. You mentioned sending it like e-mail. But you have to remember that e-mail is different from traditional "snail mail" in that nothing is actually tangibly moved. All e-mail does is create a duplicate letter in the recipient's inbox. You still have the copy you sent, unless you erased it. Telephones work similarly: The voice you hear when talking on the phone is not the actual soundwaves coming out of the other person's mouth -- it is a reproduction of those soundwaves, simulated through a little speaker. Neither e-mail, telephone, fax, nor anything else like that actually *moves* anything, it just creates a copy of the original in the destination place.

So, like I mentioned in the other thread, a teleportation beam that worked in this matter would only create a duplicate of the object being transported. It wouldn't actually move the original. To create the effect of transportation, you could destroy the original. This kind of technology would be quite useful, but not for transportation. For example, in times of food shortages, food could be "beamed" with one of these machines and duplicates of it made. With technology like that, you could never go hungry!

But I wouldn't try putting a person into it. You'd just get a duplicate person in the receiving end. Imagine that you wanted to use the device to teleport to, say, Hong Kong. The machine would scan your molecular composition, then assemble a new person identical to you in Hong Kong. But you'd still be standing in your machine at home. It's ridiculous to assume that *you* (your soul, your consciousness, whatever) would have any control over the new person created. After all, you are still you, and nothing has changed about that. So who's in charge of the new person? Maybe no one, or maybe it has a consciousness of its own. We can't say for sure, because it's all hypothetical. I don't see how it could be you, because the only thing in Hong Kong is an artificially assembled person. Remember, nothing has actually been moved, just new matter was created. Anyway, in order to complete the "transportation," the original "you" would have to be destroyed. In other words, you would have to be killed and the new person created in Hong Kong would carry on your life for you. Call me strange, but that's a little unnerving to me, even if the duplicate is exactly the same as the original.

Now maybe there are other ways to "teleport," like black holes or something else. NormalAsylum's post was very interesting, as was the article he linked to. So I won't rule out other methods. But as far as "breaking down" matter, transmitting it, and reassembling it are concerned, I don't have a whole lot of confidence in that particular theory.

-useless"not that I know anything about SCIENCE, but I'm just trying to be logical"ness