"Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes it obstructs your vision."
Hsi-Tang
Value Quotes
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EXERCISE IN SPECULATION: THE THEORY
AND PRACTICE OF TELEPORTATION
Why teleportation? Well- The regional fan convention, known as Boskone and held annually in
Boston had chosen me as Guest of Honor. Strangely, everyone seemed to expect a speech. I hadn't done
any speaking since early college. Worse, the audience was jammed with MIT students.
Why teleportation? Because that way none of the MITSFS (MIT Science Fiction Association,
pronounced "misfits") could catch me at anything. What with no firm ground for believing that
teleportation is even possible, there would be endless room for speculation without any way for some
teenage genius to tell me, "You're wrong! Right here in my physics text it says-"
At that, there was enough argument. But the speech went well, even to the point where the
question session degenerated into frenzied arguments near the back wall, allowing me to slip quietly
away. I'd planned that. But Fred Pohl caught me at the door and asked me to turn the speech into an
article for him. Here it is.
DISCLAIMER:
Any resemblance to the plots of ancient or modern science fiction, novels or short stories, is not
coincidence. I've been reading science fiction, voraciously, for eighteen years. In most of what follows, I
have borrowed freely from my betters, and even from my own stories. Where I remember my sources, I
have quoted them-sometimes.
DEFINITION:
Teleportation is any method of moving from point to point in negligible time. Over short
distances we will take lightspeed as negligible. Over longer distances (interplanetary and interstellar) we
will require infinite or near-infinite speed.
I make a distinction between psychic and mechanical teleportation. Essentially, psi
teleportation involves wishing oneself from place to place. In mechanical teleportation he pushes a
button. He may do other things first, such as sighting in, charging batteries, weighing and measuring his
cargo, whatever it takes. But eventually he will push a button here and he will instantly be there.
Similarly, the adept at psi teleportation may have spent decades in spiritual training, learning to negate
distance by the power of a wish.
These definitions are not meant to be rigorous. Intuitively you know what teleportation is
anyway.
HISTORY:
The history of teleportation is all of the psi variety. Naturally.
The prophet Elijah was frequently "transported" by Jahweh. He would rise in the air, spin
around a few times, and then vanish. Or he would fly about and come down without vanishing. One day
he flew up and up and never did come down. His followers searched the countryside for days. When
they couldn't find his body they assumed that Elijah had taken it with him, into Heaven.
Friar Joseph of Copertino (1603-1663) was a levitator. Usually in the presence of witnesses, he
would go into a religious trance, rise into the air, fly about, eventualy settle on an altar or in a tree. His
presence in this article derives from his power of bilocation. Friar Joseph was capable of being in two
places at once.
Then there are past and present Hindu mystics, and tales of teleportation during seances. No
matter. The interesting thing is that, historically, nobody seems to make a distinction between negating
distance with a wish, flying by flapping one's arms, flying without flapping one's arms, being in two
places at once, or being blown about at terrific speeds by divine or other mysterious forces. The
distinction seems to be original with science fiction; it has no basis in recorded "fact".
I offer the thought that there may be no distinction; that this confusion may be a fundamental
characteristic of psychic teleportation.
THEORY OF PSYCHIC TELEPORTATION:
I'd like to get through this fairly quickly, since I don't believe in psi teleportation, and since my
major interest is in the effects of teleportation on society.
1) Consider the following theory: A man in deadly danger would learn to teleport in order to save his
life.
I can remember two novels in which the idea was crucial: JACK OF EAGLES, by James Blish,
and THE STARS MY DESTINATION, by Alfred Bester. The idea is simply to point a gun at a man's
head, and fire. One time out of a thousand he will frantically teleport out of the way of the bullet, and
you will have a teleport.
Forget it. There has been too much opportunity for it! Violent death has occurred since man
was definably man. How many have learned to teleport in time to save their lives? Too few to be
noticed.
But there's another flaw in the theory. Psychic powers are notoriously undependable.
Experience says that when the ability to teleport is most needed, that's when it won't show up.
2) My prejudice against teleportation has a valid basis. I haven't seen it in action.
Science has existed on Earth for-depending on how you define science-between a couple of
centuries and a few millenia. We can't yet build a hardware-type teleport system. But psi powers, if they
exist at all, have been around since man was definably human. If teleportation is both possible and
useful, we should have been using it since men moved into the Nile Valley. And we would never have
given it up...if teleportation is both possible and useful.
We conclude either that teleportation is not possible, or that it kills those who possess the gift
before they can demonstrate it to anyone. Both are possible.
Consider Bester's "Blue Jaunt". A man in a panic, drowning, teleports without considering
where he's going. He ends up inside a wall. BOOM! Bad trip.
Or, psi could be dangerous in other ways; Genelinked to insanity or to mental deficiency, for
example.
In any case, psi teleportation is out. But let's ignore facts and do some speculating.
PRACTICE OF PSYCHIC TELEPORTATION:
What about conservation of energy? What of conservation of momentum?
These questions are not idle. Stones did not stop falling when Einstein published a new theory
of gravitation. The old laws hold; new laws of physics usually apply only to new areas of observation.
Changing one physical law is like trying to eat one peanut.
Okay. So what happens if you try to teleport uphill? Does your body get colder, or lose mass?
There is a gain in potential energy. It must be compensated by the loss of energy of another form.
Suppose I were to teleport to Kerguelen Island? (I am writing in Los Angeles. Opposite me on
the Earth's globe is the heart of the Indian Ocean, in which Kerguelen Island is the nearest land mass.)
Because of the Earth's spin, Los Angeles and Kerguelen Island are going in opposite directions. Were I
to teleport to Kerguelen Island I would have to land running-at half a mile a second.
Teleportation can be dangerous. You don't teleport out of a speeding car either.
3) I take another theory of psi teleportation from THE WORLD OF A, by A. E. Van Vogt. It
seems that two objects similar to each other, to twenty decimal places will join each other. The lesser
will bridge space to contact the greater. This presumed law applies to masses, thought waves, and even
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