Teleporters

Teleporters are devices or systems that move matter or information from one location to another without traversing intervening space. In fiction, teleportation often involves disassembly at the source and precise reassembly at the destination, raising questions of identity, continuity, and energy requirements.

In fiction, mechanisms vary: dematerialization and rematerialization, cloning or pattern replication, or distortion of spacetime. Some stories emphasize safety risks, such as improper reassembly or "becoming two people" from one.

In real-world science, no device has achieved macroscopic teleportation. Science focuses on quantum teleportation, a protocol for transferring quantum states using pre-shared entanglement and classical communication. The process transfers information about a state, not matter itself, and no faster-than-light signaling is possible. It has been demonstrated with photons, atoms, and superconducting qubits on small scales.

Practical challenges include scaling to complex, many-body systems, maintaining coherence, retrieving precise material structures, energy costs, and ethical concerns about identity and consent. If realized, teleporters would require rigorous safety, standards, and regulatory oversight.

Teleportation continues to feature in popular culture and theoretical discussions as a thought experiment illustrating information, identity, and physics limits. Notable topics include teleportation paradoxes, continuity of consciousness, and the relationship between information and physical state.

See also Quantum teleportation; Wormhole; Teleportation in fiction.