Articles On The Conversion of Energy Into Matter

[beavis]

If you destroy your tv and buy a new one exactly like it, you wouldnt know the difference. The same is true for your hand or most other parts of your body. Brain? What if you replaced it 1 atom at a time but fast enough to replace the whole brain in 1 minute? You probably wouldnt notice. But there is some nonphysical part of us that is connected to specific atoms. It can connect to other atoms as they are replaced. As you said, what if the nonphysical part was replaced too? I dont know how that part works, or if its even made of particles/waves like phyiscal things are. Anything you can describe with math is possible to exist. How we normally think is a very small part of that. Eventually you must get down to what you really are, and I dont have to define it. If I take part of that and replace it with an equivalent part, would you feel it? The part that leaves will feel being torn off. The part that stays will find something that behaves the exact same way and not know the difference.

[bmw]

I agree with Whitestar; if one person is destroyed and an exact copy is made later or elsewhere, the soul must leave the original body.  Therefore, in essence, the copy is dead; it has no soul.  However, I do want to clear up a point with you, Whitestar.  The conversions of matter to energy are called annihilations; however, that matter's information still remains, transformed into energy.  If one believes String Theory, the strings of the original matter remain, and in the annihilation of that matter, its strings are just forced to change the way they vibrate.  Or in the terms of quantum mechanics, the quantum numbers of the particle were just changed, not erased.  Essentiall, I am just saying (in lots of words) that the information of the particle remains, it's just modified a bit.  Beavis, you do have some excremely valid points; however, Whitestar is talking about destroying an entire body, not just a part of it.  Herein lies the anomaly.  Would the soul "jump" to the newly created body, or would the new body not have a soul?

[Moonburn33]

maybe the soul would create a copy of itself to put into the body.  or the new body could have another soul that was looking for a body- there's no real difference between this and birth, to a soul

[volcomstone]

maybe my soul is already filling out infinite other copy's of me.

[Rob]

quote:Personally, I don't think that there will ever be a conventional use for converting energy into matter because of the amount of energy contained in one human being. Think about it: if one human can produce thousands of hiroshimas bombs, then you would need thousands of atom bombs worth of energy to create a turkey sandwich.

Well, you could just take something else the size of a chicken sandwiche.....convret that. Also, what you are talking about is the total release of the energy in a nuclear explosion into kinetic energy, radiation and heat, but there are more practical forms of containing the energy.

quote:Now imagine for the sake of arugment that teleportation were to be accomplish by converting a person into energy and you had the technology to reverse the process. In addition, you send the information along with the energy.

...you are convertings the body into pure energy and transporting that energy and info sooooo.....there is no problem with creating any doubles. You mean just taking the info, creating another identical body somewhere else, but not destroying the original??! I dunno, I would like to see it tried though!

Rob

[Phong]

It also used to not be practical to have 512K of memory on a computer. Energy usage changes.

[Whitestar]

I recently read an article on the net about the conversion of energy into matter. An experiment at Stanford University was accomplished at S.L.A.C. (short for Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). Michael Pidwirny, the guy who wrote it claimed that it might one day be a useful means of teleportation like in Star Trek. Here is a direct quote from him:





Here is the website: "In 1998 researchers at Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Center successfully converted energy into matter. This feat was accomplished by using lasers and incredibly strong electromagnetic fields to change ordinary light into matter. The results of this experiment may allow for the development of variety of technological gadgets. One such development could be matter/energy transporters or food replicators that are commonly seen in some of our favorite science fiction programs."

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/6a.html


Here are some links to SLAC's statements released to various publications concerning the experiment:

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/e144/nytimes.html

http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/e144/science1202.html


Teleportation has already been accomplished by teleporting a photon's properties, however, not the actual photon itself. For more information, check out the following website:


http://www.aip.org/physnews/graphics/html/teleport.htm


Personally, I don't think that there will ever be a conventional use for converting energy into matter because of the amount of energy contained in one human being. Think about it: if one human can produce thousands of hiroshimas bombs, then you would need thousands of atom bombs worth of energy to create a turkey sandwich. That just doesn't seem practical to me. If that amount of energy were to be released when turning a man into energy, well let's just say there wouldn't be much left of anything for a few thousand miles! In any conversion of matter, some energy is inevitably lost. In addition, such conversions of particles to energy are called annihilations, that is, they are like explosions: the explosive material is completely destroyed and no memory of its original form remains.


But let's play with this thought experiment for now. The atoms that compose our bodies are replaced every (7 years?), I've heard (I don't pretend to know the exact figure, but it seems reasonable). If this is the case, then after 7 years, you are physically completely different than you were at the beginning of the 7 year period. Then, in introspect, I realize to myself that I have a continuity of experiences, at least, my stream of consciousness is not noticeably interrupted.


Now imagine for the sake of arugment that teleportation were to be accomplish by converting a person into energy and you had the technology to reverse the process. In addition, you send the information along with the energy. The question is, would the person survive the procedure, or would the individual cease to exist and be replaced with a replica, who was literally born into existence once the energy was reconverted back into matter with the information? In my view, when your body is destroy, you die. End of story. What comes out of the teleporter is an exact copy, with all your memories etc, and no knowledge that it isn't you, but it isn't. No one would ever notice the problem, so it only affects you when it happens. Unless, if you believe in souls, there are "conservation of souls" problems to deal with - does the same soul follow the body around? While in an energy state, there is no consciousness, no heart to beat, hence the person who first underwent this form of teleportation has cease to exist and replaced with a replica.



What does everybody else thinks? (Note: I know this question sounds a bit philosophical but I'd be very interested in everyones' opinion anyway.)


regards,

Whitestar