Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 2:25pm

TRANSPORTER

The TRANSPORTER (originally called the materialiser) is a device that converts matter to energy and then 'beams' that energy over long distances, reassembling the original matter at its destination.

The first Human transporters were invented in the early 22nd century. At first viewed warily and used only for cargo transport, the technology advanced far enough that it was soon being used to transport biomatter. Their usefulness quickly became apparent and transporters were installed in all Starfleet ships. Today, they are statistically the safest form of travel - transporter accidents or malfunctions resulting in loss of life are almost non-existent.

One of the more interesting philosophical aspects of transporter travel is the question of 'original vs. copy'. It is a variation on the ancient 'Ship of Theseus' thought experiment. Since the transporter disintegrates a person in order to convert them to an energy beam, some question whether or not the reconstructed person is the same as the original that stepped on to the transporter pad. Although the inventor of the transporter dismissed these ideas as 'metaphysical nonsense', there is not yet enough scientific evidence to prove one way or another that the reconstructed Human consciousness (as nebulous and fraught with problems of definition as that concept is) is not simply a copy-and-paste version of the original.

Whatever the answer to the questions of philosophy, it has not stopped Starfleet from using the transporter for the past two-and-a-half centuries, and the popularity of the technology shows no signs of slowing down.