Researchers in the Netherlands have just demonstrated that the quantum teleportation of information is now possible. For now, researchers are only quantum teleporting information a distance of ten feet, but conceivably, it means that larger objects can be transported even longer distances. In fact, says one of the lead researchers, there’s nothing in the laws of physics that prevents humans from being teleported at some point in the future.
But let’s get one thing straight – the teleportation of information doesn’t work the same way that teleportation in “Star Trek” works. In “Star Trek,” atoms are converted into energy, and then this energy is beamed to a new destination, where the energy is reconverted into atoms. In short, atoms physically move. In this modern form of teleportation, atoms don’t move. Instead, information about the state of an atom or particle is moved from one place to another without that information actually moving in between.
If you’ve ever pondered any of the arcane mysteries of quantum mechanics — such as Schrödinger’s Cat – then you realize that things start to turn into a funhouse mirror once you get to the subatomic level. You get things like spooky action at a distance and quantum entanglement. Life becomes intensely probabilistic, and merely viewing an event changes the outcome. It becomes, in short, very difficult to determine exactly what’s going on.
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