The fact that two Rikers existed is all the proof I need to be full Luddite. Save your death machines for the next person, thanks!

This is why I want monsters Inc style linked door-wormholes. It's less... Reconstituted flesh.

Less room for duplicates, more room for halfsies I guess

Existential Comics' "The Machine" feels highly relevant here

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/1

Everyone remembers his irascibility in the film but ignores that, for the three original years, he transported without complaint in nearly every episode. And it was a reliable, proven technology that apparently only got worse and more twitchy a couple of decades later.

I think I've explained this too many times to do it again, but: teleportation doesn't have to be "destroy and reconstitute" any more than going through a door necessitates killing you and reconstituting you on the other side of the door. The key is establishing continuity of your mind across the intervening space, which is mostly an engineering problem.

Typical McCoy. Calls turbolifts elevators and transporters teleporters.

I still can't believe we are this many years out from ebaumsworld and still people are putting fucking watermarks on memes.

Not only that, but they‘re also literal bombs. Remember E=mc^2? With a technology capable of converting 100% of matter into usable energy, you‘d have a pretty scary bomb bomb.

"But what if it kills you, but no one can tell?"

this is pascal's wager for nerds

Doesn't it Galileo's transporter you?

...takes the you matter and dissolves it into a stream of particles which are reassembled in a different location, so when transport is 50% done, you're in two places at once (whilst the "plan" for you is in the pattern buffer, don't know where the matter is exactly)... i mean, it forms you into a beam of molecules right? Beams you up.

At one point there's a Barkley episode and he seems conscious for most of the process, just in a kind of super position.

After the half way point, there's more "you" in the destination than in the original location...so who are you? Where are you?

Then again, we know that accidents and reflections can be produced... So maybe I'm wrong and new matter/particles are being introduced otherwise how would Tom Riker exist...

...I mean, after all, Tuvix wasn't twice as dense as your average crew member.

Anyways, Dr. Polaski supposedly has McCoy's attitude towards transporters. However I think even she gave in here and there, as did McCoy.

I think McCoy was more afraid of accidents than existential factors.

Me with brain chip implants, especially those with non-libre software

All that could have been avoided by having a drop pod launched to the surface containing a mechanical avatar. The crew member just sits down in a chair to remotely control the avatar using an FTL link for instant control. Of course the avatar has a hologram projector so it looks exactly like the crew member. But that would be too safe and not dramatic enough.

McCoy is a doctor, not an engineer

I'd like to know or see a Star Trek series about the development of Star Trek technology.

Like the history of flight or the first ancient sea captains, .... when it comes to the history of the humble teleporter, how many freakin people did they have to reconstitute, recombine, turn into a puddle of goo, teleport into a wall, remove their brains, reconfigure their organs, teleport into a bulk head or reanimate into empty space before they perfected the technology.

The thing about transporters is that if we had them right now, people would use them for everything. Transport me to the toilet. Transport the TV remote into my hand. Transport a fork into my hand. People would never get out of bed.

"Devil's Elevator" hahahaha, have an upvote

The best take on transporters was in a 'Buzz Lightyear' cartoon.

Buzz tells his team that a scientist has developed a transporter. The farm boy says that it sounds like a great invention; with a transporter the ship can stay up in orbit and the crew can teleport to the surface.

Everyone just looks at him like he's an idiot.

Tbh the same logic can be applied to sleeping. If our consciousness is akin to computer ram and sleep is the brain cleaning up that ram, how can you know that when you wake up you're still the same person that went to sleep last night?

I liked the method described in "Old Man's War." It wasn't teleporting exactly, but the premise could be used here too. The consciousness of the person was being transferred to another body and during the process, The singular consciousness was aware of being in two places for a short while.

Not to mention, if we have the technology to construct human bodies and minds on the other side of that teleporter, what is to stop them from modifying the machines to change your brain (or body). I have lost any trust I once had in any government or company to believe them if, hypothetically, they tell me they have the know-how to change my opinion of Coca Cola upon reconstruction.

Personally, as long as it's provably safe, I'm fine with it.

As far as I'm concerned, if my consciousness is intact, and my body is a carbon copy, that's me. I place more weight on my consciousness being me than those specific atoms being me.

Besides, we all shed all of our atoms and replace them with new ones dozens of times throughout our lives. So we've already died in that way, I guess? But then again, it doesn't happen all at once, it's more of a Ship Body of Theseus type of thing.