eric@aplvax.UUCP (07/31/83)
Thought I would throw my $0.02 in. Ignoring the animated series, it is fairly simple to argue that the transporter can not "store" the information used for transportation. Simply put, no one said it is a digital process. It could very well be an analog device. Consider the vast amount of computing it takes to do a fourier transform, and then remember that it can be done easily with optics in an analog manner. Being even more extreme, all of us can change ice to water and then back to ice, without having to save information about the crystaline structure of ice. Perhaps we are to used to thinking in terms of digital processes, and ignore the fact that the universe is not usually a place of only 1's and 0's. Eric Bergan ...!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!eric
garys@bunkerb.UUCP (Gary Samuelson) (08/01/83)
I have seen several articles explaining why the transporter can't store the information used to re-create the person(s) or object(s) being transported. Unfortunately for such arguments, it was used in such a fashion in one of the TV episodes (name forgotten). In that episode, 6 Klingons held the Enterprise party of 6 at phaser (blaster?) point, and elicited Kirk's promise not to try any tricks "once they reached the ship." Kirk pressed a button on the communicator which signalled Scotty that there was a problem, however. The 12 people disappeared from the planet surface, but only the 6 good guys appeared in the transporter chamber. Scotty then remarked that the Klingons were "right here," tapping on the transporter console. After the Federation personnel were safely out of the chamber, and security guards were in place, then and only then were the Klingons re-assembled, after having been stored for possibly a full minute. So, yes, it is possible to store a disassembled person while transporting said person. And if information can be stored a minute, it can be stored forever. And if it can be stored, it can be copied. Gary Samuelson decvax!ittvax!bunker!bunkerb
tim@unc.UUCP (08/03/83)
The episode "Day of the Dove" violated more than one of the
established facts about Star Trek -- in addition to the transporter
thing, it had female Klingon officers. It was establisheds previously
that Klingons were extreme sexists who saw female Klingons as
property. Either this was some sort of half-baked feminism (even the
bad guys can't be sexists anymore), or the writer got Klingons
confused with Romulans. This episode was from the third season,
meaning no Gene Roddenberry and no Dorothy Fonatana, so like all the
other third season episodes it stank.
About Larry Niven: The abundance of handy gizmos did contribute to
his decision to stop writing stories set in Known Space, but a larger
reason is that it is impossible to write any interesting story past a
certain time in that system. The luck gene encouraged by the
birthright lotteries takes all the fun out of it, as evidenced by the
story "Safe at Any Speed". People are too lucky to have any
challenges. Of course, who knows what happens when the core explosion
reaches Known Space, full of these incredibly lucky humans?
Chaosium Games on the west coast is coming out with a "Ringworld"
role-playing game later this year. Like most of Chaosium's role-
playing games, it will be based on the versatile "Basic Role-Playing"
system. Chaosium products are always of very high quality; I am
waiting eagerly for the game.
______________________________________
The overworked keyboard of Tim Maroney
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill