Chapter 3 – The Teletransporter Paradox resolved
606 Words
Doctor Sofia :
"Thank you. This means so much to me. Let me begin with this. Do you guys know how the teleporter works?"
Julianna :
"The teleporter incinerates the person who steps into the device and instantly recreates a perfect replica at the person's desired location."
Doctor Sofia :
"Correct…. And do you guys know why the replica is really you, and not a clone created by the device after your original body is incinerated?"
Haasim pads down his body from chest to abdomen confusingly as he tries to comprehend the question raised by Doctor Sofia.
Skylah :
"The classic teletransportation paradox."
Andreia :
"The...what?"
Skylah :
"The Teletransportation paradox. It's a thought experiment that if you enter a teletransporter that destroys your original body and recreate another in Mars, the one on Mars isn't really you. In other words, instead of teleporting you, the teletransporter merely kills you in one location while creating a clone of you somewhere else that thinks he is the original."
Haasim :
"Wait a minute…. Is that what we've been doing all this while? Are you saying I'm a clone?"
Doctor Sofia :
"No, none of you are clones. Don't worry. In fact, the paradox does not apply here. When a device creates a perfect replica without incinerating the original body, the replica just becomes a lifeless lump of meat that looks like the original body. This is why, despite all the advances in science, creating a human clone is impossible. We can input the most sophisticated algorithm and data into a lump of meat and it would never be a human."
John :
"Doctor, are you saying that our souls get transferred from our incinerated bodies to the replica in the process of teleportation?"
Doctor Sofia :
"That is what science has confirmed, Father John.
You see…..the soul is incorporeal. It is not trapped within the physical body like a container. Instead, the soul is like a magnet. It is attracted to where your body is. Even if you're on a bullet train or a rocket, your soul attaches itself to your body like a magnet, regardless of how fast your body moves.
Thus, with the correct calculation, when a body is incinerated and recreated in another location, the soul will think that the body has 'moved' really quickly and will immediately travel like a strong magnet and reattach itself to the new body."
Skylah :
"And….. Now, instead of transporting our souls to another location, you want to conduct an experiment to transport our souls to another time."
Doctor Sofia :
"Yes. That is precisely what I intend to do.
The premise of the whole experiment is very simple. According to Einstein's theory, you can travel back in time if you move much, much, faster than the speed of light. Thus, if all the conditions are met, your souls will travel back in time."
Haasim :
"What happens to our physical bodies when our souls travel back in time?"
Doctor Sofia :
"Just like how the soul is attached to the body like a magnet, the same can be said about the body to its soul. If my hypothesis is correct, with the right calculation, the moment your soul travels back in time, it will drag all of its physical components together with it like a magnet."
John :
"That reminds me of what C.S. Lewis once said. "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.""
Skylah :
"Actually, that wasn't said by C…. Never mind."
Doctor Sofia takes a deep breath and prepares herself for the controversial part of the explanation.
- Writer
