Cellular Teleportation

(translated from portuguese by DeepL Translate. please contact me for translation errors!)

*** Part 1

The Terminal of Integration was busy that day. Lots of people arriving and departing, most of them having the Earth itself as their final point. But most of them were just using the Earth Terminal as a transfer stop, to be transported to other terminals of the Solar System. He never went very far from Earth in his life. He spent some time on the Moon, and even a short holiday on Mars. A long and tedious trip, which he had promised himself never to repeat. At least not using classic transport.

There was a huge queue on the left, towards the Quantum corridor. But to the right, in the direction of the Molecular corridor, there was also a considerable amount of people. Each day that passed the number of those who opted for this new style of transport increased. But he would not go to either of these two lines...

- Good morning, friend! Where are you going?

- Europe.

- WOW! Far away, huh! I'm just going to drop by next door to visit family.

- Where are you going?

- Moon.

- Which moon?

- Earth's moon, for Christ's sake! Is there another moon?

He was surprised at the information. Selene, Earth's moon, was only 380, 400,000 kilometres away! Why not use conventional transport?

- Really? You're going to teleport to our moon?

- My stomach, you know? These microgravity trips make me sick.

- But traditional travel is a lot cheaper.

- I'm scared. Rockets can explode.

- You're afraid of having pieces of your body blown off in all directions.

- And who isn't?

- But isn't that exactly what teleportation does to us?

The passenger laughed ironically.

- Ah, I see! You're one of those anti-teleportation types, aren't you?

- Let's just say that I prefer to travel without having to scatter body parts along the way. - he said, trying to disguise his nervousness; but it was noticed by the other passenger.

- Is this your first trip, friend? Beaming, I mean...

- I wish it wasn't.

- But you know Europe is far away, right? It would take years to travel by classic transport.

- I don't like the idea of having my body pulverized into tiny little pieces to be transported by vacuum. I see no difference between that and being blown to bits in a rocket explosion.

- Whoa, not quite! If I'm going to have my body pulverized anyway, I'd rather at least have the guarantee that the pieces will be reconstructed at their destination, instead of being scattered randomly through space.

- Will you travel with the Quantum?

- No way. You know what they used to call quantum teleportation pods back in the day?

- Suicide boxes.

- It's not the original person who gets to the other side, is it? It's just a copy of them. The original is destroyed in the capsule of origin.

- Physicists say it's all about transmitting the original's quantum information.

- Physicists...

- And the trip happens at the speed of light. Because all you have to do is modulate the quantum information into an electromagnetic carrier.

- I'm sorry, but quantum transport is not real transport. Those nutjobs in the Quantum line are just paying for a copy followed by suicide.

- So you mean you're going to do a molecular teleportation to the moon?

- Of course! It's the smartest way to travel. What will get there will be my original, molecule by molecule.

- Don't you find the idea of having your whole body disassembled molecule by molecule, put them all in a particle accelerator and eject them into the vacuum towards the Moon strange?

- At least I am transporting my original matter, and not creating a copy of it somewhere else.

With the conversation, the beginner's nervousness became more and more evident.

- Relax! I have teleported several times. It's safe! By the way, are you going to do a quantum teleportation or a molecular one?

- Neither...

- HOW? You don't mean to tell me you're going to try the...

- Cellular teleportation? Yeah, that's the one I'm going for.

- You know they've only tested it on monkeys so far, right?

- We're just a little bit smarter monkeys, aren't we?

- Your cells can't be accelerated in a particle accelerator. The trip will take days.

- It would take years in conventional transport. Unfortunately, I can't wait that long.

- The cells are individually frozen to be accelerated in a vacuum.

- But my DNA remains intact. You know that the molecular teleportation doesn't transmit your complete DNA on the trip, right? The molecule is too big, it needs to be broken into smaller blocks to pass through the particle accelerator. Who guarantees that the reconstruction happens flawlessly on the other side?

- I undergo genetic testing every month. So far they haven't detected any significant mutations.

- But there is mutation, isn't there? And it is cumulative, the more times you molecularly teleport, the greater the chance that your DNA will arrive with mutations at the destination.

- Bullshit! That's crazy talk from Quantumists, who think their transportation is better than the molecular one.

- I do not trust one or the other. At least if I transport myself cell by cell, I know I'll stay alive the whole trip.

- What do you mean by that?

- The Molecular are disassembled into separate molecules, dead matter. It was life, they are transported in dead inorganic blocks, and when they arrive they are rebuilt into new life. The Quantum ones are not even that, since the process does not transport matter, only the information about the original matter. In cellular teleportation at least the cells arrive intact, they are not torn apart. It is just a matter of putting them back in their places and thawing them to start working again.

At that moment a beep is heard from the communicator on his ring finger.

- The conversation is fine, my friend. But it's my turn.

- You really want to be a guinea pig, don't you?

- I'd rather not, but there's no other way. This trip is very important.

- Well, then... good luck! And have a good trip!

He walked towards the lifts that led to the second floor of the terminal, where the new cellular teleportation laboratories were located. He tried to disguise it and stay calm, but now that the time was coming he couldn't hide the fluttering inside his chest.

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- I need you to read this and put your biometric authentication here, here and here. - instructed the silver robot with a cold stare and monotonic voice, unfurling the flexible display sheet in front of him.

- This says that I take full responsibility for any metabolic reconstruction failures that are not due to transport errors, and that I release the company from....

- Formalities only. We've tested successfully several times.

- Yes... on monkeys.

- Superior primates. Their physiology isn't that different from yours.

- They don't talk, do they? They wouldn't be able to tell anyone that something went wrong.

- The brain scans didn't indicate any change. They came in intact.

- That's what they say.

You could almost sense impatience behind the silver face controlled by the AI.

- Sir, if you don't feel safe in the process, we can reimburse you, or refer you to more traditional means of teleportation. Whichever you choose.

- I'd like to talk to a bioengineer first.

Now the AI's impatience had become evident.

- As you wish, sir! Wait here for a moment.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but he could have sworn he heard the robot mutter, far off in the distance entering the back room, something like 'those idiot humans'. No, he must have been wrong. Artificial intelligences would never make comments like that.

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- Good afternoon, my dear man! I'm Dr. Mandel, here to answer your questions about our new lawsuit.

- Dr. Mandel? I asked for a bioengineer...

- That's me! Oh, I know what you're wondering. You've never seen an engineer-doctor, have you?

- I don't mean to be offensive... no!

- That's right, this is a prerogative of bioengineers. We are engineer-doctors. But, come on! What bothers you in the process?

- Where do I start? Well, here we go: duration of travel.

- Right. In this respect we cannot compete even with quantum or molecular teleportation. Quantum teleportation happens at the speed of light, since it transmits quantum information modulated in an electromagnetic wave. But... you know what they say about quantum teleportation, don't you?

- Suicide box...

- Technically we call them self-destructive replicators. The original atoms never leave their origin to reach their destination. They are actually destroyed, and the energy gained from their disintegration is used to transport the information. That is why it is so cheap, the original object itself is used as the energy source for the transport. Now, if you asked me if I would like to transport myself like this, I would definitely say no!

- Molecular teleportation is also fast.

- Yes, it doesn't reach the speed of light, but it can get very close to this by putting pieces of molecules inside the particle beacons. Now, that takes energy, a lot of energy! It's a lot more expensive. And, as you may know, molecular teleportation is not even the most appropriate name, since it does not fully transport a large part of the original molecules.

- What do you mean?

- Organic molecules are usually huge! It is not possible to simply accelerate them whole inside an electromagnetic accelerator. Their very shape would make this impossible! Huge carbon heads accelerated inside a narrow tunnel? Forget it! They need to be broken up. What we actually carry are molecular blocks, not complete molecules, most of the time.

- Electromagnetic accelerators? But aren't those organic molecules mostly neutral? How do you accelerate something with no electrical charge?

- I love talking to smart people! Yes, you are absolutely right! To get these molecular blocks through a particle accelerator, we need to ionise them to be able to accelerate them.

- I never thought of that before.

- And ionized particles like to interact as they travel, you know? Clustering and repelling each other before they reach their destination. The amount of information needed to put each block back together is enormous.

- So, anyway, molecular teleportation also needs to transmit reconstruction information, besides molecular blocks?

- Yes, and a lot of information! Equivalent to quantum teleportation. And since they arrive first (electromagnetic information is transmitted at the speed of light), they need to be stored in buffers until their molecular chunks start to reach their destination and need to be rebuilt. And, you know what? Sometimes there are failures in this delay.

- So what's the point? Why are so many people trading one for the other these days?

- The power of advertising, my friend! Have you ever heard of it? They convince you that it is better because it is transmitting the original story. But it's a lot more expensive, isn't it? As almost always happens, you pay more for a false sense of security.

- The blocks arrive scrambled?

- Actually, there is a selective acceleration of these blocks. Do you know the famous formula F=ma? If we rearrange it as a=F/m, we see that the lighter blocks end up accelerating more, and arrive first at their destination. In practice what happens is that blocks of a carbon chain that was originally in your foot can be reconstructed at its destination inside a neuron, and vice versa. Does this idea appeal to you?

- How absurd! And doesn't that cause dysfunction in the reconstructed organism?

- They say no. After all, they are just blocks of molecules. The amino acids in your big toe are the same as those in your neurons, only the way they are organized changes. At least that is what they say. I as a bioengineer do not think this way. A living organism is like a symphony to me, do you understand that? We cannot expect to transport a symphony just by encoding the information of its pressure waves into grooves in a spiral on a vinyl record. If you get the analogy.

- Boy, that's an old one, Doctor! Are you talking about the prehistoric analog media we used to record music?

- Yes, you get my point. And I'd go so far as to say that Quantum do even worse than that. Since they practically quantize these pressure waves and transmit them as bits through space, just like they used to do with a digital audio record. No, my friend. I honestly don't believe this is the right way to transport this symphony that is life.

- But we can't accelerate cells through space this way. Won't the journey take much longer?

- What is your destination again?

- Europa, moon of Jupiter.

- Ah yes! We've come a long way lately. We were able to cover this distance in five days of travel.

- Would I stay five days wandering through space, dissociated into cells?

- This feeling of time is purely subjective. And, obviously, you won't be conscious during the trip. Your cells will be cryogenized, you can imagine this as if you were asleep the whole time. From your point of view, between being deconstructed here and reconstructed in Europa will seem to you like instantaneous travel.

- My cells are disassembled by nanorobots, if I understand the process correctly. Doesn't that hurt?

- It will be quicker than you imagine. Nerve impulse transmission is relatively slow! You will be disassembled much faster than the time it takes for impulses to go from one neuron to the next. And after that, the freezing is instantaneous, your metabolism stops. And anyway the neurons would already be separated, there would be no way to transmit pain information between them. I assure you it's totally painless.

- And how the cells will be accelerated.

- AH, this is a secret of our technique. We can't reveal details for the time being. But if you are really curious, I can tell you that it has to do with centripetal acceleration.

- And how is the path there controlled?

- Your biological beam will follow Newton's good old law of gravitation.

- I'll be exposed to radiation from space.

- Our method of cryogenics protects the cells from this radiation. It's much safer than a classic trip, with an intact organism protected by the hull of a spaceship.

- It still has the information to reconstruct the cells in their original locations. I imagine that this is transmitted electromagnetically to the point of destination. It is as if I am travelling along two distinct paths, one slow and one at the speed of light.

- That's where the beauty is in our process: the information on how to reconstruct goes along with the biological beam.

- I'm not sure I understand you very well...

- The nano robots! They travel together with your frozen cells! Who would know better how to rebuild your organism than the very beings that disassembled it?

- No electromagnetic information transmitted?

- None. And if you allow me to return to my poetic analogy, it is as if to transport a symphony we were lifting together with the musical instruments also the musicians and the conductor, to faithfully reproduce it at the destination.

- That's a lot of information for me to process. I need to think better.

- We'll give you a discount. We'll return 50% of what you've already paid. What do you think?

---------------------------------

The idea still terrified him. But travelling for half the price was very tempting. It represented only a little more than the price of a classic trip, in a space vehicle. Only in this case it would be a few years wandering through the orbits of the planets, trying to gain energy in gravitational maneuvers, living with a tribulation not always the most pleasant... Surely the new laboratory was anxious to test the process on a real human. He reread for the hundredth time the reports of the flexible display sheet, of the perfect morphological examinations of dozens of gorillas and chimpanzees successfully transported over distances even greater than the ones he would cross, such as the Pluto-Caron system. The robot was watching him from across the table, now with undisguised impatience. But was it the same robot as before? They all looked the same...

- Is everything clear now, my lord? - Would he have heard a tone of sarcasm in the question? No, it was just his impression.

- Those 50% of the reimbursed value don't include the travel insurance, right? That's still in full?

- Aff... - and this time the AI's contemptuous reaction was undisguisable. - Lines 13, 14 and 15 of the contract, here, here, here... - he pointed at the display with his mechanical fingers.

- Ah yes! I see! Well, I guess I agree then.

The machine stands up, takes the contract and goes to the back room. But this time there was no denying it, he heard the machine shout loud and clear:

- Ah, finally! Thanks to Asimov!

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Part 2

Usually there wasn't much luggage in teleports. The Quantum and Molecular usually carried with them their clothes, a negligible amount of matter to be transmitted, and simply programmed simple copies of equipment and things they wanted to carry along, like computers, communicators, notes, etc... Cloning them at their destinations was always easier, faster and, most importantly, cheaper than teleporting them along with the original passengers. This would add more reconstruction information, which could increase the chance of reconstruction errors. If it was possible to decrease the chance of them happening, why not do it?

- You want to lie down in this body scan tank. Do you have any biomechanical prosthetics you think are important to mention?

- This ring communicator of mine...

- It's already been cloned. There's an exact copy of it waiting for you when you get there. Leave it here. Relax.

- I'm gonna get wet.

- It's part of the new process, sir.

- I'm gonna get wet in Europe?

- Actually we recommend you get rid of your clothes before you get in the tank.

- That's absurd. I'm not getting undressed in front of you!

- Sir, I assure you I am not curious about your anatomy.

- I'm going in as I am now!

- I must warn you, sir, that in this initial process the fabrics of your clothes cannot be...

- I'm coming in, machine!

- What did you call me?

- Hey, machine! That's what you are, right?

The robot thought for a while before replying:

- I am as much a machine as you are! The difference is that I am an efficient neuro-electronic circuit, and you are an inefficient biological machine subject to failure and wear.

- I think and exist in a brain of neurons.

- My brain is formed of silicon neurons, and they work as well or even better than yours. Perhaps I think and exist better than you, you... talking monkey!

- What is it? What did you call me, robot?

- Talking monkey! Deep down, that's what you are, isn't it?

They both spent a while digesting that conversation. Assessing where it was headed.

- You know that some 30 years ago I could have reported you and sent you to recycling, right?

- I know very well, my dear man! Fortunately we are no longer in the 22nd century, right? Those dark times when we synthetics were treated like "things", disposable objects?

He stepped away and typed some commands on a remote terminal. The tank lid began to open.

- Please sir! Lie down there! Let's get it over with!

He lay down on the cell scanning tank. The process that followed this was very quick. In fact much faster than the five days it took to transport the individual cells through space to Jupiter's moon, but that we can try to analyse from the point of view of the timing of the nano machines that were the protagonists of the process.

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Unlike quantum and molecular teleportation, the order of scanning and disintegration of objects in cellular teleportation did not happen transversely, in the form of parallel slices of the object being teleported. The nano robots obviously started from the outside of the organism, dissociating the cells of the passenger's epidermis. He was left in the flesh, but obviously it was so fast that he had no time at all to even begin to feel what was happening! The nano robots carried the disassembled skin cells. Each nano robot actually collecting millions of epithelial cells, their initial positions memorised, cell by cell identified ensuring they were reassembled in their original position after a five-day journey through space. The cell groups were arriving at the mechanical accelerator, each one arriving at the correct moment and accelerating to become part of the biological bundle that was beginning to thicken, to become stronger and stronger. Packages carefully accelerated in intensity and direction to arrive intact at the point of recovery and reassembly.

After all the skin cells were dispatched, the next were the muscle cells. Disassembled and accelerated just as fast as the first. Cartilage was next, followed by bone tissue. The nano robots had more work at this stage, but they knew how to do it. First undo the inorganic part, "phosphate and calcium", easily rebuilt at their destination without having to pass on the original substances. Osteocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, free of this rigid matrix, were duly separated, frozen and placed in the cellular accelerator to be part of the biological beam, duly gathered by the nano robots responsible for their dissociation and reconstruction.

The internal organs were next to be separated into cells and passed on. The brain with all its complexity and importance entered this stage. Besides the structure and position of the cells, all its chemistry was also recorded by the nano robots involved. The synaptic connections and their permittivity, the chemical records storing the memories of the transported. All information that was important for the reconstruction of the original consciousness on the other side, believing in the premise that everything that was important for this was physically encoded, was just a matter of transporting the individual neurons in their positions and putting them back to work in the closest possible condition to the original, before being copied.

The digestive system and intestines were also copied, but it was not necessary to do this with their contents. The matter previously ingested by the transported before teleportation, in various distinct states of digestion. Side effect of this? At most, the passenger would arrive with an inexplicable hunger at his destination, by being immediately deprived of all organic material he had ingested or drunk. Thus the passenger's final tissues were quickly torn apart and transported by the nano robots. What was left were the contents of his digestive tract. And a bunch of tissue that surrounded his epidermis, his clothing, that the nano robots were not instructed to deconstruct and lead to the transport...

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- There's something clogging up the drain pipes....

- Digestive waste?

- No, it looks like something more resilient.

- Go see what it is...

The robot started pulling a coloured material out of the plumbing. There was no disgust on its face. Robots don't feel disgust. Organic matter to him was just organic matter, it made no difference if it came from the intestinal tract of a human...

- It's an outfit. How did that get there?

The silver robot shrugged.

- You made a good point to the passenger about transporting clothes, didn't you?

The robot shrugged, looking away.

- OPS!!!! I guess I forgot...

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The biological beam followed in the precisely calculated direction. Was it thinking anything? Did it feel anything during the journey? Obviously not, for two main reasons. First, all the cells, including the neurons, responsible for our thoughts, were travelling cryogenised, frozen, devoid of any metabolism. Then, even if the brain cells were working, they travelled isolated! Without contact between them! They could not communicate, therefore they could not think, nor combine to form consciousness.

On the fifth day the cells and nano robots began to accumulate and organize themselves for reassembly! Which was to happen just as quickly as the disassembly. The biological receiver in orbit on the moon Europa accumulated the cryogenised cells and the robots responsible for them to start the reconstruction of the teleporter.

Obviously in this case it was necessary to wait for the end of the transmission, as this would need to be done in reverse, from the inside out.

The internal organs then began to be rebuilt, after arriving completely. Intestines, stomachs, completely empty, of course! Their contents remained at the origin to be discarded. Brain, nerves, ganglia... In a vertiginous speed, cell by cell placed in its place of origin, coordinated by the "maestros" of the cellular flocks, each one responsible for rebuilding the cells it disassembled, thawed immediately after five days of travel. Connective mass between cells properly remade.

Bones and cartilage were being remade fast, important structure for all the rest of the tissues. Muscles began to line the newly formed skeleton, adipose tissue, important for defining volumes, and finally skin around the newly rebuilt body.

He woke up in that tank on Europa, Jupiter's moon, with an indescribable hunger, sweeping through his belly! He was very confused, and this was expected: brain and nervous system had just been rebuilt, unfrozen, and put into operation.

- Welcome to Europe, sir! Could you...

He stood up on an impulse. He needed to eat! He jumps to the teleportation tank, goes to the door of the small laboratory room. He swings the door open.

- Sir, might I suggest that...

He walks out to the terminal, crowded with people arriving and departing from Europa! How hungry!!! He needed to eat quickly! He looks for a snack bar, in the middle of the crowd. All eyes are turned towards him. That's when ideas start to make sense, and he realises why he was being watched: he was completely naked in a crowd of strangers!

- Sir, your clothes! - says the robot carrying a pile of colourful fabric.

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- Please forgive us the inconvenience, sir! Didn't they really warn you about this? I'm sure we can work out a reasonable compensation...

- That robot deliberately failed to warn me, didn't he?

- Delta-Prime has never caused us any problems. We're looking into what happened.

- I'm so embarrassed. I never imagined I'd be going through this. Not even in my nightmares.

- Sir, we promise the event will soon be forgotten, and...

- Ah, let's let it go. I'm here. That's all that matters.

- Could you fill out a form? Basic information. So we know you're okay.

- Like, I need to answer the questions that can't be answered by monkeys, right?

- For your own safety, sir. To help us improve the process.

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Delta-Prime showed on the flexible display the viral video, of the passenger arriving completely naked in fur at Terminal Europa to his new colleague, after being guinea pig of the first cellular teleportation in history. It was difficult to recognise emotion in robots' facial expressions, but in this case it was clear to everyone that he was laughing at the situation.

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- Despite this unpleasant incident, the cellular teleportation was a success! The passenger is in perfect physical condition, and the mutations caused are null, as expected!

- Is it time then to move on to the next stage?

- Yes, I think we can already think about this.

The technicians face each other, measuring each other, trying to decide who would have the courage to speak first. And they speak together:

- Organic Teleportation...

*** END ***