Large Scale Quantum Mechanics

[Dillon_Reyna]

If and when we gain the ability to harness the power if Quantum Mechanics, couldn't we apply that to a larger scale to gain the ability of teleportation?

 

(Forgive me if this sounds idiotic, I'm new to physics.)

[swansont]

Teleportation as used in the current literature does not refer to matter, it refers to information.

 

How large of a scale do you mean? There are arguably macroscopic systems that demonstrate quantum effects.

[mooeypoo]

Teleportation as used in the current literature does not refer to matter, it refers to information.

 

How large of a scale do you mean? There are arguably macroscopic systems that demonstrate quantum effects.

 

 

But the information is about the matter, isn't it? Most teleportation 'tech' I've read in sci-fi so far seems to describe the process as "reading the atomic structure", transmitting it, and rebuilding it. If that's the case, then the information is about matter, and should involve quantum mechanics, no?

 

Lawrence Krauss has a good video about transporters in "physics of star trek" lecture:

 

 

The problem seems to be the engineering -- the process of reading, storing, transmitting -- rather than "strictly" the quantum mechanics itself. This type of information is just insanely huge.

[ajb]

Lets not forget that we already exploit quantum mechanics in some of our electronic devices.

 

Most teleportation devices proposed that I know of are more like fax machines. They make a copy at another location.

[swansont]

But the information is about the matter, isn't it? Most teleportation 'tech' I've read in sci-fi so far seems to describe the process as "reading the atomic structure", transmitting it, and rebuilding it. If that's the case, then the information is about matter, and should involve quantum mechanics, no?

 

Yes, though you can teleport photons as well. Just trying to head off any unreasonable expectations of the physics.

[questionposter]

The only reason this universe exists is because of what's going on at the quantum mechanical level. You can do something like describe biology using quantum mechanics, but because biology is at such a bigger scale, you just need to do more work. It's not that its impossibly, it that its bloody difficult because your dealing with such a complex thing. Your not just calculating the wave function of hydrogen, you calculating the wave function of like 10^100 atoms while knowing the temperature of a system which effects how fast those atoms will bump into each other and you need to calculate how much force they'd bump into each other then, and need to calculate how the light hitting it effects the changes in random molecules and etc. It's just very very very very hard to use quantum mechanics at a macroscopic scale.