Don’t Beam Me Down, Scotty!

‘Beaming’, the near instantaneously conversion and transport of matter to energy and back to matter again is a staple of science fiction. Beaming technology is used extensively in “Star Trek”, but also for example in the TV series “Stargate: SG-1” as well, and no doubt in other sci-fi shows, films and novels. While obviously an extremely useful device in speeding up the action (just like faster-than-light warp drives and related), is it possible or is this just pure Hollywood sleight of hand? Alas, I find all sorts of problems with the physics, even the philosophy of this “Beam me down, Scotty” scenario.

OVERVIEW: Dr. Leonard H. [“Bones”] McCoy, late of the USS Enterprise [NCC 1701], always had an aversion to having his atoms converted to energy hence scrambled to the four winds while awaiting beam-down on the transporter pad in the USS Enterprise’s Transporter Room – not that he lacked faith in beam-down officer Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott [“Scotty”] – rather his gut feelings told him this ways and means of transport was somehow unnatural and somewhat dangerous. McCoy’s feels were more spot-on than even he could have ever realised.

Physics Problem Number One: One common nightmare faced by those being subjected to having their atoms scattered to the four winds only to be reassembled elsewhere, an everyday scenario faced by cast and crew of the Starship Enterprise, is that elsewhere might be smack dab into a ‘solid’ structure. You wouldn’t want to be rematerialised inside a brick wall; it would sort of ruin your day. However, being beamed down into an atmosphere is still being beamed into stuff, less dense than a brick wall admittedly, but still stuff. You’re being reassembled not in a vacuum but inside (atmospheric) stuff and non-you stuff is being incorporated into you as you rematerialise. At the minimum you’ll get a sort of bloated feeling.

DIRECT MATTER TRANSFER: Before considering the conversion of matter to energy and back to matter, which is what the “Star Trek” transporter technology does, what about the more direct matter transfer approach, the sort that we tend to do when we want to go from Point A to Point B? Can be somehow ‘beam’ matter (like you) directly to your destination without means of some sort of conveyance vehicle, like an automobile or a shuttlecraft? Of course you have to be taken apart first if you’re going to be beamed elsewhere.

Physics Problem Number Two: When you get disassembled, you’re taken apart, not just anatomical organ by organ, or tissue by tissue, or even cell by cell; not even molecule by molecule or atom by atom, but fundamental particle by fundamental particle. You’re stripped down to all those electrons and quarks that comprise you. Since a trio of quarks make up individual neutrons and protons, quarks are fundamental particles but protons and neutrons are not. Protons and neutrons are just composite particles, and therefore not fundamental or elementary.

Alas, this leads to a problem. You cannot separate out and isolate individual quarks because of the strong nuclear force. It’s those strong nuclear force gluons that corral the trio of quarks into one location thus making up your basic neutron or proton. You see, unlike the electromagnetic force or the force of gravity which gets weaker with increasing distance, the strong nuclear force gets stronger with increasing distance. The more you try to pull the trio of quarks apart, the more they resist that pull. It’s like a rubber band. If there’s no pull, the rubber band is in a relaxed state. But as you increase the pull, the rubber band gets increasingly uptight and pulls back with an equal and opposite force. Translated, nobody has ever been able to isolate one individual quark. So, you cannot pull apart a proton or a neutron – however an isolated neutron will ‘decay’ in about 15 minutes into an electron, a proton and an antineutrino, but the quarks are now in the newly created proton.

Now what if all that’s a tad too complicated or downright impossible? Then at what level in the hierarchy does Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock get disassembled? It has to be below cellular level since not even cells could be transmitted through seemingly ‘solid’ matter like the hull of the Enterprise itself. In fact, not even 100% of molecules; atoms; or even electrons, neutrons and protons will make it through the hull right on down to the surface, but I’m easy here for this is just a ‘what if’ thought experiment – so, let’s go with molecules; or atoms; or the trilogy of electrons, neutrons and protons.

Physics Problem Number Three: If you beam out the fundamental bits (quarks and electrons); or the trilogy of electrons, neutrons and protons; or atoms; or molecules, well then you have differing masses. Quarks and electrons have different masses; electrons, protons and neutrons have different masses; an oxygen atom has a different mass from a carbon atom, etc.; and of course you are comprised of hundreds of different types of molecules, each with a unique mass. A protein molecule is much heaver than a water molecule for example. So why is this some sort of problem? Because, if all these bits with different masses are subjected to the same amount of “energise” oomph, they will arrive at their destination, at the same place, but at different times. If you kick a bowing ball and a billiard ball with the same force, the billiard ball at point-of-kick will arrive at point-of-destination faster than the bowling ball. That sort of problem is going to raise all sorts of havoc when it comes time for Captain Kirk to be reassembled!

MATTER TO ENERGY BACK TO MATTER TRANSFER: This is the approach actually used in various sci-fi beaming scenarios. You convert your matter stuff to energy stuff (photons) then reassemble the energy stuff back into the original matter stuff. Does that work or are there more difficulties? Well, IMHO, while it’s ‘easy’ to convert mass into pure energy, it’s no small matter to freeze that pure energy back into mass.

Physics Problem Number Four: If you can’t beam out particles or atoms, etc. with differing masses without screwing things up, then perhaps all those bits and pieces of mass can be converted to bits and pieces of pure energy, as per Einstein’s most famous of equations that equates mass with energy and vice versa. Converting a bit of mass into energy is routine – the atomic bomb, a flashlight, a laser, even lighting a match converts some mass into energy. This sort of approach seems to be in sync with the Star Trek beam-me-down command, “energise”.

If all the matter bits and pieces were converted to say electromagnetic energy or radiation (photons) that moved at light speed, then all and sundry bits and pieces of you would start off at Point A and arrive at Point B at the exact same time. But, and there’s always a but, you need to convert ALL of the mass you wish to transport into energy. Alas, to convert pure matter into pure energy with 100% efficiency requires the annihilation of equal amounts of matter and antimatter. None of our “beam me down” characters are composed of any amount of antimatter, nor is the “beam me down” technology equated with turning Captain Kirk into pure energy by irradiating said Captain with an equal but opposite (anti) amount of matter – or antimatter. And how does one then convert that pure energy back into matter Captain Kirk and not into say antimatter Captain Kirk or for that matter any other form of matter or antimatter?

Physics Problem Number Five: You’ve got a really Big Problem in reversing the matter to energy scenario. You can convert some tiny bit of mass into energy, but can you convert that energy back into that original bit of matter? Turn on your flashlight. A tiny bit of matter that makes up that flashlight (well the matter in the batteries and/or the glowing filament in the bulb) is converted to the radiant energy that is the flashlight’s light beam (photons). Now, can you gather up the light (those photons), ‘freeze’ them and thus recover that tiny bit of lost flashlight mass? Good luck and let me know if you succeed!

Physics Problem Number Six: If those unfortunate to be “energised” and have their ‘you’ bits and pieces beamed from Point A to Point B, there’s always the possibility, in fact a rather high probability, that some of those energetic bits and pieces (photons) are going to interact physically / chemically with some other non-you bits and pieces before they reach their intended destination, say a planet’s surface. Thus, when you rematerialise on some alien planet’s surface, some of your bits and pieces won’t be there! That sort of argument applies equally if it’s just your molecules; atoms; or that trilogy of electrons, neutron and protons that are beamed on their way.

YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH! Beaming technology is a rather unique way of (temporarily) killing someone, or committing suicide!

Physics Problem Number Seven: If you are separated into your billions of fundamental, or even composite bits and pieces, ‘you’ could hardly be said to be still alive. That’s true whether I disassemble you into bits and pieces of matter or convert you to pure photonic energy! If you are disassembled in the Transporter Room of the USS Enterprise, beamed down and reassembled on the alien planet’s surface, then you have in fact died on the transporter pad, only in this case to be resurrected at planetary Ground Zero! But your brief ‘death’ is just the start of your problems. Quantum physics, often dominated by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, means that you’re never reassembled back to the exact same configuration or specifications that your were in prior to being disassembled. The Transporter Room ‘you’ and the ‘you’ on the alien planet’s surface are not the same ‘you’. You haven’t been so much reassembled as imperfectly reconstructed. Your ‘death’ and your new identity raise all sorts of interesting philosophical, metaphysical and even ethical questions!

Physics Problem Number Eight: As related in Physics Problem Number Seven, if I separated you into your billions of fundamental, or even composite bits and pieces, ‘you’ could hardly be said to be alive. You’re now a dead billion piece jigsaw puzzle. But if I could somehow reassemble those billions of jigsaw puzzle bits and pieces back into ‘you’ (and violate the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, but who’s looking), then you have in a manner of speaking returned from the grave! So every time Captain Kirk says “Beam me down, Scotty”, he’s being executed and resurrected, but that resurrection is a slight-of-hand bit of magic.

Unlike a real jigsaw puzzle which can be assembled and reassembled in just one way, the billion jigsaw puzzle bits and jigsaw puzzle pieces that made you, you, can be reassembled in more than one way. In fact your bits and pieces at the atomic level or below can be reassembled into anything and everything since anything and everything else is also made up of those same fundamental bits and pieces. It’s like taking apart a billion Lego pieces and putting them back together in a totally different configuration.

Since that reassembly – not that there has to be any of course; once scattered to the four winds the bits and pieces might stay scattered to the four winds – could be anything, you are really taking quite a chance that ‘you’ will reassemble back into ‘you’. Put it this way, if you take a billion Lego blocks assembled as a replica of the USS Enterprise, then scatter them in a heap, then put them back together again blindfolded, well odds are you won’t reconstruct a Lego USS Enterprise. Further, there are vastly more ways to assemble a billion Lego blocks into an unstructured mess than a structure with a high amount of organisation or symmetry or complexity or something even remotely recognizable (like the USS Enterprise). In the real world of fundamental bits and pieces, disassembly hence reassembly into something organised, include something living, is highly remote; and that something living would be a reconstructed ‘you’ is as close to impossible as makes no odds. If you are disassembled and beamed down, the reassembly will probably be just what’s most highly probable – an unorganised mess.

CONCLUSION: The USS Enterprise won’t be abandoning shuttlecraft technology anytime soon, and only a complete idiot would say “Beam me down, Scotty”. I wouldn’t want to be so rash as to predict that beaming technology will forever be unobtainable, only that it probably won’t yet be a practical reality even by Captain Kirk’s 23rd Century.