If it’s a seamless passing of consciousness and memory right up to the point of death, sure.
Consider there’s a medical procedure for extending your life that, over the course of a year, replaces each of your cells one by one with an exact replica just with more telomeres or whatever. You probably wouldn’t consider that dying, but it’s the same idea as the transporter, the transporter just does all the disassembly and reassembly at once. It’s the classic Reconstituted Relativistic Meat Suit of Theseus paradox.
The “Ship of Theseus” example is how our bodies work normally, the transporter makes a new you out of separate matter in another place. Nothing implies a transfer of consciousness, just an exact copy of you is there. Of course, I realize that for the purposes of the shows and movies, none of this is a concern, but a real version of this would be ethically fucked up.
In practical terms, the transporter in order to preserve quantum identity, would need to be reproducing you at the same time as it destroys the old you. To be widely accepted by society, it would need to preserve consciousness continuity, so you’d briefly feel being in two places at the same time, then just at the destination.
Now, a power failure mid transfer… wouldn’t be pretty.
If another perfect copy of you existed, you be okay with being killed? That’s fucking weird.
If it’s a seamless passing of consciousness and memory right up to the point of death, sure.
Consider there’s a medical procedure for extending your life that, over the course of a year, replaces each of your cells one by one with an exact replica just with more telomeres or whatever. You probably wouldn’t consider that dying, but it’s the same idea as the transporter, the transporter just does all the disassembly and reassembly at once. It’s the classic Reconstituted Relativistic Meat Suit of Theseus paradox.
The “Ship of Theseus” example is how our bodies work normally, the transporter makes a new you out of separate matter in another place. Nothing implies a transfer of consciousness, just an exact copy of you is there. Of course, I realize that for the purposes of the shows and movies, none of this is a concern, but a real version of this would be ethically fucked up.
In practical terms, the transporter in order to preserve quantum identity, would need to be reproducing you at the same time as it destroys the old you. To be widely accepted by society, it would need to preserve consciousness continuity, so you’d briefly feel being in two places at the same time, then just at the destination.
Now, a power failure mid transfer… wouldn’t be pretty.