patentNumber: "US-IMP-3,144,902" title: "Matter Transposition Device" titleRu: "Устройство для транспозиции материи" filingDate: "October 3, 1949" issueDate: "August 18, 1953" inventor: "Dr. Konstantin V. Mirsky" inventorRu: "д-р Константин В. Мирский" inventorSlug: "konstantin-mirsky" classification: "Quantum Absurdities" status: "Pending Physics Revision" abstract: "An apparatus for the dematerialization, transmission, and rematerialization of macroscopic material objects, including living human subjects, across arbitrary spatial intervals, by means of complete quantum-state measurement of the subject within a sealed source chamber (1) and the reconstruction of an isomorphic state within a sealed destination chamber (2) located at the desired terminus. The source and destination chambers are coupled by a classical signal channel (3) of conventional radiotelegraphic construction, and each is fitted with a synchronized atomic clock (4) and a quantum-state register (5) of sufficient capacity to encode the subject's complete configuration to a precision not less than one part in 10²³. The invention claims to preserve the identity, continuity of consciousness, and biological function of the transmitted subject." abstractRu: "Аппарат для дематериализации, передачи и рематериализации макроскопических материальных объектов, включая живых людей, через произвольные пространственные интервалы, путём полного квантово-механического измерения объекта в герметичной исходной камере (1) и реконструкции изоморфного состояния в герметичной целевой камере (2), расположенной в требуемой точке прибытия. Исходная и целевая камеры соединены классическим сигнальным каналом (3) обычной радиотелеграфной конструкции; каждая снабжена синхронизированными атомными часами (4) и квантовым регистром состояний (5) достаточной ёмкости для кодирования полной конфигурации объекта с точностью не менее одной части на 10²³. Изобретение претендует на сохранение идентичности, непрерывности сознания и биологической функции пересылаемого объекта." citations:

• "US-IMP-3,091,447"
• "US-IMP-3,887,201"
• "US-IMP-3,447,772"

Field of InventionОбласть изобретенияField of Invention

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for the transposition of matter through space without continuous trajectory, and more particularly to the safe conveyance of living human subjects between paired chambers separated by terrestrial or extra-terrestrial distances. The invention pertains further to the encoding, transmission, and faithful reconstitution of the quantum-mechanical state of macroscopic bodies, and to the engineering of measurement apparatus of sufficient fidelity to render such reconstitution indistinguishable from the original.

BackgroundПредпосылкиBackground

Conveyance of inanimate matter by mechanical means is among the oldest of human industries, dating not less than to the discovery of the wheel. The conveyance of living matter by such means has occasioned, throughout the historical record, considerable inconvenience: the subject is required to traverse the entirety of the intervening distance at a finite velocity, and is moreover required to remain alive throughout. The discomforts attendant upon transatlantic ocean passage, intercontinental rail transit, and similar enterprises are well documented and need not be elaborated here.

Prior art has proposed two principal modes of accelerated conveyance: (a) the aeroplane, which reduces the duration of transit by elevating the subject above the troposphere and propelling him forward at unprecedented speed, but which does not eliminate the requirement of a continuous trajectory; and (b) the apparatus of U.S.-IMP-3,091,447, which conveys the subject through the temporal rather than the spatial dimension and is therefore unsuited to the transit of points separated chiefly in space. Neither prior art provides for the instantaneous transposition of the subject between two pre-established stations.

The instant invention addresses this deficiency by treating the subject not as a continuous trajectory of matter but as a finite configuration of quantum states, which configuration may in principle be measured at one station and reconstituted at another, provided that the destination station has been pre-stocked with elementary constituents in sufficient quantity to compose a body of the requisite mass and composition.

Summary of the InventionКраткое изложение изобретенияSummary of the Invention

The apparatus comprises:

• A source chamber (1) of cylindrical construction, internally evacuated to a residual pressure not exceeding 10⁻⁹ torr, and shielded against thermal radiation by a triple-walled silvered Dewar of liquid-helium-cooled construction;
• A destination chamber (2) of identical specification, located at the terminus of the transposition and pre-stocked with a standardized reservoir of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and trace constituents in proportions calibrated to the molecular requirements of an adult human subject of standard configuration;
• A classical signal channel (3) of conventional telegraphic or radio construction, by which the encoded state-register is transmitted from source to destination;
• Synchronized atomic clocks (4) at each station, of caesium-beam type, by which the temporal phase of the transmitted state is preserved to a precision not less than one part in 10¹²;
• A pair of quantum-state registers (5), each comprising not less than ten-to-the-twenty-third addressable cells, by which the complete instantaneous configuration of the subject is encoded;
• A measurement apparatus (6), described in greater detail below, by which the source chamber's contents are discretized and read out, and a corresponding synthesis apparatus (7) at the destination, by which the read-out configuration is impressed upon the standardized reservoir;
• A disposal manifold (8) at the source chamber, by which the elementary constituents of the original subject are vented to a low-grade industrial use, the subject having by this point ceased to require them.

U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №Чертёж У.С.Б.И.П. №U.S.B.I.P. Drawing №

Sheet 1 of 1Лист 1 из 1Sheet 1 of 1

Detailed DescriptionПодробное описаниеDetailed Description

Referring to FIG. 2A, the source chamber (1) is dimensioned to receive a single adult human subject of standard proportions in the seated position. Upon engagement of the transposition cycle, the chamber is sealed, evacuated, and brought to a uniform internal temperature not exceeding fifty millikelvin by means of an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator coupled to the outer Dewar.

The measurement apparatus (6) thereupon performs a complete state-determination of the subject's molecular and quantum-mechanical configuration. Said apparatus comprises a stationary lattice of approximately 10²³ entangled-photon emitters, distributed isotropically about the chamber, each emitter being addressed in sequence by a multiplexed local oscillator and configured to perform a single-shot weak measurement of the corresponding configuration cell. The aggregate of measurement outcomes is encoded into the quantum-state register (5) in binary form, the register being constructed in the manner described in U.S.-IMP-3,447,772 and U.S.-IMP-3,887,201.

The contents of the register are thereupon transmitted, in classical form only, over the signal channel (3) to the destination station. The Bureau notes that the requirement for a classical-only signal — that is, a signal not transcending the velocity of light — is essential to the invention's compliance with the no-superluminal-signaling constraint of special relativity. The transmission is timed by reference to the synchronized atomic clocks (4) so as to permit precise reconstitution of the subject's phase at the destination.

Upon receipt at the destination, the synthesis apparatus (7) consults the standardized reservoir of elementary constituents and assembles, atom by atom, a body conforming to the received configuration. The reservoir is pre-stocked with elemental abundances corresponding to a 70-kilogram adult of mean composition, viz., approximately 43 kilograms oxygen, 16 kilograms carbon, 7 kilograms hydrogen, 1.8 kilograms nitrogen, 1 kilogram calcium, 0.78 kilograms phosphorus, and trace amounts of sulfur, potassium, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, fluorine, zinc, copper, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, and selenium. The reservoir is replenished after each cycle from an attached supply line.

Synthesis is performed by ultrasonic agitation of the reservoir, followed by selective bonding under the direction of the impressed state-register, and is completed in a duration not exceeding ninety seconds, at the conclusion of which the destination chamber is opened and the reconstituted subject is released to ambient conditions.

Concurrently, the original subject within the source chamber, having been exhaustively measured, is rendered into its elementary constituents by application of the disposal manifold (8). These constituents are catalogued, weighed, and conveyed by pneumatic tube to the source-station reservoir for use in subsequent inbound transpositions.

ClaimsФормула изобретенияClaims

1. An apparatus for the transposition of a material subject from a first station to a second station distinct therefrom, comprising: a source chamber at said first station; a destination chamber at said second station; a measurement apparatus operatively coupled to said source chamber; a synthesis apparatus operatively coupled to said destination chamber; and a signal channel coupling said measurement apparatus to said synthesis apparatus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said signal channel is classical, propagating no signal at a velocity in excess of that of light in vacuo.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said measurement apparatus is configured to perform a complete state-determination of the contents of said source chamber to a precision not less than one part in 10²³.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said destination chamber is pre-stocked with elementary constituents of standardized composition, by mass and by molar abundance, sufficient to compose an adult human subject.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising synchronized atomic clocks of caesium-beam type at said first and second stations.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a disposal manifold operatively coupled to said source chamber and configured to render the original subject into elementary constituents upon completion of measurement.

7. A method for the conveyance of a living human subject between said two stations, comprising the steps of: sealing said subject within said source chamber; performing a complete state-determination upon said subject; transmitting the resultant state-register to said second station; and reconstituting said subject from said elementary constituents under the direction of said state-register.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein steps (b) and (d) are performed within a total elapsed duration not exceeding one hundred twenty seconds.

Why This Violates Physics (For Now)Почему это нарушает физику (пока)Why This Violates Physics (For Now)

The invention as claimed encounters three independent obstacles under the laws of physics as presently understood, each of which would suffice to render it provisionally impossible.

First, the apparatus requires the complete and faithful measurement of the quantum-mechanical state of a macroscopic body containing of order 10²⁷ elementary particles. The no-cloning theorem of Wootters and Zurek (1982) demonstrates that no quantum-mechanical procedure can produce an exact copy of an arbitrary unknown quantum state. The instant invention attempts to evade this prohibition by destroying the original subject in the course of measurement, after the manner of quantum teleportation as described by Bennett et al. (1993); but the Bennett protocol requires not only a classical signal channel but also a pre-shared maximally-entangled state distributed between the two stations, the magnitude of which entangled state must be exponential in the number of qubits transmitted. The pre-distribution of an entangled state of order 10²⁷ degrees of freedom between two terrestrial stations exceeds the present capabilities of the physical sciences by approximately one hundred orders of magnitude and may exceed the information-carrying capacity of the observable universe.

Second, even granting the availability of such entanglement, the measurement procedure of claim 3 requires the destruction of the source subject by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle within an interval far shorter than the requisite measurement duration. The Bureau notes that the principle, as formulated by Heisenberg (1927) and subsequently formalized by Robertson and Schrödinger, places a non-vanishing lower bound on the product of uncertainties in conjugate observables, with the consequence that the measurement apparatus of claim 3 cannot achieve the stated precision in vivo. The Bureau acknowledges that the invention contemplates the cooling of the subject to fifty millikelvin prior to measurement, which would in any event prove fatal to a living subject and would render the claimed preservation of biological function inoperative.

Third, the philosophical question of personal identity under matter transposition is, at the date of issuance, unresolved. The Bureau takes no formal position upon whether the reconstituted subject at the destination is the same person as the dematerialized subject at the source, or whether the apparatus constitutes a sophisticated method of execution coupled with the manufacture of a convincing simulacrum. The Bureau notes that this question is conventionally identified as the Ship-of-Theseus problem in the philosophical literature and remains the subject of vigorous disagreement among logicians, theologians, and travel insurance underwriters. Until such time as the question is settled by competent authority, the invention is held to be Pending Physics Revision, the Bureau being unable to confirm that the apparatus performs the function for which it is patented (the conveyance of the subject) as distinguished from the function for which it appears equally suited (the disposal of the subject and the manufacture of his replacement). Citations: Wootters, W. K. and Zurek, W. H., "A Single Quantum Cannot Be Cloned," Nature 299, 802 (1982); Bennett, C. H. et al., "Teleporting an Unknown Quantum State via Dual Classical and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Channels," Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1895 (1993); Heisenberg, W., Z. Phys. 43, 172 (1927).