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In 2013, I began thinking about how long-range teleportation might be used to shuttle Interventionist agents such as Parthney to and from Earth. Back in 2013 I mentioned "It's Such a Beautiful Day", a short story by Isaac Asimov set in a future time when teleportation is used routinely to move people across town. Assuming that teleportation technology were obtained, should there be any practical limit on the range for teleportation?
I've seen it claimed that the earliest use of the term "teleportation" was in 1931. The original usage was in the context of a person using magical powers to move from one place to another (psychokinesis). Other terms such as "matter transmission" have been used in the context of an imaginary scientific breakthrough and development of a working technology that could make teleportation possible.
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Interstellar
Last year I mentioned another Asimov story, "The Deep" from 1952. In that story, aliens use teleportation to travel over interstellar distances to Earth. In "The Man without a Body", Mitchell's telepomp was like a telephone, with a transmitter and a receiver linked by a wire carrying an electrical signal. In 1877, electrical telegraphy provided a real-world model for imaginary teleportation.
Star Trek "beaming" |
In the Star Trek fictional universe, the original matter transmission technique was limited to short distances and could be blocked by thick layers of dense matter, but then other "subspace" transmission methods were developed and used for longer range teleportation. "Open end" teleportation was possible without the teleported object having to be near a transmitter or a receiver.
Nano-scale teleportation
In the nanorealm. |
Fantasy Teleportation
Dr. Mudge is telepathically assaulted by Martians. interior art by Charles Thomson |
Working in his home office, Dr. Mudge discovers "equation C", the key to teleportation. Equipped with the theoretical basis for telepathy, does Mudge then step into his workshop and build a functioning teleporter? No! All you need to do is look at "equation C" and then you can wish yourself to Paris or Mars or anyplace that you care to imagine. Ah, the power of mathematics!
Beam yourself up, Scotty! |
"The Plagian Siphon" features aliens and their robotic systems that have been programmed to have human-like intelligence. Vance did occasionally mention robots in other stories, but this story is the first that I have seen from Vance with a "robotic" character that plays a significant role in the plot.
alien robots |
fixing a broken L-toggle |
However, the planetary "robot" is in need of repair and the "robot" now kills any Plagian who teleports in to make repairs. Working with the "robot", Scotty is able to repair a defective "L-toggle" and soon the robot's ills have been cured.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Last year I suggested that "Dodkin" in Vance's story "Dodkin's Job" may have been the first computer "hacker" ever depicted in a science fiction story. Scotty may have been among the first computer repairmen depicted in science fiction, but having been written in the early fifties, the alien computer system depicted in "The Plagian Siphon" has no microscopic components. All Scotty has to do is pull a replacement L-toggle out of a drawer and plug it into the alien computer system.
cover art by Gino D'Achille |
In the Ekcolir Reality, Joan Vance wrote several stories about technologically advanced Plegians, including "Return of the Plegians" in which they use their time travel technology to help guide the development of computer science and robotics on Earth.
Aliens hidden among us
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interior art by Paul Orban |
It is easy for me to view Vance's "The Plagian Siphon" as a reaction to Asimov's rosy view of computerized systems. Vance's world-spanning computer system has automated repair, but the repair subsystem breaks down, leading to disaster.
Alien teleportation. |
Related Reading: Assignment Nor'Dyren, a better Sci Fi story about a repairman
and Matter Duplication; making copies of people
Next: thinking machines
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