Las Vegas NowU.S. Explores Teleportation

U.S. Explores Teleportation

(Feb. 9) -- Teleportation has long been a staple of science fiction yarns. People are magically zapped from one location to another, or even to another time or dimension.

Last year, a Las Vegas scientist wrote a paper for the U.S. Air Force that argued teleportation is an achievable technology and legitimate science. The report caused an international flap and was denounced as a waste of money. With permission from the Air Force, the scientist is talking publicly about his study for the first time. He spoke exclusively with the Eyewitness News I-Team.

When most of us think of teleportation, Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise come to mind.

"Teleportation isn't dematerialization which is what Star Trek sci-fi method does. Teleportation is to take the animate or inanimate object and literally move it, instantaneously across space time or thru dimensions," said Dr. Eric Davis, theoretical physicist. 

Eric Davis is no science fiction fan. He was selected by the Air Force research lab to evaluate what the state of the art of teleportation. Is it real? Could it work? And how could it benefit the United States Air Force? When his report was made public last year, it caused a firestorm. Critics slammed it as crackpot science, a waste of federal money. News organizations hounded Davis.

"The air force position is we don't leave any stone unturned if we are to find new science and technology to enhance air force missions. We must pursue those," Dr. Davis said.

What Davis found is that there is a lot of serious research into teleportation underway all over the world. Hundreds of peer reviewed science papers have been written in the past five years, and the results are encouraging.

One option explored by Davis is a stargate just like the movie, stepping thru a gate into a traversable wormhole, then instant teleporting to any other spot in the universe, or other universe, even thru time itself. Wild stuff, but even Einstein said it's possible. Another version might resemble the alien device in the movie Contact that sent Jody Foster on a wild ride thru time and space.

Initial research on something like this has already been done at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin. Most controversial was Davis's explanation of some research into psychic teleportation.

He relied on declassified documents to show what the Chinese are doing in this area. Stunning results according to U.S. Intelligence agencies.  It's not hard to imagine the benefits.  For example, moving troops behind enemy lines without needing planes or ships, inserting spies into inaccessible spots, reaching out to grab wanted fugitives and then bringing them to justice.

Whoever gets this technology first, could, in essence, rule the planet, which is why the United States Air Force studied it in the first place.

"The ballgame's over. You would have a very covert means of surprise attacks, abductions, intelligence gathering," Dr. David said.

It's a long way off but not impossible. Top research labs have already teleported matter consisting of a billion or so atoms, and it worked. Transporting people is far more challenging. We all remember what happened in the movie, The Fly.

Davis points out that in some teleportation schemes, the original "you" would be destroyed, and a new you would emerge elsewhere.  It will take a brave person to try that one the first time. And no one knows if the essence of you would be preserved.

Dr. Davis said, "What about memories, their soul, their hopes and dreams, their thinking? We're not clear that will be allowed to happen."

Considering the potential, research on teleportation will continue, if not in the U.S., then somewhere else.

The Air Force study cost $25,000, although it's believed that many times that amount is being spent in classified research programs looking at these same questions. Dr. Davis says the Chinese are spending much more on this research than is the United States.