Reuters in London informed today that Danish physicist Eugene Polzik and his colleagues at the University of Aarhu have succedeed to establish a distant correlation experiment involving trillions of atoms, bringing quantum teleportation to the macroscopic world.
It does show that the instant transportation of an information item or an action or an influence (actually a specific correlation between the "state" of some property of a large numbers of atoms) is now entering the macroscopic experimental stage. In 1998 similar experiment already succeeded but involved only few "particles."
It does strongly suggest that the instant transportation of several properties of a macroscopic object, i.e. the genuine Star Trek style instant teleportation might soon be within the range of our technology, with the provision that that the amount of energy required will probably still be unreachable to us in any near future when it comes to very large objects.
But the instant transmission of a change performed on a large set of particles at one end to another correlated set of particles at another end is now a reality, the main point being that the infamous light speed barrier plays no part in the process. Of course, only those with a good awareness of the formalism, interpretation and possible application of quantum physics can think about the mind-boggling implications of such experiments.
The implications and applications will be huge in the forthcoming decades, ranging from quantum computing, telecommunications, networking, data storage etc.
Some points could reach the attention of ufologists.
The SETI project is currently searching for radio signals from space, with the hypothesis that if there are other intelligent life forms in the galaxy they might willingly or unwillingly send radio waves. Recently they have devised that maybe alien civilizations if they exist might use light, i.e. laser beams, to transmit information. Many ufologists have pointed out that it is highly doubtful that many of the supposed alien civilization would use such primitive techniques. We can now add that advanced space-communication aware alien civilization would probably not use such techniques submitted to the light speed barrier but rather communication techniques NOT submitted to this barrier: these techniques might not be used yet by our own civilization, but it is merely a matter of a very insignificant time at before we might use such techniques.
It is notable that the SETI project, for funding reasons that everyone can understand, has issued loud and clear statements that, if UFOs are real, they cannot be of ET origin because the light speed barrier would prevent them to visit us.
Here is an interesting quote from the SETI F.A.Q:
"If an extraterrestrial civilization has a SETI project similar to Project Phoenix, could they hear Earth?
In general, no. Most earthly transmitters are too weak to be detectable by Phoenix-type equipment at the distance of even the nearest star. The exceptions are some high-powered radars and the Arecibo broadcast of 1974 (which lasted for only three minutes). To detect "leakage" radiation similar to our own will require instruments that are many times more sensitive than what we now have."
Basically, SETI is looking for either powerful radio signals intended by aliens at us, but if they had the required amount of energy to do this, they would probably not use radio at all. Or, SETI hopes to detect incidental ET radio waves, but suggest that if the ET had a similar SETI project, they would probably never detect our own activity.
One main reason, or proposed reason to dismiss any possibility that the UFO phenomenon might be a result of visits from extraterrestrial crafts or probes to our planet is constantly put forth by skeptics. For example a SETI document intended to explain that the reason that SETI has no involvement in UFO studies, is that alien civilization cannot reach our planet:
"A practical reason for this is that the distance to the star nearest to our own is over 4 light years. That's about 24 trillion (24,000,000,000,000) miles away. With our current rocket technology, it would take around 300,000 years to travel there. This poses a daunting engineering problem even for a more advanced civilization."
I believe there is no need for further comment anymore.
Neverthleless, as I believe that these kind of reasoning are low level childish speculation, for once I will indulge in some speculations of my own.
What if an alien civilization had mastered instant teleportation technologies, as we are ourselves about to do? Is it then still impossible that a UFO occurrence might be the manifestation of the instant transportation of a probe, or a craft to our planet? Doesn't it solve the problem of the relativity of space-time conntinuum? Doesn't it allow the craft to "go there" and "get back" not thousand years later but back at an acceptable time?
Provided that something can be teleported from one planet to another, what could an observer witness? The sudden appearance or disappearance of something? The lack of sonic booms? Ionization of the environment? Heating? Some specific unusual radiations? Electromagnetic effects? Massive black outs? Power surges or power outages?
What if several alien civilization had mastered instant teleportation technologies as we are ourselves about to do? Is then possible that it would explain the large variety of unidentified flying objects reported, ranging from small luminous spheres to football stadium size crafts, including UFO flaps of crafts of an obvious similar type without eliminating UFO that do not match any size, shape, pattern, function, capabilities? What if different alien civilization devised different solutions to the issue of the power source?
What if instant teleportation was lethal?
How would a teleportation device similar to the Start Trek "beam-me-up-Scotty" device handle an intelligent, conscious being? Would the consciousness of the teleported being also be teleported? Is it really the same being at each end of the trip? Is it a copy? Is the original being dead or alive? Which one is the real being? Is the teleported being entirely duplicated? I grant you that this seems a very far fetched question, raising seemingly unanswerable questions about the nature of consciousness and considerations about the existence of something on could call "the soul".
But, here is a good question: would you dare to step in the Star Trek teleporter in person if you had the occasion?
Could it be that it was fatal to conscious beings and that only some type of biological robots could survive the experience or dare the experience? Could it be that the numerous stories of alien descriptions pointing out their alleged "genetically engineered" nature, for example, might have an explanation of this sort?
What if ET being can really teleport themselves or any sort of robot or biologically engineered being instantly on all possible target planets? Where would they stay? Where would they live? Would they always, or seldom, or sometimes interact with the locals? Would they get used that the locals, if they have not reached a similar technological level, would not comprehend or not believe the encounter? Would they establish some kind of policy?
Could they maybe get increasingly interested into us as our civilization progresses?
