There was this little story Chen Chen had once heard:
It was a tale of the distant future, which by that point human civilization had invented countless dark technologies, one of them being teleportation.
This was how it operated: You would walk into the teleportation platform, which was a very small room. After that, you would select your desired location, assuming you were departing from Shangdu and headed for Kyoto.
Upon choosing your destination, you would then click the button. At that point, the devices in the teleportation room would perform a full scan of your body, collected data on each atom as well as the precise location of each atom on your body.
While the teleportation room performed its scanning routine on you, it was also demolishing you part-by-part. While scanning, it tore down each cell in your body and decomposed them into its most basic, particle state.
Upon completing the scanning sequence, you would be entirely broken down as well. Right after that, the teleportation platform would transmit all of the collected information to the transmission station located in Kyoto. Your body would be rebuilt in accordance with all of the data collected during the scan.
It may seem like a lengthy process when in truth, the entire segment took less than a second. In just a second, you had traversed more than two-thousand kilometers and arrived in Kyoto from Shangdu.
There would be no difference between the current you and the previous you – your mood unaltered, perhaps you might feel just as peckish as you did previously. Even the minor scratch on your fingers remained untouched. This was your experience as far as you were concerned: your vision turned dark upon clicking the button and the next second, you found yourself in Kyoto.
In the twenty-eighth century, this had become an extremely commonplace technology. Everybody traveled this way. It was just as convenient as it was safe.
One day, you were preparing to head on a business trip. Once again, you came to the teleportation room and pressed the button. You heard the device scanning you as usual, but you did not find yourself transported.
So, you went to get the service staff at the teleportation station to inform her that the device in the transportation room may have malfunctioned. The service staff took a look at the user log before informing you: “The scanning device is operating as usual and it has collected all of your information. However, it seems that the cellular decomposition device that works in sync with the scanning device malfunctioned.”
“I’m about to be late for work, just quickly assign me to another teleportation room!” You had no time to listen to her explanation as you reiterated your point with greater emphasis.
At this point, the service staff turned on the surveillance footage, revealing footage of you in Kyoto. “Look, this is the surveillance footage of you in Kyoto, you’re already in Kyoto.”
You become enraged upon hearing this. “But that’s not me, I’m still right here!”
At this point, the manager who heard the ongoing commotion came over and explained, “The scanning device is indeed functioning as usual and ‘you’ have already arrived in Kyoto. The only minor issue is that the cellular decomposition device here in Shanghai malfunctioned. You won’t have to worry about that, we shall just take you to another teleportation room and just activate the cellular decomposition device in that room to break you down.”
Although at this age, the theory behind a teleportation room transmission had all but become common knowledge, you panicked. “Hold on, doesn’t being broken down means that I’ll be dead?”
The manager explained patiently, “That’s not the case sir, please look at the surveillance footage, you’re in perfect condition in Kyoto over there.”
That only caused you to panic more. “But that’s not me, that’s just a copy, I’m the real me!”
The service staff and the manager exchanged a hesitant look. “I’m very sorry sir, but the law dictates that we must demolish your cells as the law constitutes that there must not be two of you existing in the world at the same time.”
You look at them, absolutely mortified, and prepared to make your escape. However, two security guards had grabbed you from behind and dragged you into another teleportation room...
...
“This may come across as a rather ridiculous, even funny short story, but the logic is sound – the ‘you before teleportation’ and the ‘you after teleportation’, which one is the real you?”
Chen Chen smiled and explained to Little X, “At the end of the day, the true indication of whether someone is the true self still has to be determined by their conscience. The ‘conscience’ here has nothing to do with likeness. Based on the previous story, if mere likeness is used to define a person, then the ‘you’ in Shangdu and the ‘you’ in Kyoto should be the same person since both of you share the same memory and have the same personality. But if applied in the real world? The ‘you’ are ‘you’, but the ‘you’ in Kyoto isn’t ‘you’.”
“If likeness cannot be the determining factor, then what is?” Little X asked thoughtfully.
“The answer is continuity.”
Chen Chen answered, “The human conscience operates on a linear basis. Your thoughts, personality, and memory all contribute to the shaping of your subjective consciousness. Take the growth process from an infant to an adult for example. Everything the infant experiences shapes his or her conscience, there’s no way you can say that someone at one-year-old and fifty-year-old is a different person.”
“It’s true that from a physical perspective, the ‘you’ at one-year-old and at fifty-year-old doesn’t have any similarities. All of the cells in the infant’s body had been dead for decades, but the continuity of consciousness remains the same. A fifty-year-old may not be able to recall memories from an infant age but may be able to recall memories from forty-years-old. And the forty-year-old self may be able to recall memories from thirty-years-old. Even with amnesia, this principle of cause and effect remains unchanged...”
“I understand now!”
Little X immediately remarked, “In this sense, the molecular teleporter did shatter the continuity of consciousness. The consequence of this disruption of continuity is the termination of the previous conscience. Even if it were to make a copy of a particular conscience, it wouldn’t be the same as its original version.”
“Yes, conscience is wholly unique and isn’t something that can be simply preserved by making a copy.”
Chen Chen nodded. “In the Star Trek film series, there had been instances of malfunction with the teleportation device. In the film series, when Captain Picard was molecularly reassembled into two separate individuals, the result was the formation of a new parallel universe. From this, we can conclude that this molecular teleporter is inherently flawed to a point where even the USB drive suspects it’s probable usability.”
“Does this mean that it’s not that the teleporter doesn’t abide by the construct of science, but that nobody knows how to use this device?” Little X asked.
“Yes, that’s the gist of it.”
Chen Chen responded, “I’ve tried both Gantz and Terminator a long time ago, and verified that there was no problem with these movies and that they can be accepted by the USB drive. This means the implementation of their teleportation technology should be distinctly different from molecular teleportation.”
With that said, Chen Chen dragged both Terminator: Genisys and Gantz into the USB drive.
With a swift audio prompt, the two movies were successfully pulled into the USB drive.
“Terminator: Genisys was the first instance in the film series where the time machine was introduced. It was a gigantic platform nearly the size of a hill and is pretty much impossible to be instantiated. However, its features exceeded that of all other teleportation devices – to transport a life form from one timeline to another, but doesn’t this cause a timeline paradox?”
Chen Chen muttered to himself, “Or there may be another explanation for this...”