Teleportation would be ridiculously expensive

I wanted to continue my discussion about teleportation this week by examining the costs (as in money) associated with this technology. Assuming for a moment we could build a device powerful enough to teleport a person, (Theoretically teleportation is possible, for proof read about EPR correlation) it would be ridiculously expensive. Let me explain. For illustration purposes, lets compare teleportation of human to sending a fax. Looking at the process, a fax is converted from atoms (ink on a paper), to bits (digital reproduction), sent (teleported), converted back to atoms (ink on paper) once the fax arrives. Additionally, from a bandwidth/processing perspective, sending a 2 or 3 page fax is not very data intensive.

So lets examine the process of teleporting a human. The first step would be to scan (digitize)every molecule in the human body and the human body has as many molecules as the sands of the sea, or so it seems. To be exact, 10^28, that is, 10 followed by 28 zeros of molecules! If this scan could be performed, we would send the digital information to some receiver, most likely via the internet or some other type of connection. If this were possible, then the digital information would have to be reconstructed, each molecule would have to be placed within 1 nanometer of its original location! There is not enough computing power in all of the computers in the world, combined, that would allow for this type of 3-D scan.

But, if it were possible, it would require the most powerful computers. Thus, teleportation would be a very expensive process. Which leads to a recurring theme of my blogs and our new media class. The digital divide, the gap between the haves and the have nots. I wonder how big the digital divide would be if we get to this point of human teleportation? I wonder how this (teleportation and the resulting increase in the digital divide) would change society?