（外文电子版资料）Niven, Larry - The Theory and Prctice of Teleportation v1.0 italics.doc

EXERCISE IN SPECULATION: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TELEPORTATION Why teleportation? Well- The regional fan convention, known as Boskone and held annually in Boston had chosen me as Guest of Honor. Strangely, everyone seemed to expect a speech. I hadnt done any speaking since early college. Worse, the audience was jammed with MIT students. Why teleportation? Because that way none of the MITSFS (MIT Science Fiction Association, pronounced misfits) could catch me at anything. What with no firm ground for believing that teleportation is even possible, there would be endless room for speculation without any way for some teenage genius to tell me, Youre wrong! Right here in my physics text it says- At that, there was enough argument. But the speech went well, even to the point where the question session degenerated into frenzied arguments near the back wall, allowing me to slip quietly away. Id planned that. But Fred Pohl caught me at the door and asked me to turn the speech into an article for him. Here it is. DISCLAIMER: Any resemblance to the plots of ancient or modern science fiction, novels or short stories, is not coincidence. Ive been reading science fiction, voraciously, for eighteen years. In most of what follows, I have borrowed freely from my betters, and even from my own stories. Where I remember my sources, I have quoted them-sometimes. DEFINITION: Teleportation is any method of moving from point to point in negligible time. Over short distances we will take lightspeed as negligible. Over longer distances (interplanetary and interstellar) we will require infinite or near-infinite speed. I make a distinction between psychic and mechanical teleportation. Essentially, psi teleportation involves wishing oneself from place to place. In mechanical teleportation he pushes a button. He may do other things first, such as sighting in, charging batteries, weighing and measuring his cargo, whatever it takes. But eventually he will push a button here and he will i