title: Teleportation: The Impossible Leap
author:  David Darling 
description: A science fiction staple and a fantasy of those with long commutes, teleportationsending something from here to there in the blink of an eyehas long seemed likely to remain a fictional construct. But as Darling explains in this marvelous work, teleportation in one form or another has been happening in laboratories for a few years and is on its way to becoming a routine part of lifeat least for information. Darling (<i>Equations of Eternity</i>) uses lively, companionable prose to explain such heady subjects as quantum mechanics, the property of entanglement (which Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance") and information theory. While these concepts appear to fly in the face of reason, the author is able to make sense of them and put them in the context of other new ideas that at first may be impossible to accept. After tracing the history of developments that became key to teleportation, the text delves into its use for secret communications, massive parallel data processing and investigating quantum mechanics; it also examines the moral, spiritual and philosophical questions that will arise if "beaming" people up ever becomes possible. Suitable for a pop-science audience, especially those looking for a way into quantum mechanics and wave-particle duality, this singular work deserves a wide audience. <i>Agent, Patricia van der Leun. (May)</i>
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  EXERCISE IN SPECULATION: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TELEPORTATION
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  LARRY NIVEN
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Why teleportation? Well- The regional fan convention, known as Boskone and
  held annually in Bostonhad chosen me as Guest of Honor. Strangely, everyone
  seemed to expect a speech. I hadn't 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, "You're 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. I'd planned that. But Fred Poh