[gabrielblack]

Anyway, why don't they exploit the more powerful potential of that technology ? I'm talking about backups. In the first motion picture, something went wrong with the transporter and a crew member was re-assembled like a Picasso's painting, that was stupid. They could save backups of crew members they are about to transport, I was thinking, and restore them if something goes wrong. They also could, in emergency situation, restore died staff members. Oh, by the way, if I have a red uniform, I refused to be transported on the first unexplored planet without a backup.

[AndrewOMartin]

We're playing at sci-fi here, so don't take my response too seriously, but allow me to engage.

We know that e=mc^2, and so it's going to take a hell of a lot of energy to make enough mass for another copy of you. The only 'efficient' way to use a transporter therefore is to turn your 'original' body into energy, and use that energy to make the copy at the other end.

[gabrielblack]

I don't think it's a problem in Start Trek universe: they use REPLICATORS to generate meals for the crew (to cook ?). So what's the problem there ? If Einstein is dead in the kitchen, he is dead everywhere. As you tell us, it's fiction, so the whole discussion can't be taken seriously, IMHO ;-)

[AndrewOMartin]

Maybe the food replicators work by transporting the appropriate meals from elsewhere in the galaxy :)

[Phenomenit]

Doesn't that imply that the crew then is immortal and everything loses its meaning? There's zero stakes, you can even restore from homebase.

[gabrielblack]

Every time you are restored a part of your memory is lost ( the events happened between the last backup and the restoration ), this could be the risk. The backup isn't you. Plus, nobody want to die, backup or not backup.