The transporters on Star Trek were used because the effect on TV was so much cheaper than using the shuttlecraft to get the crew down to a planet and back again. But what if the technology was real?
The theoretical transporter works by taking your atoms apart and reconstructing them elsewhere, somewhat like a telephone wire or communications sent in binary code, except with atoms. That’s terrifying even on paper. What could possibly go wrong? CGP Grey explains all those things to us. He gets really metaphysical before it’s over. -via reddit