Psychological effects of teleportation and coping mechanisms

Question

For the purposes of this question, "teleportation" refers to Star Trek style teleportation: a body is diassembled in one location, and reassembled with an exact (perfect) replica of the entire consciousness in another location. The process happens very quickly from the point of view of an external observer. From the point of view of the traveller, it is instantaneous. I am not interested in dealing with errors in teleportation where something goes wrong in the copy procedure.

What would be the psychological effects of such a journey on people? For example, if the average person's location changed drastically and instantaneously while their eyes were open, would they go insane from the cognitive dissonance* caused by the transition?

How would it be possible to deal with these effects? What training would the crew of a Star Trek style starship have to undergo to be able to smoothly teleport on a regular basis without losing the ability to function normally? What process would the subjects of an emergency rescue mission require if they had no prior training or even expectation that they would be teleported?

How do you solve the copied consciousness conundrum without killing anyone? is tangentially relevant to this question.

*I am not sure if this is the correct term.

Answer 1

Teleportation as you describe it is a sudden change in location that the teleportee perceives through all available senses. We obviously can't test that on humans today, but we can get some clues from the closest approximation we can get with current technology: virtual reality.

VR, like flight simulators that preceded it, can cause something akin to motion sickness. The disorientation comes from the mismatch between the artificial scene -- for example, what you're seeing -- and your body (like your inner ear). But this seems to come from motion, not scene changes, so that doesn't immediately help. A scene that's changing very quickly does not automatically produce the same effects as a cut to a new scene.

This article argues that teleportation (I think it means both bullet time and cuts) actually does work in VR, and the author explains why: we all grew up watching TV and movies. We're used to seeing sudden scene changes. We're ok with that. Seeing them through VR goggles apparently isn't especially jarring. (By the way, there are best practices for VR developers that address perception issues.)

So if our teleportation concerns were only about the visual aspects, we'f probably be in pretty good shape: it shouldn't be too disorienting, and you might tell first-time or squeamish travelers to close their eyes for a few seconds. But teleportation also changes what you hear, smell, and feel (tactile, temperature, wind, etc). If the atmosphere or gravity changes you'll probably notice that, much like people flying to Denver for the first time.

The visual changes are the ones we're best-equipped to deal with through conditioning. The others will be more disorienting. If the context is something like a rescue mission, add stress for that (though subtract some if the people involved are trained soldiers).

So what can you do about it? For "beaming down to the planet" (et al), there's probably not much you can do other than to warn/remind people before they jump what to expect on the other end. When teleporting to a controlled location (like returning to the ship), try to create as neutral an experience as you can:

• dark, but not completely dark -- the travelers should be able to see, but don't bombard them with bright lights or anything blinking or moving

• something like white noise, to lay down a foundation that covers small, jarring noises like clicks from controls

• a comfortable temperature, whatever the travelers consider "room temperature" to be

• something to sit on for anybody who gets dizzy or disoriented

If your technical bag of tricks includes environmental manipulation and you have time, you might even be able to program your teleport pad to match gravity, air pressure, and atmosphere with where they're coming from. This would allow you to ease them out of big changes. ("Ok, they're back; start turning down the gravity slowly.")

Answer 2

On the whole, people would probably handle it very well

The scenario you're describing isn't really that much different from, say, sitting on a train and looking out the window when you enter/leave a tunnel. Your body is not propelling itself anywhere, but the scenery outside is changing drastically and instantaneously.

Our brains are on the whole remarkably flexible, able to adjust to all kinds of 'unnatural' events without any serious difficulty. In this scenario, probably the worst you could expect would be a serious case of jetlag.

Answer 3

Use altered states of consciousness during teleportation

People are very accustomed to observing and participating in extremely unusual laws of physics during dream states and other altered states of consciousness. No coping mechanism is even needed, especially if they are informed ahead of time. If there is no time to inform or prepare them ahead, simply initiate the altered state prior and they will experience it as they would a dream.

Perhaps the altered state method is begun via the air they breathe as they pass through what they think is a standard airlock or decontamination chamber. When they "wake up", they are easily able to realize they had fallen asleep or zoned out and day dreamed whatever they saw, shake off the groginess and resume usual cognitive functioning without undue stress. Afterwards when there is time for explanations, they will be most likely be fascinated by the entire experience and some will even be of the thrill seeking or consciousness exploring types and ask if they can do it again fully conscious.

This assumes they are already modern people who accept the concept of space ship style travel. If teleporting primitive peoples, it is probably best to not even try to explain the actual process. They will be fine with remembering it as a very unusual dream.

This method will also work for training of those who would need to transport this way often and resume normal function quickly afterwards. While I agree with Werrf's answer, perhaps on the surface, there are no immediate side effects, but over time it was found there were indeed subtle adverse symptoms arising from the subconscious. One example could be that with repeat use, the jetlag begins to linger far longer and more pronounced than desirable for your seasoned teleportees. Then additional "brain training" comes into play. You could experiment with different methods of inducing the desired altered state, and through much practice of meditative techniques, some trainees will even be able to enter and exit these states at will, efficiently and without the use of external substances.