Panelist discusses teleportation, sci-fi novel

Teleportation is closer than most people think, according to one of Spa-Con’s featured panelists.

Tal M. Klein, whose science fiction novel “The Punch Escrow” relies heavily on the concept of teleportation, will participate in a panel discussion on the concept of teleportation at the second annual Spa-Con.

The panel, which will be held at 2 p.m.

Saturday in Room 202 of the Hot Springs Convention Center, will feature Klein, NASA scientist Steven Showalter and Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts professors Brian Monson and Jack Wadell.

“This is a great opportunity for people to see how close we are, how thin the line between science and science fiction is today,” Klein said.

Klein said he became interested in teleportation, both as a scientific and social concept, through discussing J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” remakes with a co-worker. He said the co-worker, who has a Ph.D. in physics, claimed no one would use the transporters seen in the series if they knew how they worked because “you get destroyed piece by piece, and then recreated piece by piece in the place where you arrive.”

“I said, ‘Well, that just sounds like a marketing problem,’” Klein joked.

Klein noted that technologies the public finds commonplace and even outdated, such as riding trains, originated with warnings most would find laughable today. He cited the claim that air molecules that hit a passenger’s skin while riding on a train would cause friction so great the passenger would burn alive.

Such a societal pattern is what led Klein to write his novel.

“We’ve always had a sort of distrustful relationship with new methods of transportation,” he said. “I thought that a good way to solve that for teleportation is to kind of create a world in which it’s fairly nascent.”

Klein calls “The Punch Escrow” “hard sci-fi,” meaning the scientific concepts expounded upon in the story are “all based, or rooted in, science that exists today.” In the novel, the main character is accidentally duplicated while teleporting to his second honeymoon and must contend with the organization that manages teleportation — and deal with his wife’s kidnapping — all while living with two of him.

In the nonfiction world, Klein noted teleportation has actually been recently achieved. According to MIT Technology Review, in July, a group of Chinese researchers released the results of an experiment that teleported a photon to a satellite 300 miles above the earth through a process called quantum entanglement. The photon was the first object to be teleported from the ground to orbit.

“We’re living in the age of teleportation,” Klein said. “It’s funny to think about it, but it’s true.”

Klein’s novel, along with the scientific background behind the concept, have afforded him the opportunity to be featured in teleportation panels at multigenre conventions across the country, including San Diego’s ComicCon.

“It’s such a popular trope in science fiction, whether you’re talking about ‘Star Trek,’ or ‘The Fly,’ or ‘The Prestige,’” he said.

Though Klein holds all of his panels with Showalter, he makes a point to invite local educators, such as Monson and Wadell, to each convention. He said the presence of such educators keeps each panel “fresh.”

“I’ve never talked to these guys before, so on the panel is gonna be my first exposure to their perspective on things,” he said. “It creates a very lively dynamic, both on the panel and for the audience.”

Klein said while they may begin discussing teleportation, each panel takes on a life of its own. He said his previous panels have gone on to discuss topics like genetic engineering and nanotechnology.

Klein said he hopes what is discussed in the panel sticks with its attendees.

“I want people to just see how cool science is,” he said. “We’re living in a very, very fascinating time.”