There are multiple answers, with different degrees of truth
The patterns aren’t (typically) stored long term, something implied about transporter buffers seems to indicate they can hold incredible amounts of data that starts to degrade very quickly. New patterns are taken each time they transport AFAIK.
But, instead maybe that “cell damage” is just part of the details you get when you retain enough pattern detail to include peoples recent memories.
But, instead maybe the actors age in real life and keeping track of making them look perpetually youthful with makeup would be really hard so whatever the excuse is it’s just an excuse.
something implied about transporter buffers seems to indicate they can hold incredible amounts of data that starts to degrade very quickly
Exactly. I always understood the difference between replicators and transporters to be the level of detail in the scan. The replicators don’t need as much detail to make a convincing steak or a cup of tea. So they can store those scans at a much lower resolution and have a full, permanent library.
The transporters need an immense amount of detail to perfectly store your pattern, to avoid messing with your brain chemistry and causing transporter psychosis. It’s too much data to keep on hand for every crew member.
I don’t accept the premise – the pattern is read on transport, yes? Rather than a fixed record of one’s composition. Therefore, the only aging you won’t be doing is for the duration of the transport process itself. Chump change.
They regularly allude to the idea of “pattern buffers” that hold on to a copy of you for as long as the plot requires.
Sure, but I don’t think those are used as a matter of standard practice. The idea of some immutable, archival pattern being used for each trip doesn’t track.
Keiko needs to be careful what she wishes for.
I assume there’s some in universe reason why they can’t / don’t keep copies of the teleportation data, otherwise everyone would be effectively indestructible
“Oh no the captain got eaten by a space tiger”
“No problem, I’ll teleport a backup from an hour ago, he’ll be there in 5 minutes”
If you’d start this game, it’s hard to end it. Immortality, swarms of clones created just for labor, identity steal, and worse of all – people would grow negligent and the series would lose any stakes.
I think that at some point everyone agreed that the cycle of life is a core of what makes us humanoids and pushes us to strive for self-improvement.
It also prevents societal degradation, because immortality goes hand in hand with tyranny and lack of meaningful natural change.
My first thought was wouldn’t that reset our memories to that point too?
Granted losing some memories or being dead is a pretty easy choice, but using it to reverse aging or other physical things would be a costly one
Would YOU lose “some memory”, or would you be destroyed and the transporter would recreate a person who believes to be you from a previous point in time?
And how do we know that isn’t what happens every single time someone is beamed somewhere?
(Hope that sounds convincing, cause hell if I know)
That’s kind of the premise of the John Scalzi book “Old Man’s War”. In the book, they take elderly people (aka Wise people), and put their minds/memories into young fit bodies. This, in theory, creates soldiers who are both Wise, and Young/Fit.
John Scalzi is an amazing author. You’ll love it. Another good one by him is The Dispatcher. There’s even an audiobook of this narrated by Zachary Quinto
Huh. A lot of the Keiko/ O’Brien squabble episodes of DS9 are going to be easier to watch, with that idea in place. He’s not divorcing or fixing his marriage, because he can simply outlive her and do better next time.
