In many sci-fi shows, spaceships have a teleportation mechanism on board. They can teleport from inside their ship to somewhere on a planet. This way, the ship can remain in orbit while its crew explores the surface.

But then people started asking: how does the teleportation device actually work? When a subject stands on the device and activates it, does it disassemble all the atoms of the person and reconstruct them at the destination? Or does it scan the person, kill them, and then replicate them at the destination?

This debate has been on going for as long as I can remember. Since teleportation machines exist only in fiction, we can never get a true answer. Only the one that resonates the most.

So, that's why I thought of Diff Teleportation. Basically, this is a Git workflow applied to teleportation. When you step onto a device, we run the command:

$> git checkout -b kirk-teleport-mission-123
$> beam -s kirk -d planet-xyz -o kirk-planet-xyz    # beam is a vibe-coded teleportation command

Then, the machine will have to suspend activity on the master branch. This will make merging the branch much simpler in the future.

# sci-fi git command
$> git suspend master

Now, the person that has been teleported can explore the planet and go about mission 123. While they are doing their job, let's see what flags are supported in beam:

$> beam -h
Usage: beam [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Beam a file to a destination

    -s, --subject               subject to beam
    -d, --destination       destination to beam a subject
    -o, --output                name of the file at the destination
    -D, --Destroy               destroy a subject

When the mission is completed, they can be teleported back. Well, not the whole person, otherwise we end up with a clone.

$> beam -s kirk-planet-xyz -d ss-ent-v3 -o kirk-temp

We could analyze the new data and remove any unwanted additions. For example, we could clean up any contamination at this point. But for the sake of time, I'll explore that another day. As an exercise, run git diff for your own curiosity. For now, all we are interested in is the information that the teleportee has gathered from the planet, which we will merge back into master.

$> git add src/neurons
$> git commit -m "add mission 123 exploration"
$> git stash
$> git stash drop   # Hopefully you've analyzed it.
$> git push origin kirk-teleport-mission-123

I imagine in science fiction, there is an automated way for PR reviews that is more reliable than an LLM. Once that process is completed, we can merge to master and run some cleanup code in the build pipeline.

$> git branch -D kirk-teleport-mission-123
$> beam -s kirk-planet-xyz -D
$> beam -s kirk-temp -D
$> git unsuspend master

Somewhere down on planet XYZ, a clone stepped onto the teleportation device. He saw a beam of light scan his body from head to toe. Then, for a moment, he wondered if the teleportation had worked. But right before he stepped off, the command beam -s kirk-planet-xyz -D ran, and he was pulverized.

Back in the spaceship, a brand-new clone named kirk-temp appeared at the teleportation station. He was quickly sanitized, diff'd, and reviewed. But before he could gather his thoughts, the command beam -s kirk-temp -D ran, and he was pulverized.

Not a second later, the original subject was reanimated, with brand-new information about "his" exploration on planet XYZ.

Teleportation is an achievable technology. We just have to come to terms with the fact that at least two clones are killed for every successful teleportation session. In fact, if we are a bit more daring, we might not even need to suspend the first subject. We can create multiple clones, or agents, and have them all explore different things. When their task is complete, we can wrestle a bit with merge conflict, run a couple beam -D commands, and the original subject is blessed with new knowledge.

OK, I'm getting out of this shower.