When cel phone technology got to the point we could say, "Home" into them and the number would be dialed for us, I figured this bit of fiction turned fact couldn't be far off.
I thought that was pretty neat stuff but hardly ever got it to work right. Dam thing didn't like my voice.
There was an episode of TNG where I doubt even the writers caught the full potential of their gizmo. Dr. Pulaski contracted a particularly nasty bug that sped up the aging process. Of course, if nothing were done for her, she would die of old age in a matter of days. The magic remedy? Run her through the trasporter, but instead of letting the machine take its course, intercept her matrix and replace it with he pre nasty bug matrix for the re-entry.
It worked like a charm.
I remember that episode. I have always thought about those possibilities.
Think about what that means. Scientists are already working on a transporter device that they have had limited success with. When they perfect it, all we have to do is go through it once in what we consider our "prime". Then, any time we get sick, or start aging beyond what we want, all we have to do is go back through the transporter. Since the nasty bug isn't part of our "default" matrix, we would be immediately cured. Our bodies would also return to default.
Just being about to filter the bad stuff while being transported sounds awesome and scary at the same time. Star Trek makes it look like most people on the show hardly ever make human errors, I just can't see such a thing possible in real life. Imagine going in fat after eating Burger Kind a lot and coming out nice and slim. LOL. The perfect exercise machine.
