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Janeway made the right call, even though it was a terrible one. The only argument I've ever seen that might counter it is the opinion that Tuvok and Neelix died in the accident so aren't a consideration, but this would only hold true if the separation would have failed. Kind of makes you hope the transporter in any scifi form doesn't get invented, as they all seem to have their philosophical issues. I loved the problem presented in the Saga of Cuckoo series by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson, where faster than light teleportation sends a copy but you walk out of the origin booth. Not always the greatest thing, depending on your viewpoints.
Kind of makes you hope the transporter in any scifi form doesn't get invented, as they all seem to have their philosophical issues
Idk why everyone gets caught up on a transporter's only use being transporting people
I just want a transporter to transport packages instantly. No polluting trucks or trains or ships or planes, no criminally under paid and overworked army of warehouse workers and "gig economy delivery drivers" in order to meet same-day/next day delivery targets. No worries about if it was packaged enough to survive a courier. No need to be home for signature/missed deliveries
When you buy something online, someone just grabs it, shoves it on a pad and pushes a button then BOOM it's in your house.
Even Starfleet took awhile after its invention before certifying them for "biological use"
Looks like a replicator with added constraints.
The method of transport isn't destroying the planet, the method of energy generation is destroying the planet.
Invent a transporter today, and thousands of coal fired plants would be built tomorrow to power the transporter pads.
pshhhh. just transport the pollution elsewhere. problem solved.
A transporters just a replicator with a targeting addon.
Assuming it can replicate a nuclear reactor but not uranium, we have enough natural uranium to last for 1000s of years.
Even if we went back to coal, the end of all industrial manufacturing might make up for the new pollution.
The energy requirements of replicators are unfathomably gigantic compared to regular industrial manufacturing.
It takes 1.6 Trillion MJ of energy to make an 8kg Bicycle.
A nuclear reactor generates 1000 MJ/s.
That means you would need 50 nuclear reactors to make 1 bicycle a year with a replicator.
It's why the TNG writers claim the Enterprise generates 12.75 exawatts. They did the math.
The Punch Escrow is a great pulpy book along the same lines.
Spoiler
Company comes up with foolproof way to ensure zero transporter accidents. Don't tell everyone that they've just invented a suicide booth that triggers when receipt of the copy has been verified - till that part fails and the original walks out after the copy has. Cue corporate thriller coverup story.
The only argument I've ever seen that might counter it is the opinion that Tuvok and Neelix died in the accident so aren't a consideration
How's this for an argument. Fuck neelix right in his stupid face.
On a more reasonable note, tuvix really was the perfect blend of two extremes. He had neelix's desire to please people, but with tuvok's intellect and logic to temper him he was wildly more effective. He could actually cook, fixed ship problems, and even helped figure out how he was created (and, consequently, how to uncreate him).
Janeway's choice was still the correct one, but if I had a vote I would've kept him around.
Is that the one with the "dinos"? I recall a short story about teleportation in that manner, and something happened, but it was the confirmation that got delayed. So the original person was up walking around, waiting to be sent again, drinking tea, etc... when the equation had to be balanced. Stories like that really make you think, not just bam-pow-punch-kick... in space.
Here's a mention about the one book I had read (the second in the series):
Not really any spoilers, and a couple of the reviews also mention the tachyon transporter.
Using an example in the plot that won't really give anything away...what if you could instantly jump from one place to another, particularly when in danger, but couldn't be sure if when you teleported that you would be the version that was safe, or the one that wasn't. Maybe it doesn't matter, since you are in both places...but it sure matters to the one that didn't get away.
Okay that's definitely not the one I was thinking of. However, he reportedly wrote a story a year for Issac Asimov's periodicals for almost two decades, plus his many actual books, so it is no surprise that some of his themes were re-used, yet hard to find the name of:-).
I thought the one I am thinking of was neat b/c the dinos were gate-keeping offering their transportation technology to humanity, thinking that surely no warm-blooded mammal could possibly keep their emotions in check to do what must needs be done, unlike the cold heart & keen mind of a reptile.
In other works like his collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke "Altered Carbon", Pohl used the concept of that "stack" to limit the spread of one human mind that would otherwise just be spread out amongst the stars with as many copies as bodies could be found to hold them. But in other anthologies there were other limitations preventing that (and presumably some others still that I haven't read where those limitations were removed?:-P).