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From: alfke.pasa@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Still another m.t. story . . .
Message-ID: <12663@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Aug-84 12:34:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12663
Posted: Tue Aug 21 12:34:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Aug-84 01:21:22 EDT
Lines: 31

OK, I remember a story (but not the title or author, unfortunately) in
which matter transmission had replaced other forms of public transit;
i.e. the booths were large and expensive and run by the city (of New
York, I believe).  This being a public transit system, it of course
breaks down one day during rush hour, leaving several dozen people in
the process of transmission as it stops.  These people find themselves,
in the midst of what was normally an instantaneous process, stuck in a
limbo (a batch output queue?) with no sensory input.  While the
repairmen fix the central transceiver (which takes a few hours), the
people in the machine find themselves able to communicate
telepathically, and during this time a pregnant woman who is being
rushed to the hospital gives birth, the child becoming the first person
ever to be born "in transit" . . .

I read this story in an anthology several years back.  I think I have
the plot straight, but I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who
knows what story this is.

Anyway, this seems like a fairly interesting method of matter
transmission.  Although these people have no bodies at all for several
hours, they obviously retain their souls (minds, consciousnesses,
whatever) -- so where are the souls stored?  Are they "haunting" the
machine?  Could the souls be "bottled" and put into, say, a memory
board?  Could the machine be made to put the wrong soul in the wrong
body when the body rematerializes?

							-- Peter Alfke
							     (Alfke.pasa@Xerox.ARPA)

	(And, if only one person survived the ordeal, would he be
	the soul survivor?  No, but seriously folks . . . )