The transporter only works due to a magic box called the Heisenberg Compensator. It does some kind of end run around the fact that you can’t precisely know both the position and momentum of a particle. The question of “how does it work?” is answered with “very well, thank you”.
Anyway, neurons are known to rely on quantum mechanics for part of their signalling. You do have to copy them very exactly or you won’t have the same person on the other side. The Heisenberg Compensator seems to be a tech that only works with transporters and nothing else. Whatever magic is happening inside there, you wouldn’t be able to use it to copy a neural pattern, store it away for an extended time, and stick it in another body.
The transporter only works due to a magic box called the Heisenberg Compensator. It does some kind of end run around the fact that you can’t precisely know both the position and momentum of a particle. The question of “how does it work?” is answered with “very well, thank you”.
Anyway, neurons are known to rely on quantum mechanics for part of their signalling. You do have to copy them very exactly or you won’t have the same person on the other side. The Heisenberg Compensator seems to be a tech that only works with transporters and nothing else. Whatever magic is happening inside there, you wouldn’t be able to use it to copy a neural pattern, store it away for an extended time, and stick it in another body.
Except when it happens, like in strange new world, or the next generation.
They store living beings for extended periods in the pattern buffer.
In Strange new worlds it was a hyper advanced thing, in TNG it was Scotty.