You’ve heard the phrase “at the speed of technology”. Admittedly, this would have to be pretty fast to keep up with today’s pace, especially as our understanding of things around us continues to grow at an overwhelming rate. However, what if the speed of technology were able to transmit ideas at virtually the same instant as their conception?

Imagine you and a friend standing several feet apart, each of you holding a coin. Suddenly, you toss yours into the air; what if the outcome of your coin toss would indicate the outcome of a separate toss your friend did on the other side of the room? That’s just the sort of analogy that scientists are applying to the “spooky” effects being achieved right now in quantum experiments. In fact, the latest breakthroughs are indeed bringing mankind closer to the point of being able to harness power on a quantum level for use in the exchange of information over distance.

New Scientist reported earlier this week regarding an impressive new feat of quantum teleportation, achieved with a variety of ions never before used:

A team in the US has built a teleporter capable of sending the state of ytterbium ions from one side of the lab to the other; something that until now had only been possible with photons. The team says the technique could dramatically increase the distance over which quantum information can be sent.

Hearing this, the most obvious implications for which the technology could prove useful in the nearest future may have to do with communications technology. Imagine a sort of “quantum-intercom” which could transmit information at unprecedented speeds, virtually capable of arriving at the same time it was sent. So many possibilities exist (in theory) with regard to how this sort of science could be applied, ranging from weapons technology and defense systems, to the more sci-fi oriented concepts involving teleportation ala Star Trek. Beam me up, Scotty!

Of course, this also brings to mind the points made by Professor Christopher Munroe back in 2007, when similar news broke concerning physicists at the University of Michigan who managed to establish “communication” between two separate atoms, which is achieved by this same sort of “spooky” quantum intuition (hat tip to Einstein). Munroe described that “This linkage between remote atoms could be the fundamental piece of a radically new quantum computer architecture. Now that the technique has been demonstrated, it should be possible to scale it up to networks of many interconnected components that will eventually be necessary for quantum information processing.”

So instead of transporting living bodies across space and time, are the more likely applications of this sort of technology going to be first seen in communications applications? Time may tell, but that dear friends—seeing as how Einstein would also remind us that time elapses at different rates relative to different observers in motion relative to one another—makes it all, well… a mere matter of relativity.