Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
Actually, I'm pretty sure a Star Trek transporter also transports your atoms to the distant location and reconstitutes them there--there's definitely talk about matter streams when talking about transporter technology, and McCoy said in the Motion Picture that he wanted to see how the transporter would "scramble your molecules" before he would get into it.
Star Trek has been inconsistent on the issue. After all, if they are actually transporting the matter (vs. data only and making a new copy), then how do you end up with duplicates from the same beam at all? You've doubled the matter somehow.

The Physics of Star Trek (by Lawrence Krauss) is an interesting read, but it also does a good job of pointing out inconsistencies.

But the whole this (if it actually does make a "new" you is basically a modification of "The Ship of Theseus" paradox.