Re: superhero theft and laundering

Luke Campbell skreiv:

> But what is "part of his body?"  Does inorganic crystalline material
> count?  If not, he ends up without teeth or mineralized bones.  If so,
> what is so special about the hydroxyapetite crystals that allow them
> to be teleported?  What about non-living fluids?   Would he end up at
> his destination without any blood plasma?  How about non-living but
> organic solids?

That's an interesting question. In general, no part of your body is 
alive, but the sum total is.

Afterall your body consists only of basic elements, and we don't 
normally consider a single atom of hydrogen or a single atom of carbon 
alive.

Turns out it's nontrivial to decide what it means to be "alive", and if 
you get the definition wrong, there are silly consequences. In biology 
we learned that all living things perform certain tasks, but many of 
these tasks are fuzzy, and there are many existing things that fail on 
one or more of these and are still perhaps reasonable to call "alive".

* Grow (either in size or in numbers, or both)
* Take in energy
* Use energy
* Expel waste-products
* Take in raw-materials.

By this list, a single cell is the smallest living part of your body, a 
virus for example is not, by itself alive. (but a virus-infected cell is)

This doesn't answer your question. I think the only practical answer 
though, for a story, would be that what remains after you strip naked 
and take a shower, is part of your body. (this would have the silly 
side-effect of a teleport being a really quick way of cleaning oneself)


	Eivind Kjørstad