I saw a "60 Minutes" story about the particle accelerator in Europe, and noticed the wide-eyed, twitchy excitement of one of the project's scientists - when he was asked if he thought the project's research could possibly lead to the development of teleporting technology. Since then, I've been thinking about human transportation ALOT as in "Beam me up, Scotty" and, for better or worse, I've really only come up with questions. *sigh*
Where would the first teleport stages be installed? In hospitals? For emergency service professionals to get to accident sites? In the seats of national governments for heads of state? At the UN?
And what about country boundaries anyway? Would you still have to go through immigration first if you're porting to another country? Would we even need country boundaries if teleporting becomes freely available? I don't recall countries in Star Trek - in the teeny bit of Star Trek episodes I've watched - they were interested in entire planets. (I'm not even gonna touch inter-planetary porting ....)
And would teleporting become the new "space-shuttle ride" - only for the super rich adventurer? And as it becomes slightly more common, will an anxious stud take his date teleporting to impress her?
And what if repeated teleporting over time is bad for you - like too much sun? Will one day snooty babes whisper behind each others' backs - saying "Oooo - I think she's TP'd too much - it's starting to show" - like too much plastic surgery or drug use? Will there be permanent irreversible damage to the body from teleporting - something like - oh I don't know - subtle decay each time you do it? Ick.
And what about the possibility of instantaneous teleporting? What about being able to just push a button to get somewhere else?
What does this mean for thrill-seekers or fans of the game "chicken"? Someone could jump off a building or out of a plane sans-parachute and then teleport just before they crash. I suppose that would be another form of natural selection. Quick reflexes = ability to get out of bad situations FAST. And certainly, one could say that even having the thought to play "chicken" could be a natural selection factor. ;-)
And when it's still a fairly new technology, would there be TP amusement park rides that promise to both scare-the-crap-out-of-you but ultimately save you as the rider? You could be teleported to safety right before the point of impact? Think a moment about the guy who's job it is to hit the "transport riders now" button. I hope he's always happy and benevolent.
And what about being able to teleport based upon where another person is? What if you could say - "I want to teleport to where my friend Joe, the plumber is?" (couldn't resist - hehe) And what if your friend Joe doesn't want you to find him or have you near him at that moment? What if a person doesn't want to be found or caught in a compromising position? Are there going to be restraining orders or privacy laws in the future saying you can't teleport within 500 feet of another person if they don't want you to?
And what if people are, in the future, routinely GPS/micro-chipped and you can't find you child? Could you say "I want to teleport to my child - chip number 123456-69696?"
And I suppose we'd all get better at latitude and longitude if you have to punch in exactly where you want to go. Just saying "Send me to Paris" might not cut it. I mean Paris is a big, beautiful city but I'm sure there are parts I wouldn't want to go to.
And what about being able to instantaneously flee the scene of a crime? That could be social chaos.
And what if you could say "I want to be transported to the single place on earth that looks most like the landscape that I'm visualizing in my mind at this moment." Then you could see a picture and teleport right to that location. Cool.
And what if you saw a picture of a living person you've never met before, but you wanted to meet them - so you said "Teleport me to where that person is right now." Big problems for anyone that has groupies or a stalker.
And when you do teleport - do your clothes and personal items teleport with you or conversely, do you end up naked in a foreign country with no ID? Ouch.
And I suppose a new industry of impenetrable materials would develop. At least some buildings would need to be built of materials that you can't teleport through.
And how does the possibility of virtual reality affect the necessity for human teleporting anyway? Maybe it's more important to think about resource teleporting instead of people-porting?
Damn - I sound like Andy Rooney. I'm going to bed.
Where would the first teleport stages be installed? In hospitals? For emergency service professionals to get to accident sites? In the seats of national governments for heads of state? At the UN?
And what about country boundaries anyway? Would you still have to go through immigration first if you're porting to another country? Would we even need country boundaries if teleporting becomes freely available? I don't recall countries in Star Trek - in the teeny bit of Star Trek episodes I've watched - they were interested in entire planets. (I'm not even gonna touch inter-planetary porting ....)
And would teleporting become the new "space-shuttle ride" - only for the super rich adventurer? And as it becomes slightly more common, will an anxious stud take his date teleporting to impress her?
And what if repeated teleporting over time is bad for you - like too much sun? Will one day snooty babes whisper behind each others' backs - saying "Oooo - I think she's TP'd too much - it's starting to show" - like too much plastic surgery or drug use? Will there be permanent irreversible damage to the body from teleporting - something like - oh I don't know - subtle decay each time you do it? Ick.
And what about the possibility of instantaneous teleporting? What about being able to just push a button to get somewhere else?
What does this mean for thrill-seekers or fans of the game "chicken"? Someone could jump off a building or out of a plane sans-parachute and then teleport just before they crash. I suppose that would be another form of natural selection. Quick reflexes = ability to get out of bad situations FAST. And certainly, one could say that even having the thought to play "chicken" could be a natural selection factor. ;-)
And when it's still a fairly new technology, would there be TP amusement park rides that promise to both scare-the-crap-out-of-you but ultimately save you as the rider? You could be teleported to safety right before the point of impact? Think a moment about the guy who's job it is to hit the "transport riders now" button. I hope he's always happy and benevolent.
And what about being able to teleport based upon where another person is? What if you could say - "I want to teleport to where my friend Joe, the plumber is?" (couldn't resist - hehe) And what if your friend Joe doesn't want you to find him or have you near him at that moment? What if a person doesn't want to be found or caught in a compromising position? Are there going to be restraining orders or privacy laws in the future saying you can't teleport within 500 feet of another person if they don't want you to?
And what if people are, in the future, routinely GPS/micro-chipped and you can't find you child? Could you say "I want to teleport to my child - chip number 123456-69696?"
And I suppose we'd all get better at latitude and longitude if you have to punch in exactly where you want to go. Just saying "Send me to Paris" might not cut it. I mean Paris is a big, beautiful city but I'm sure there are parts I wouldn't want to go to.
And what about being able to instantaneously flee the scene of a crime? That could be social chaos.
And what if you could say "I want to be transported to the single place on earth that looks most like the landscape that I'm visualizing in my mind at this moment." Then you could see a picture and teleport right to that location. Cool.
And what if you saw a picture of a living person you've never met before, but you wanted to meet them - so you said "Teleport me to where that person is right now." Big problems for anyone that has groupies or a stalker.
And when you do teleport - do your clothes and personal items teleport with you or conversely, do you end up naked in a foreign country with no ID? Ouch.
And I suppose a new industry of impenetrable materials would develop. At least some buildings would need to be built of materials that you can't teleport through.
And how does the possibility of virtual reality affect the necessity for human teleporting anyway? Maybe it's more important to think about resource teleporting instead of people-porting?
Damn - I sound like Andy Rooney. I'm going to bed.
