Do you think all hell would break loose...

[hungprep]

Well, for starters, it's impossible…

 

[mbamike]

Yes, all hell would break loose. The economy would collapse.

There would be no need for cars, trains, airlines, buses, public transportation, oil to make fuel, or any of the support services that surround these industries. Millions up millions of people would be unemployed.

 

[blackbeltninja]

What sort of harm do you envisage?

I'm just envisaging getting to work in like 5 seconds and not having to wake up at sparrow-fart to leave home while it's still dark in time to sit in rush hour for more than an hour, so if they can get it right I'll serously consider taking the harm as a trade-off.

-d-

 

[Poozy1]

Well, for starters, it's impossible?

Gonna sound super cheesy here but..

Nothing is impossible!

 

[CowboyBob]

Well, for starters, it's impossible…

So was television, radio and human beings in flight many years ago.

 

[chillyboi]

I hope i live long enough to see or use it!

 

[anchihiro]

Could spell trouble, i'll ask Jeff Goldblum.

 

[LittleDove]

Yes, all hell would break loose. The economy would collapse.

There would be no need for cars, trains, airlines, buses, public transportation, oil to make fuel, or any of the support services that surround these industries. Millions up millions of people would be unemployed.

Perhaps. But isn't that forecast based on the assumption that the technology would be instantly available to all? On a micro scale, would it be economically feasible for me to have this technology installed in my home to enable me to pop, relatively instantaneously, the four blocks I am from the nearest grocery store? Here, I'm assuming that at least in its earlier states such a technology would require a fairly hefty individual investment: not only the machinery itself (which I assume would start out fairly large), but the space necessary to house this machinery, and the energy it would take to power the process.

That doesn't even take into consideration who's 'responsible' for the machinery and for the process. Since the beam or stream which carries the person has a physical presence, what's to stop some third party from 'intercepting' the beam in mid-traffic? If X disappears between points a and b, who's liable? What happens when someone, to get out of a messy divorce from a partner, sets the transporter pattern for 'widest possible diffusion', as was done in at least one Trek episode? Is it kidnapping if I decide to take a day off from work, but my boss transports me there anyway?

 

[blackbeltninja]

mbamike already beat me to it.

not to mention thefts, rapes, etc...

MBAmike has a bit of an inevitable doomsday scenario, though - I mean, the whole oil/gas station industry will die as soon as we figure out electric cars, or solar-powered cars, and we are working on those already... that's a matter of time, I reckon.

As for the thefts and whatnot - it'll be like having normal keys to a building. Without the right access codes/DNA imprints/retina scans, you won't be able to teleport direct into someone's house. I presume you'll get beamed to a location nearby - on their lawn, or something, and then have to get buzzed in as usual.

I'm still looking forward to it; having said that, I would settle for a hovercar or something similar instead...

-d-

 

[Corny]

Well, for starters, it's impossible…

And you have what proof?

 

[EwanSF]

My boyfriend has just informed me that it is possible, scientists, have teleported quantum particles or some such sciencey nonsense.

I, however, realising that this is a hypothetical exercise, will answer yes. All hell would break loose, it'd be a pure blast.
I'd use my new telporting gadget to torment Tom Cruise to an early grave.

 

[barnbuddy]

if you could teleport, breaking and reassembling a human body at the molecular level

then there would probably be a process to do the same to inanimate objects - and change them at the atomic level as well.

so, what you you ever have to steal? you could "create" a pile of platinum, diamonds, what ever you like

ocean water could be salt free at will -

I guess the big question would be, who gets to control the "magic."

 

[ronnie_h]

Teleportation is useless. Telepathy would be a great hit. Just imagine how easiely you could find out if a guy has secret gay thoughts.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

Science... Magic... What's the difference?

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Teleportation will change for live human interaction, what the internet changed for human telecommunication.

 

[Anders123]

What if two people teleported to the exact same spot at the exact same time?

 

[jdcnow]

What if two people teleported to the exact same spot at the exact same time?

 

[borg69unimatrix]

One of the biggest problems with a scientific teleportation device (like Star Trek has), is finding a data storage device that could hold the exact location, and rotation of every single atom in your body.

At least, according to some nerdy tech science show I watched on TV once. Also, there is some question as to weather you're actually TELEPORTING (moving the atoms), or just breaking them down, copying, and replicating in a new location the data.

 

[Kulindahr]

Perhaps. But isn't that forecast based on the assumption that the technology would be instantly available to all? On a micro scale, would it be economically feasible for me to have this technology installed in my home to enable me to pop, relatively instantaneously, the four blocks I am from the nearest grocery store? Here, I'm assuming that at least in its earlier states such a technology would require a fairly hefty individual investment: not only the machinery itself (which I assume would start out fairly large), but the space necessary to house this machinery, and the energy it would take to power the process.

That doesn't even take into consideration who's 'responsible' for the machinery and for the process. Since the beam or stream which carries the person has a physical presence, what's to stop some third party from 'intercepting' the beam in mid-traffic? If X disappears between points a and b, who's liable? What happens when someone, to get out of a messy divorce from a partner, sets the transporter pattern for 'widest possible diffusion', as was done in at least one Trek episode? Is it kidnapping if I decide to take a day off from work, but my boss transports me there anyway?

Good questions -- I like seeing serious treatment of things rather than flippant answers.

There would be a major limitation which itself would answer some of the questions -- but see below.

My boyfriend has just informed me that it is possible, scientists, have teleported quantum particles or some such sciencey nonsense.

I, however, realising that this is a hypothetical exercise, will answer yes. All hell would break loose, it'd be a pure blast.
I'd use my new telporting gadget to torment Tom Cruise to an early grave.

The quantum teleportation applies only to very simple individual particles -- so your BF isn't quite correct. As wave functions get more complex... teleportation fails.


But assuming it could be made to work, it's going to need something important if it's to work over distances larger than the radius of a water molecule, something the quantum success indicates: a receiving station. As with television, you'd be sending a signal, and as with television, you'd need something to "display" it -- or, in this case, reassemble it. This was recognized by Roddenberry for the Star Trek universe, but thrown out because it was too limiting to story lines.

So for starters, it would be more like a fax machine than anything. If you had a teleportation unit, a Telunit, you wouldn't be able to send yourself just anyway, but only to locations with a receiver.

Right there your security comes in, and it's major: as with the private key/public key security system for encryption, no one would be able to crack or enter your receiver without the right key(s). Keys would be the first thing sent, and if they weren't right, there'd be no 'Telenet' connections, and all your multiple terabytes of self would stay right where they were, in your sending unit.

That suggests an easy format for a Telunit: the telephone booth. Step in, punch the code, enter your account information, and if the code is good and you have the funds, you disappear from your booth and reappear in the one you dialed.

And there's where another question gets answered: when a key and then destination code comes into a booth, it would automatically switch to receiver mode, and just as automatically give out a busy signal, refusing all other calls. In fact a macro-realm exclusionary principle would almost certainly come into play, where it would be impossible for two incoming packets to be received at the same time anyway.

Obviously the first to employ it would be those with fantastic sums of money to play with -- billionaires, and government. I can see some exclusive resorts springing up that would be inaccessible except via Telenet, their receivers accepting packets only from certain private Telbooths. Then you'd get them at highly popular destinations, beginning with those either difficult or inconvenient to reach.

As for energy, one great demand isn't immediately obvious: if you move someone to a different latitude or altitude, or between two locations not fixed with respect to one another, there's an energy difference involved. If there were a Telbooth on a cruise ship going twenty knots, and a passenger decided to use it to skip ahead, unless there's a system for soaking up energy, that passenger is going to arrive in the other booth with twenty knots of velocity -- though I suppose booths could have crash balloons....

But assume all the kinks get worked out and you can stick your card in, dial, and be on the observation deck of the Sears Tower a moment later without the energy of your move either freezing or igniting the immediate locale. What consequences will there be?

Let's consider Libya. With the Telenet, enthusiasts who'd love to go help the Libyans could grab their gear and guns, dial Benghazi, and sign up. Or Pakistan: the SEALs could have dialed through to a nearby booth, bagged bin Laden, and vanished back through a booth to a different location. Or Japan: people in the path of the tsunami just dial out -- and emergency personnel to help with the reactors just dial in.

Or general military application: booth giant booths on a ship or plane, fly to where you want your forces, and they just dial through from Kansas to Kabul.

But wait -- we're overlooking something here: what says we can send anything but a human being? what says we'd be able to take rifles, or Geiger counters... ...or even clothes?

And another thing: two items can't occupy the same space at the same time. So how do we teleport someone in at all -- the receiving booth is full of air!

Oh, the difficulties! But if it became widespread and dirt cheap, it would have one incredibly radical effect: the word "border" would cease to have any practical meaning, and the nation-state would begin to die.

 

[Kulindahr]

One of the biggest problems with a scientific teleportation device (like Star Trek has), is finding a data storage device that could hold the exact location, and rotation of every single atom in your body.

At least, according to some nerdy tech science show I watched on TV once. Also, there is some question as to weather you're actually TELEPORTING (moving the atoms), or just breaking them down, copying, and replicating in a new location the data.

Yes -- it's a signal/information-processing problem.

Replicators, and the two Rykers, answered that question: it's really replication.

Some may say "well technology could get better to allow it to be possible". I would simply counter... technology has its limitations.

And if it was somehow made possible, I certainly would not beta test the device, nor do I think anyone would be crazy enough to do so.

As to technology: this isn't something like making phones better, or coming up with multi-frequency antennas that could fit in a wallet; those are just improvements in known technology. This is something entirely new, a step greater than that between movable type and Blue Ray.

Depending on what was meant by Beta testing, I might: if they'd sent through mice, rats, cats, dogs, bunnies, and chimps, all without hitches, and were asking for human volunteers, if the price was right, I'd go for it.


BTW, these two comments reminded me of something else about such technology: you're broken down to an information stream, sent somewhere, and reassembled. Now, if along with this we got really good at genetics, the teleporter could be used to remove problems... right down to genetic defects.
For that matter, it could be used to reverse aging.......