kittycat1

Discussion with colleague today, personally I think if teleportation was possible then it would actually not be used as it would actually cause a collapse of the global economy and life as we know it, so if it ever did become feasible the governments and powers that be would stop it from being commercially available.

So in my theory teleportation would lead to the collapse of transportation industries, no cars, no planes, no boats, no trains, which would lead to no airports/train stations, no manufacturing of these modes of transports, extreme reduction in fuel consumption (assuming the teleportation would run off a renewable energy source and would not be an oil based fuel), so closure of petrol stations, driving instructors would be no more, you would no longer need roads, no road tax, no fuel tax, no car tax, no logistics companies required, no dustbin men. So job losses and loss in tax revenue would be massive. Also would make crime and terrorism harder to monitor, obesity levels would increase substantially, people would work shorter hours as wouldn't have to travel before or after the rush hour.

Salary banding would become global so essentially would be more competitive so would be reduced (based on anyone in the world being able to travel anywhere in the world to work so applications per job would be incredibly high and therefore salaries would be forced down), the retail industry as we know it would collapse as why would you go shopping on the UK high street if you could zap over to New York or Hong Kong or Milan for the afternoon.

On the upside tourism would boom globally, vegetables would be fresh in supermarkets and carbon emissions would be cut to practically zero.

I could go on and on about the ramifications of teleportation but you get the idea- anyone any thoughts on there being a big cover up so the economy stays stable ish....

I actually smell a blockbuster movie here....

anything I've missed out?

Kittycat
xxx

benzonar

Pass the duchy on the left hand side

glynster

Bizarrely I worked with a Professor a few years ago who was blindingly intelligent and a bit odd,he convinced me it is possible and has been achieved with certain objects but nothing living yet. If anyone else had told me I would of smelt bullshit but this guy was just blinding me with stuff about architecture and the building of the channel tunnel with such detail I actually believe him.

shakh your bootie

Those would be tachyons - massless particles that can travel faster than the speed of light. Even if they exist, there is the small matter of converting your body into information, and then reconverting it to a corporeal form at the other end...

Spugsy

I'd like to be invisible sometimes though.

shakh your bootie

Why aye, lad. You could creep around in women's changing rooms and stuff.

kittycat1

Obviously you also have the whole 'The Fly" scenario to avoid as well!

Spugsy- why do you sometimes wish you were invisible?
xx

Jeeper

It's a bit early in the morning for those sorts of horror stories....

lionheart

...but it DOES exist or don't you ever watch Doctor Who?

Roadking

Who said that...?

MacScot

...plus the 10+ trillion other living organisms (bacteria, viruses etc) in and on your body...could end up at the other end as a ginormous herpes cold sore !

The Dean

So we are only talking about transporting objects from A to B? No time travel then?

So I can't go back to university and get Elizabeth Vaudin to fall in love with me?

Bahtatboy

Its been around for ages: the Japanese manga & anime Doraemon has a Dokodemo Doa (transl: Anywhere Door) which allows both spatial and temporal travel. Been doing it since the 50's in print and 70's on TV. Never did Nobita any harm. (Incindentally saw it dubbed into Arabic last month in Saudi. From Japanese to Arabic: there HAD to be something lost in translation.)

But I disagree with Kittycat The huge efficiencies and reduction in CO2 emissions would far outweigh the disadvantages.

You'd have to assume that teleportation wouldn't become instantly available for everything--technology takes time to develop, so you're not going to have it available for multi-cellular life forms at the same time that it becomes available for having your king prawn dopiaza delivered directly from Delhi. As the efficiencies grow the savings could and would be re-directed to safeguarding against the risks; market forces and government intervention would ensure that. The transition during the Industrial Revolution ended up with a better place to be, even though the change at the time was huge.

Big cover up? Nah. I don't believe the technology exists, nor could it. Dissassembly and reassembly of living organisms? Took 2 Iranians and 1 Afghan a whole day to do that to my inanimate pool table last week and they still fouled it up.

Mind you, wouldn't mind popping back home to Ilkley tonight for an hour or two--the current Mrs Bahtatboy says she's missing me.


ps Why doesn't my Manage Attachment or Attachments paperclip allow me to attach anything?

littlejimmy

Emiratis would demand luxury teleportation pods with big bright headlights so they can get to their destinations quicker. Probably.

Roadking

Teleportation has been around for ages. I experienced it last year. It was too heavy for me too carry on my own so I had the shop deliver and install.