# Alternative uses for teleportation **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 30, 2014, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890 "2014-03-30T10:39:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/21 "2014-03-30T15:54:39Z")
Is it worth teleporting a battery into space to charge on solar cells? You I assume you can harvest most energy from the sun without that pesky atmosphere in the way. So we could set up a charging system in orbit, and just transfer batteries back and forth. I wonder if there would be any impact on communication. The ability to move a book (or hard drive) instantly lets information travel way faster than our existing network infrastructure does. Can photons be transported? If so, can we effectively do remove holograms? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/22 "2014-03-30T15:55:08Z")
As for energy, how much energy would be contained in a cubic centimeter of the sun and how much energy would it take to teleport it from the sun to a power plant? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/23 "2014-03-30T16:10:51Z")
Pranks. Geopolitical pranks. Let Km Jon Un build all the nukes he wants. First time he tries to launch one, he’ll find that the fuel for the missile has been replaced with Folger’s Crystals. First time he tries to deliver a payload to a target using non-ballistic measures, he’ll find that the nuclear material in the warhead has been replaced with cream cheese. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/24 "2014-03-30T16:20:16Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I find the idea of an evil herd of elephants oddly attractive. It’s a Congress of elephants! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/25 "2014-03-30T17:09:57Z")
Weather control would be another nice one, teleporting a cloud away or a tornado as well as for the fire service, remove the O2 or the fuel from the fire, if not just the fire, or send in water (or pie 🙂 ) Car tires without valves - not that this is a major issue, but a great marketing opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/26 "2014-03-30T17:10:38Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > OMG, I can finally go to the bathroom without getting up. That was my first thought as well. Install the system at every pub and tear out the restrooms. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/27 "2014-03-30T17:14:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As for energy, how much energy would be contained in a cubic centimeter of the sun and how much energy would it take to teleport it from the sun to a power plant? Geothermal also. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/28 "2014-03-30T17:18:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Theft will pretty much become universal unless the AI agrees to enforce property rights. Or the opposite a global community of sharing. What good is owning something if you can ‘blink’ it in to existence as you need it. It may end property rights as there may be no need for property. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/29 "2014-03-30T17:52:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Theft will pretty much become universal unless the AI agrees to enforce property rights. Im fairly sure it will class theft as violence. And it’s much better at keeping track of things than we are. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/30 "2014-03-30T18:00:38Z")
Finally my laundry and groceries could put themselves away! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/31 "2014-03-30T18:00:53Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I’d just use it once a year to teleport a tennis ball just above the head of the POTUS before the State of the Union address. If it’s Jeb Bush I’d go for a bowling ball. If you were Bin Ladin, or Wile E. Coyote, an anvil. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/32 "2014-03-30T18:05:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You could also have the Ultimate Dry Cleaning method – remove all the dirt, and No Dangerous Chemicals! And dishwashing. Just teleport the plates back to the cupboard and any food residues to the appropriate waste receptacle. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/33 "2014-03-30T18:05:47Z")
Why would bin Laden or Wile E. Coyote be delivering the SotU address? ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/34 "2014-03-30T18:10:47Z")
My golf handicap would certainly improve. Also my bowling average. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/35 "2014-03-30T18:55:50Z")
If it works quickly enough, it could be used for pollution sequestration. Teleport CO2 out of the atmosphere into underground holding tanks. Ditto for radioactive material out of water and soil. Use it for easy refining. Teleport paclitaxel out of the Pacific yew trees that produce it without killing the trees. Can it teleport the parts of Ikea furniture into their assembled configuration? How about the parts of a car? How about a microchip? How about products that we currently can’t build, such as [respirocytes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respirocyte)? I imagine that teleporting something into orbit would cost much less than sending it up by rocket, because there’s no heavy rocket to lift. Teleport solar panels into orbit where they can hopefully pay for themselves in short order. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/36 "2014-03-30T20:50:39Z")
Transport a certain amount of the torrential downpour runoff in the LA area to the reservoirs up in the Sierras so that in times of not enough snow, they can lessen drought conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/37 "2014-03-30T21:44:36Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why would bin Laden or Wile E. Coyote be delivering the SotU address? \ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/38 "2014-03-30T21:51:10Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > If it works quickly enough, it could be used for pollution sequestration. Teleport CO2 out of the atmosphere into underground holding tanks. That’s probably expensive in terms of the energy required to do it, so best power your teleporter from a non-carbon power source (this isn’t one of those thermodynamically can’t-break-even things though). > [@](#): > > Can it teleport the parts of Ikea furniture into their assembled configuration? How about the parts of a car? How about a microchip? Absolutely - and these are exactly the sorts of benign, alternative uses I was hoping for. > [@](#): > > How about products that we currently can’t build, such as [respirocytes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respirocyte)? Assuming they are actually possible, yes. Otherwise, all we can do is try - but yes, we can assemble things atom by atom if we so wish. > [@](#): > > I imagine that teleporting something into orbit would cost much less than sending it up by rocket, because there’s no heavy rocket to lift. Teleport solar panels into orbit where they can hopefully pay for themselves in short order. The elephant sized upper limit is a little problematic for this, but I guess you could teleport up a bunch of interlocking elephant-sized modules (including the drive to make it orbit) in quick succession - teleporting them directly into assembled configuration. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/39 "2014-03-30T21:54:11Z")
Toiletportation-sit, _zaaap!_-done. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890/40 "2014-03-30T21:58:34Z")
you could share expensive occasional use tools and fine china with family and friends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternative-uses-for-teleportation/684890.md?page=3)