I’m old enough to remember “Quick, Ma, the Flit.” I don’t know which slogan came first, but, strangely enough, I never heard the “Henry” version, only the “Ma” version.
I expect there will be a lot more building underground, since a transporter makes for a great digging tool; you can just transport unwanted rock away. It also simplifies utilities; sewage and the like can be transported away, while fresh water and so on can be transported in.
It can likely be used for cheap energy. There have been attempts for some time to harness “hot dry rock” geothermal energy (as in, geothermal from places that don’t already have convenient natural hot water deposits), mostly hampered by the difficulty of drilling sidewise pipelines deep underground for the heat exchange. A transporter makes that much simpler; you can make a boring machine that “drills” via transporting away rock in front of it and both remotely control and power it by transporter as well. Transporting new fuel to it and so on.
Depending on transporter range, space travel and access to the resources of space could be far cheaper and easier. If you can transport fuel, equipment and personnel to a space vessel as needed, space travel will be far easier.
Using “Star Trek” as your model is inherently not going to make for much of a discussion because teleportation in “Star Trek” is an interweaving series of plot holes and contrivances that resulted from the initial idea to just have a cool way of sending characters to the surface of planets. According to the Next Generation you can use transporters to cure medical problems, but then they forget about that when the episode ends.
We really have to agree on what teleportation’s rules are before determining its effects, but one thing is generally likely; if it’s economical it will make people WAY better off than they are now. Transportation is expensive.
It would be awesome, if it’s not just a rich mans toy.
The way we eat would change. If I can transport anywhere, my choices for dinner are greatly expanded.
What are the range/infrastructure requirements for the teleporter booths? Could you operate one on a moving vehicle?
Or, say…the ISS? Or the surface of the moon?
Begging is that lucrative?
Assuming just transportation and not a Star Trek replicator, all that is effected is shipping cost. Even without shipping, it’s difficult to get much if you’re only making a couple of dollars a day.
Many moons ago, I wrote a short story about a dude who suddenly found himself with the ability to transport himself anywhere in the world he wanted.
In the story, the dude eventually ended up in a wheelchair because he could never be bothered to walk anywhere. Even if it was something as small as walking to the fridge to grab a soda.
Now, I was being silly when I wrote that story, but one does have to think what would the health ramifications be as well.
I’m reminded of a scene in Niven’s Flatlander, where the protagonist encounters a wine glass that has a tiny, invisible* teleporter in the base that keeps it filled with unlimited wine. He wonders how many people have been sucked into alcoholism by such a gadget.
*The spot where the cup meets the base is apparently shaped so that the light-distortion of the glass hides the teleporter.
The work of charitable organizations just became a lot easier.
But that’s not really the main thing; you aren’t seeing the big picture here. The existence of cheap teleportation would massively increase the wealth of everyone in the world. People from the Third World would become richer simply because the entire world would become richer. International trade would suddenly become orders of magnitude easier, hugely boosting the world economy.
I’m surprised that with all the posters who can mention Niven’s brief take on transporterism, none have mentioned Harry Harrison’s more extended take on the subject. While Harrison is a far more variable writer than Niven (down into outright hackery), he wrote a dozen or more short stories that explored the future of a humanity with simple “doorway” technology, including some very thoughtful and insight-laden pieces. The original story was “One Step from Earth,” and I believe the stories were collected under that name as well. Essential reading for anyone pondering this question.
Well, unemployment is going to skyrocket in the months after introduction - all those transportation workers are going to get laid off, and UPS/FEDEX/USPS will all go bankrupt and cease to exist. Plus all the construction workers that made roads, bridges, and railroads that are now obsolete.
While presumably there will be new jobs in power generation and transporter manufacturing, that many new people in the labor market (and lets be honest, the guy that drives a truck or lays asphalt doesn’t have a lot of skills) is going to seriously depress wages.
On the other hand, if that power generation is so cheap (let’s say we have zero-point energy or something to power these), we’ll also be cutting down on pollution to a great deal, plus our trade imbalance with petrostates will vanish. Of course, the coals miners in WV and the natural gas drillers in ND will be out of a job too.
If this is like a replicator as posted above, though, that high unemployment will be meaningless. You want a TV? sure, whatevs, have it for free. You want to work in the creative disciplines? Go for it, nothing stopping out. That would lead to an explosion of the arts - and probably sciences as people that wanted to be researchers can go into hobby chemistry or whatever.
Overall a good thing, but I think there will be some major hiccups along the way.
Nothing about your scenario requires a reordering of physics as we understand it. However, the reordering of political-economic thought required probably makes waiting for a twist in the fabric of space-time the more sensible option.
I’m outta here.
And often, they transport a guy from one remote location to another as if the transporter room itself was not needed, yet they still have a transporter room.
And many are making the assumption that if it’s available and safe, it is also cheap. If is is ever available, I can assure you it will not be cheap. I remember the following exchange from West Wing:
“Plus the pill costs about .04 to make"
"You know that's not true. The second pill cost .04, the first pill cost 400 Million dollars”
The technology may well come, but billions will be spent. Someone is gonna have to recoup some money.
First, the ‘Fly’ model is much more logical. There is transporter pod that will only be able to send to another transporter pod. There will be a lot of hardware and software involved. There will manufacturing and software design and sales. There will be mechanics, because everything that is built will eventually break down. There will be engineers running the machines, because even safe things can be dangerous in the hands of idiots.
Even if we have the Star Trek model, there will still be transporter consoles, pads, software…
As someone has already mentioned, electricity will still be an issue, and probably a costly one.
Even if the technology came into being today, how long would it take before it went into ‘general’ use? 5 years, 10 years? And would people give up cars or motorcycles? Not likely. Plus, many will simply not use it. Hell, Dr. McCoy in Star Trek hated it!
Steven King wrote a short story called The Jaunt. In it, they DID develop a transporter that could send people across vast distances. But in the story, regardless of the distance, the traveler had to be sedated and unconscious for the trip. If anyone jaunted while conscious, they emerged on the other side insane and near death.
So, if there were teleportation, there would be centralized teleporters and they would cost the traveler. It will NOT be cheap.
I’m always amused when people speculate about a future technology and someone asserts there’s no way it would be cheap. Just like there’s no way automobiles, air travel, or personal computers would be cheap. Oh wait.