# How quickly would this device be banned? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080 "2014-03-07T03:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/1 "2014-03-07T03:53:24Z")
Here’s the device I’ve just invented - I call it Kobayashi’s Patented Mark ‘n’ Recall, based on fictitious technology. It’s shaped like the old [Sinclair joystick](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Sinclair_SJS1_joystick.jpg) (without the wire). Press the button once to ‘mark’ your location. Press it again anywhere else to return instantly to that location (Earth’s rotation, orbit etc are factored in - you won’t end up floating in space). Just a couple of caveats - you have to be standing still or sitting still to recall. Anything you’re carrying - as long is it doesn’t touch the ground - will recall with you. Otherwise the button does nothing. You can’t override the mark, it’s permanent - though you can have multiple devices. They can be destroyed as easily as a joystick if you want to get rid of one; however they don’t run out of charge - as long as it’s intact it will work. I’m assuming they work on other planetary bodies but so far I’ve only tested it on Earth. They’re easy to make and cost me next to nothing so I’ve been knocking them up in my garage and giving them away left right and centre to friends and well wishers. How long is it before somebody gives me a visit and tells me in no uncertain terms to knock it off? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/2 "2014-03-07T04:05:43Z")
What happens if there is someone standing in “your” marked spot at the moment you whiz back to it? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/3 "2014-03-07T04:10:12Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > What happens if there is someone standing in “your” marked spot at the moment you whiz back to it? If there’s any obstruction in your marked place the button does nothing and you won’t move, like what happens when you are in motion. ---
**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 7, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/4 "2014-03-07T04:20:43Z")
The obvious criminal application would be burglary. Just get two devices and set one for your safehouse. Then enter the location you want to rob during its normal business hours and set your second device. A few hours later you teleport in, grab what you can, and teleport back to your safehouse. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/5 "2014-03-07T04:22:18Z")
What happens if someone accidentally digs a pit trap with poisoned spears at the marked spot? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/6 "2014-03-07T04:25:20Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > What happens if someone accidentally digs a pit trap with poisoned spears at the marked spot? Then you recall to the place you were, fall on the poisoned spears and die. So make sure where you mark is not a place where that’s likely to happen. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/7 "2014-03-07T07:41:58Z")
Forget burglary - while a building is under construction, get the blueprints and decide where best to kill the next \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, who will occupy/visit that structure. I’d guess you’d have about 10 minutes after the authorities figure out what you are doing. The question is whether they’d keep you around to benefit their side or decide it’s only a matter of time until the technology gets in the wrong hands. If the latter, expect a gas explosion in your home - even if you don’t have gas. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/8 "2014-03-07T08:23:50Z")
You’ve created mechanized [jaunting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination). The best thing for you to do is release the plans on the internet. Otherwise yes, you’ll be shut down pretty much as soon as the authorities realise what you have. The social upheaval costs are too great. Not just burglary - think of this device in the hands of some sex criminal - abductions just became that much easier. Never mind the boon for terrorists. On the other hand, the economic impacts are going to be huge, too - why should I ever drive to work when I can zap myself there and back? And goodbye airlines - I can just buy a device that’s been marked for my destination, surely? (Your OP didn’t specify that the marker had to be the user) I see an industry in “marking” tourist destinations and mailing them to people for less than the cost of a ticket. And a parallel criminal industry in “marking” the tourist cage in your rob, rape and murder-for-organs lair, and mailing _that_ out to tourists as “Paris” or “Vegas” So I think all that adds up to so much social upheaval the PTB will have to shut you down, hard. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/9 "2014-03-07T09:09:37Z")
If “social upheaval” were sufficient grounds for “the authorities” to block the development of a new technology, then why isn’t the internet illegal? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/10 "2014-03-07T10:02:44Z")
If you made sure they couldn’t take things with them - that you had to wear the same clothes as when you marked the location, and anything that was different would be left behind - then you might reduce some of the worst of what they would potentially be used for (robbery, abduction, etc). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/11 "2014-03-07T10:17:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > If “social upheaval” were sufficient grounds for “the authorities” to block the development of a new technology, then why isn’t the internet illegal? Because they seriously lack foresight. By the time they were aware, it was way too late (not that they haven’t tried to throttle it, in their own way.) And how legal do you think the Internet is in places like North Korea? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-would-this-device-be-banned/683080/12 "2014-03-07T11:22:35Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > If you made sure they couldn’t take things with them - that you had to wear the same clothes as when you marked the location, and anything that was different would be left behind - then you might reduce some of the worst of what they would potentially be used for (robbery, abduction, etc). Unfortunately, that would still leave it usable for murder, arson, most sex crimes, etc.