# If you could have one sci-fi gadget...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 30, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426 "2005-01-30T15:11:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hewe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hewe)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/1 "2005-01-30T15:11:01Z")
… what would it be?
I’d personally take the holo deck from Stark Trek.
I’d lock myself in and throw away the key. Well, okay I might come out once a week just so my maid could clean all the sperm stains. And maybe pay the electric bill which should be considerably larger than normally.
A light saber would be cool too.
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### Author:  [@sweetfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetfreak)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/2 "2005-01-30T15:13:03Z")
Does Data count as a “gadget”?
Other than him, I’m with you on the light-saber. 😃
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/3 "2005-01-30T15:13:49Z")
I would like a holodeck too, but I think I’d rather have a transporter. I hate driving. Imagine popping over to England for lunch in a pub, then beaming over to Hong Kong for dinner, and snuggling into bed at home.
Just curious…what effect does transporting have on jet lag? Sisko said when he was in the Academy in San Francisco he went home to New Orleans for dinner every night for the first week. He used up a whole month’s worth of transporter credits, as I recall. Would he have suffered jet lag?
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/4 "2005-01-30T15:51:36Z")
You _konw_ what’s coming…
A 1920’s style Death Ray!
_Someone_ had to say it. May as well get it out of the way early.
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### Author:  [@hewe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hewe)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/5 "2005-01-30T15:54:54Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> You _konw_ what’s coming…
>
> A 1920’s style Death Ray!
>
> _Someone_ had to say it. May as well get it out of the way early.
I actually thought about putting a disclaimer on that (\*other than 1920’s death ray) but thought it would go unmentioned.
Learning the hard way.
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/6 "2005-01-30T16:00:28Z")
I want a flycycle, Puppeteer made, and fully equipped. The thing has a kitchen, an autodoc, and I hope, an instruction manual. Oh, and it goes mach 4!
## Tris
“You can’t always get what you want.” ~ M. Jagger/K. Richards ~
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/7 "2005-01-30T16:03:25Z")
A Starfleet runabout with a holodeck and an EMH specially installed.
That way, I get a small warp capable vessel that I can pilot myself but has room to comfortably house a dozen, replicators, an extensive library full of hundreds of different worlds’ knowledge and literature, and a transporter all in one. 😃
> [@ivylass](#):
>
> I would like a holodeck too, but I think I’d rather have a transporter. I hate driving. Imagine popping over to England for lunch in a pub, then beaming over to Hong Kong for dinner, and snuggling into bed at home.
>
> Just curious…what effect does transporting have on jet lag? Sisko said when he was in the Academy in San Francisco he went home to New Orleans for dinner every night for the first week. He used up a whole month’s worth of transporter credits, as I recall. Would he have suffered jet lag?
Scotty seemed a bit nostalgic but wasn’t jet lagged when the E-D crew found him on the Jenolen in \*Relics \*so I imagine not.
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### Author:  [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/8 "2005-01-30T16:04:21Z")
A holodeck would be nice, but I’m not sure how my wife would like me hanging out with asian lesbian nymphomaniacs all the time. I think I’d take a replicator. I’d have me some hash brownies and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee every morning for breakfast 🆒
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/9 "2005-01-30T16:05:54Z")
> [@sweetfreak](#):
>
> Does Data count as a “gadget”?
If Data counts, then so does R. Dorothy Wayneright.
She’s my gadget of choice, thank you. 😃
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/10 "2005-01-30T16:06:50Z")
Why think small?
I want a fully functioning starship.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/11 "2005-01-30T16:09:41Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Why think small?
>
> I want a fully functioning starship.
Gooood. That’s _goooooood!_
And, you will operate it _how_ ?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/12 "2005-01-30T16:11:25Z")
My life would be complete if I just had a Jet-Pack. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/13 "2005-01-30T16:11:58Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#):
>
> Gooood. That’s _goooooood!_
>
> And, you will operate it _how_ ?
Well, a fully functioning starship _would_ have a complete crew, of course.
Hell, those things fly themselves anyway, right?
Right?
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/14 "2005-01-30T16:17:05Z")
> [@Aesiron](#):
>
> Scotty seemed a bit nostalgic but wasn’t jet lagged when the E-D crew found him on the Jenolen in \*Relics \*so I imagine not.
Well, he wasn’t traveling anywhere. He was trapped. Does traveling via transporter lead to jet lag?
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/15 "2005-01-30T16:27:51Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Well, a fully functioning starship _would_ have a complete crew, of course.
>
> Hell, those things fly themselves anyway, right?
>
> Right?
Rewatch the last fifteen minutes of _Generations_. 🙂
> [@ivylass](#):
>
> Well, he wasn’t traveling anywhere. He was trapped. Does traveling via transporter lead to jet lag?
Well, the incredibly geeky (and technically correct) anwer to this would be that he was on the Dyson Sphere for ~80 years and in that time, travelled a few billion miles as it orbited the center of the galaxy, but in the conventional sense you meant, no.
You can take your pick though.
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### Author:  [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/16 "2005-01-30T16:46:12Z")
Jet lag is caused by rapidly changing time zones, not travel alone - ie if you fly long distances west or east you have problems because your body thinks it is in the wee hours of the morning when outside it is the local noon and the sun is shining brightly; however flying long distances north or south doesn’t cause jet lag, just minor sores from sitting in a cramped airline seat. I would assume transporting around a planet would also cause jet lag, if you go large distance east or west.
However, in Sisko’s case, he was only moving two time zones (Pacific to Central) which wouldn’t be that hard to deal with. Especially since he would be going right back to Pacific time, after only an hour or two in Central.
As for Scotty, well it would depend on what the local Jericho time was when he stuck himself in the transporter, and what the local Enterprise time was set at when they brought him out. If they were the same, or similar, Scotty would not have had problems; however, if it was 2am Jericho time & 3 pm Enterprise time, well, jet lag would have hit.
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### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/17 "2005-01-30T17:00:14Z")
If I could. . . I’d trade in my pickup truck for a [BattleMech](http://www.kerensky.tierranet.com/btech/mechlab/mchwarhammer.gif)
Hells yes, I’d be squashing some cars and blowing sh\*t up!
Tripler
It’d sure as hell make my commute to work a lot more fun!
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/18 "2005-01-30T17:25:24Z")
Imagine the events you could witness and the people you could meet.
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/19 "2005-01-30T17:34:24Z")
I want a giant flying robot.
Oh, and a crew of color-coded teenagers.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-have-one-sci-fi-gadget/287426/20 "2005-01-30T17:42:10Z")
> [@Reeder](#):
>
> Imagine the events you could witness and the people you could meet.
Another reason for a runabout. One quick run around the sun and it’s 1986 again.
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