# What if all things currently in motion were at their destination? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366 "2017-12-27T01:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/1 "2017-12-27T01:50:32Z")
What if all things currently in motion - animals, cars, airplanes, wind, whatever - were suddenly at their final destination? What do you think would be the logical conclusion? Assuming you think the logical conclusion would be thermal death of the universe, let’s back up to some intermediate that you would find interesting pondering and/or describing. If I could pick a super power, I think this one would be it. Just to get the idiots off the road… ---
**Author:** ![BlueMerle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@BlueMerle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMerle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/2 "2017-12-27T01:52:29Z")
ppft… all you need is lasers. That’ll get the idiots off the road! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/3 "2017-12-27T02:03:58Z")
The power of silence. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/4 "2017-12-27T03:23:23Z")
There would be a very large load in your underpants, for one thing. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/5 "2017-12-27T03:34:03Z")
Moving this exercise in thinking to IMHO–far, far from General Questions. **samclem** , moderator. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/6 "2017-12-27T03:57:34Z")
Wouldn’t we be past the event horizon, perpetually falling into a ginourmous black hole? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/7 "2017-12-27T08:45:21Z")
Some moving objects don’t really have a destination or a stopping point. How about planets and other orbiting bodies? They just go round and round and round indefinitely, with no destination and no end-point. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/8 "2017-12-27T12:02:31Z")
_Lots_ of crashes, since all those cars and airplanes would suddenly be at their destinations while still moving at full speed. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/9 "2017-12-27T13:23:16Z")
What does the OP think constitutes a “final” destination? e.g. for a car is it where the current driving session ends, where the car gets crushed or disassembled at the end of its useful life, or where each and every atom of that former car are located 1, 2, or 27.345 million years from now? The big end of the question is mostly nonsense once we recognize that over Long Time there is no such thing as a “thing”. There is only matter and energy. And not even all of that. And at the small end, each vehicle at the end of its current journey from A to B, is immaterial. Other than vacant roads and airways it’d look about like normal. ---
**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:** [December 27, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/10 "2017-12-27T13:55:52Z")
I don’t have an answer, but I appreciate the provocative nature of the question. I don’t think the OP expected a rigorous solution to the question so much as an exploration of what the question might mean or imply, permit or forbid. A bit like if I said “What if objects looked bigger as they got further away, instead of smaller?” The fun is not in solving that, it’s in realising how that would be difficult to solve. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/11 "2017-12-27T15:01:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Other than vacant roads and airways it’d look about like normal. The problem with the vacant airways is that major airports might not have room for all the inbound flights. Put all the planes on the ground there now, rather than over the next 2-10 hours, with a lot of them leaving within an hour or two, and you have a disaster. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/12 "2017-12-27T15:11:35Z")
> [@naita](#): > > The problem with the vacant airways is that major airports might not have room for all the inbound flights. Put all the planes on the ground there now, rather than over the next 2-10 hours, with a lot of them leaving within an hour or two, and you have a disaster. We did it on 9/11. It was cozy in spots, but the idea there’s not room to park all the airplanes is not borne out by reality. To be sure, 9/11 only affected the USA. But that’s the densest air traffic situation on the planet. So far; the Chinese are definitely giving us a run for our money over the next couple of decades. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/13 "2017-12-27T16:31:22Z")
Makes me think of this: [Arbouretum - All that will be has become, all that has come isn't gone - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V9MQ3RiJdA) Almost Zen. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-all-things-currently-in-motion-were-at-their-destination/805366/14 "2017-12-28T17:45:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > We did it on 9/11. It was cozy in spots, but the idea there’s not room to park all the airplanes is not borne out by reality. > > To be sure, 9/11 only affected the USA. But that’s the densest air traffic situation on the planet. So far; the Chinese are definitely giving us a run for our money over the next couple of decades. I may have overestimated the ratio of planes to parking spots, but a lot of 9/11 traffic was rerouted. I don’t know if there was any “O’Hare is full, you have to land at Rockford”, but even if there wasn’t any reshuffling, all the international flights that turned back or landed in Canada would add to that cozyness.