If i had a little tiny TP, one that i could keep hidden, say, in the palm of my hand. And someone was to invite me over to their house. It would be really, really easy for me to steal all their silverware.
Upham
We were all going to have flying cars by now, too, as I recall. Though the power to teleport would render them redundant, I suppose. Perhaps, since we’re creating matter, the top-of-the-line teleporter could give one the power to multilocate. You could set limits – like make the double time-sensitive, so it would self-destruct after it got all your work done, that sort of thing. Though I’m afraid that raises some ethical questions.
[sub]I think Upham is adorable.[/sub]
If i had a teleporter right now i’d teleport my way on over to where ever Catrandom is and thank who ever they are for finding me adorable.
Unless they were being sarcastic, in which case i’d just have to teleport my nekkid ass
Upham the Adorable
<hijack>No sarcasm, I just happen to think you’re very cute.</hijack>
damnit, where’s my teleporter when i need it…
Upham
That’s right. The story is called “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” and I originally read it in the book The Best Science Fiction of Issac Asimov (Signet paperback 451-AE5196. The story has been published elsewhere, though I don’t know where offhand.) In the story, the doctor who was called in to examine the boy, who was thought crazy for not wanting to use the Doors. At the end of the story, the doctor decides to venture outside himself.
Larry Niven gave considerable thought to the subject in his essay, “Exercise in Speculation: the Theory and Practice of Teleportation” published in a collection called * All the Myriad Ways*.
For his fictional stories about how teleportation would affect society, A Hole in Space contains several short stories: “The Alibi Machine”, “The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club”, “A Kind of Murder”, and “All the Bridges Rusting”.
The Jaunt, by Stephen King had a really nice take… but I worked out the ending because I realised I’d read about it here on the SDMB previously 
Actually, I should say, I remembered the ending… 
Damn! ALL of my classic SF is in boxes in the basement. Now I’m gonna have to go down there to dig up and re-read all of these stories.
Huh, I had never thought of conservation of momentum in terms of teleportation. Has anybody devised systems (in fiction, or course) takin this into account?
jb
Another book that explores an entire society based on teleportation is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. It’s an innate ability in all humans in the novel, and he extrapolates the changes in security, the status of women, and a bunch of other things. It’s a good book.
You know what else would be bad ?
You get in your teleporter, and say a fly got in there with you, and while you’re going through your DNA and the fly’s DNA get combined, and you don’t notice at first. Actually, you feel really good at first, then all sorts of gross things slowly start happening to you, like losing your teeth and nails and ears and such as you turn in to a fly.
That, and your girlfriend gives birth to a maggot.
That would be bad.
Niven’s stories do. IIRC, the excess energy is shunted into surge tanks at the recieving end.
Mojo Jojo, what an intriguing and original concept!! You ought to develop a screenplay treatment of that and try selling it to Hollywood! :rolleyes:
Ha! I just finished Michael Crichton’s Timeline, which is about teleporting across TIME! Woo-hoo! Got a lot of quantum physics mumbo-jumbo in it-- some really weird “science” --but it’s actually a pretty good story, for him. It actually seems like a novel that he might have written for it’s own sake instead of what multi-million dollar block-buster movie can be made from it. I wasn’t going to read it because I think he’s a hack, but a friend convinced me and I actually enjoyed it.
You know, I’ve thought about that. I even have a couple of different versions. In the first version just the arm and the head of the fly and man get switched, and in the end they find the fly with the mans head and smash it with a rock just before it gets eaten by a spyder.
What 'd ya think ???
(Actually, I was just supprised that I was the first one to get a ‘The Fly’ reference in this thread!)
Jaw-droppingly!
jb
Larry Niven addressed this:
Teleport north or south, and when you materialize, the difference in velocity vectors slams you into the wall.
Teleport eastward, and you get thrown toward the ceiling.
Teleport westward, and you get pressed toward the floor.
Upward or downward, and you have to compensate for the difference in gravitational potential energy. Niven figured that it would show up as heat. Move up, and your temperature drops. Move down, your temperature rises.
He figured that teleporters would be limited to short distances until they figured out how to add or subtract energy and momentum during the jump.
That was a cool story. Probably the only Stephen King production that actually kind of scared me. Just the thought of it, geez.