Putting aside living things, seems to me the greatest society changer would be the ability to “fax” objects from one place to another, Star Trek style.
- No more trucks
- No more cargo planes
- No cargo trains
- No need for snail mail (or the cars and trucks to deliver mail)
- Far less pollution from the above
- No more food shortages
- No more medical shortages
- Others?
Given this, doesn’t it make sense for more scientists to focus on this?
Ok, now you have put literally thousands of people out of work and increased the unemployment lines resulting on a further drain on the national treasury, not to mention retraining those unemployed workers for jobs to which they were previously unfit. This could take years and loan costs would soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars. truck drivers, railroad workers and post office personnel are already hurting with layoffs aplenty. How do you solve both problems? Nothing new here, just faster service. On the positive side it could cut exhaust emissions and slow the greenhouse effect but how would those effected make a living? That has to be factored in as well.
It depends on how it’s done. If it reads the original, sends the information, thant the receiver rebuilds it, that means the matter would be converted from energy, probably as much as released by a few dozen hydrogen bombs. If the original is being transported by some means such as through a wormhole, it would also take an immense amount of energy to open and maintain a wormhole.
And even if it could be done, I’d hate to be within about 90 miles from the equipment when it malfunctions.
I think it’s a lot cheaper to ship the product by Fed Ex.
Ok, now you have put literally thousands of people out of work and increased the unemployment lines resulting on a further drain on the national treasury, not to mention retraining those unemployed workers for jobs to which they were previously unfit. This could take years and loan costs would soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars. truck drivers, railroad workers and post office personnel are already hurting with layoffs aplenty. How do you solve both problems? Nothing new here, just faster service. On the positive side it could cut exhaust emissions and slow the greenhouse effect but how would those effected make a living? That has to be factored in as well.
Am I hearing you say automation is bad? Most automation puts workers out of a job. Cars put buggy drivers out of a job, so we shouldn’t have cars? Heck, advances in medicine have put gravediggers out of jobs (so to speak). Maybe we should be more positive and think that all these workers are now free to pursue other interests, with government assistance.
And what about the ability to get food, water, and medicine where’s it’s needed? Doesn’t that outway loss of jobs?
I agree though, all big issues, and like I said this new ability would be a great society changer…not necessarily all good for everyone, but overall I think it’d be a huge advancement over the long haul.
It depends on how it’s done. If it reads the original, sends the information, thant the receiver rebuilds it, that means the matter would be converted from energy, probably as much as released by a few dozen hydrogen bombs. If the original is being transported by some means such as through a wormhole, it would also take an immense amount of energy to open and maintain a wormhole.
And even if it could be done, I’d hate to be within about 90 miles from the equipment when it malfunctions.
I think it’s a lot cheaper to ship the product by Fed Ex.
Occam
All good points if we only consider current knowledge. Can’t do that though, since there’d have to be advances in physics, etc. to make something like this happen. Your analogy would be more like if we were discussing transportation a few hundred years ago, and we said “my god, to transport all that gold 100 miles in less than a couple hours would require literally TONS and TONS of asphalt, paved into special “rock like” paths that cover one HUNDRED miles! You are crazy!!” (Then I’d grab a lamb shank and bite off a big chunk.)
If you are going with the fax model, you are not transporting anything but information. The physical stuff (the paper and the image printed on it) are resources local to the receiving party. To extend that model to 3D objects, all you need is a very sophisticated 3D printer, or something more like a Star Trek replicator. The original product is scanned but not destroyed. The information needed to recreate it is then transmitted and the receiving device replicates it. And what would we call this device? Well, a transporter of course! This is exactly how the fictional transporters in the Trek universe work—except that they take the extra step of destroying the original.
If you are going with the fax model, you are not transporting anything but information. The physical stuff (the paper and the image printed on it) are resources local to the receiving party. To extend that model to 3D objects, all you need is a very sophisticated 3D printer, or something more like a Star Trek replicator. The original product is scanned but not destroyed. The information needed to recreate it is then transmitted and the receiving device replicates it. And what would we call this device? Well, a transporter of course! This is exactly how the fictional transporters in the Trek universe work—except that they take the extra step of destroying the original.
Right, that’s why I said “Star Trek” style in my OP.
And what about the ability to get food, water, and medicine where’s it’s needed? Doesn’t that outway loss of jobs?
What about that ability? Humans have had that ability for hundreds of years already. How’s that been working out?
Really? I’m not talking about the mere possibility…like ya a cavemen in theory could walk half the globe to bring medicinal herbs to someone in Timbuktu. I’m talking about the case where there’s no physical limitation AND no reason for greedy capitalists to turn physical limitations into reasons NOT to distribute products. Sure there might be some pigs who would find some way to profit off of this but the main idea is that physical limitations would effectively be eliminated, kinda like with a fax.
And what about the ability to get food, water, and medicine where’s it’s needed? Doesn’t that outway loss of jobs?
What about that ability? Humans have had that ability for hundreds of years already. How’s that been working out?
Really? I’m not talking about the mere possibility…like ya a cavemen in theory could walk half the globe to bring medicinal herbs to someone in Timbuktu. I’m talking about the case where there’s no physical limitation AND no reason for greedy capitalists to turn physical limitations into reasons NOT to distribute products. Sure there might be some pigs who would find some way to profit off of this but the main idea is that physical limitations would effectively be eliminated, kinda like with a fax.
Yeah? First I said “hundreds of years”, so cavemen are out of the loop.
Secondly, you hit the nail right on the head. “Mere possibility”! I said humans have had the ability already. You’re just describing new abilities(Star-Trek transporters).
Whoopie-do! Let me know when you can describe new impetus. All you are doing is describing new possibility.
Go back 150 years or so. If there was a forum on the internet someone would have posted a thread entitled “Send me that load of bread by Train Please.”
Well here we are today and people still can’t get medicine and food and water. The majority of humans live on sewer water in fact. Real sewer water with “floatables” and horrible effluvia. Yes, the majority of humans live in these conditions. Millions of children you’ve never heard of and never will see die each year from these conditions. So let’s all “Ship them that medicine, water and food by Train”!
Where would the matter used to produce the faxed product come from?
Occam
Raw particles. When a fax is received the information shapes the particles into a duplicate. For a regular person about 200 lbs of raw particles would do it…
