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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Pros and Cons
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
How about this? You come up with an idea for an amazing new invention, and post it here. But then you have to think through the implications - what advantages and disadvantages would it bring to the world. Other posters are free to add any other unforeseen side effects, or to post new ideas of their own.
To give an example. Trudging home the other day I thought how great it would be if everyone had their own Star Trek type transporter. Cheap, easy to use, and no pollution.
So - Pros: Eliminate the carbon footprint at a stroke. And free travel for all.
Cons: Massive unemployment. Everyone involved in building cars and airplanes are out of work, as are all those who work in petrol stations and airports. (Luxury travel, like cruise ships and post trains, would probably survive. Top of the range hotels might prosper, but most would vanish.)
Also, the world would no longer be dependent on fossil fuels. That would be good for the environment, but would have a massive impact on the Middle East. Would it weaken terrorist groups like ISIS? Or make them more desperate than ever?
OK - anyone else want to have a go?
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I once tried to write a short story about an inventor who created a time travel machine. His idea was to use it solely for climate control purposes. Consider that you spend all your time in the winter being too cold, and in the summer being too warm. Why not even it out, by transporting some of the cold air to summer, when you can use it, and exchanging it for the warm air that will make your wintry bedroom comfortable? So I had him do this. The big problem that immediately comes to mind is thunder. Any time you mix air masses of differing temperatures, there are effects. Probably bad for the bedroom furniture.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
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Posted
I am reminded of a short story by Canadian writer James Powell. A minor character in the story is described as being one of the leading economists of Europe. Powell then gives a brief history of the character: he had been a forger who made forged bank notes that were so good that they were indistinguishable from real ones. He proceed to amass a fortune by flooding these fake notes into circulation. Unfortunately, so many notes went into circulation that it triggered an economic collapse, in which he lost all his money. He then spent his time in prison learning economics...
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"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Yeah, the thought that ANYBODY could be anywhere leads to the realisation that one's favorite place would immediately be overrun with crowds of people, which would ruin the favorite place.
Larry Niven did a short story series based on the idea of more-or-less free transporters. The net result was ... unhappy. Any event whatsoever was immediately inundated with the aimless crowd looking for anything that was remotely entertaining. Just think, flash mobs in your living room, until the house collapses.
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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jrw
Shipmate
# 18045
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Posted
Supposing the transporter broke down mid journey.
Posts: 522 | Registered: Mar 2014
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
Agreed Gwai. There would be no point in living in cities, although I suspect museums and art galleries would flourish, so we would all spread out a lot more. How far we could spread, given the current world population and overcrowding in some areas, I'm not sure. Although maybe some people would decide they like living with a lot of other people round them?
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
Brenda, if you kept on doing that what would happen to the local eco-system? If everyone was using this wouldn't you end up changing the local climate, and so damage flora and fauna?
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
The big cons of a transporter system would be that the western economy would collapse. If people could get to work anywhere in the world, then companies would bring in dirt cheap labour (from places like China), and most of the west would be out of work. And the money many of us have invested in property would vanish (not just houses, but pension funds etc).
Brenda - is it a two-way transport? The real issue with transporting is that you are moving a large quantity of matter into another place (time travel presents an even more significant aspect of this problem). You will also move insects etc with the air.
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The Rogue
Shipmate
# 2275
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Posted
It depends how expensive the Transporter is to operate.
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If everyone starts thinking outside the box does outside the box come back inside?
Posts: 2507 | From: Toton | Registered: Feb 2002
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Rogue:
It depends how expensive the Transporter is to operate.
And the cost of living in the places to which the Chinese move.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
The reason the story did not fly was that it was hard to imagine my inventor so single-minded and foolish that he did not grasp the larger implications of his invention. I suppose I could have rigged it so that it was purely transporting thermal energy through time -- only warm or cold. There still would be major major issues, of course.
There is an entire quite famous classic SF that revolves around cheap teleportation: THE STARS MY DESTINATION, by Alfred Bester. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination
In this novel the availability of instant transport leads to elaborate societal consequences, which I will not spoil for you.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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