Wittering
Not much to do, really. Gotta pay a bill tonight, that's about it.
*looks around for something to do*
I've been bored enough at work to write pages and pages on the problems inherent in the early days of teleportation - not so much inventing it, but trying to introduce it to the world. Sure, eventually everyone would use it for everything because it's the fastest way to get from A to B, but the bit before that could be a little dramatic for the inventor, especially if they have no financial backing. Imagine the backlash from the following industries:
* Car and other road vehicle manufacturers, including cargo haulers
* Roadmakers and repairers
* People who make consumables and accessories for cars
* Train makers, and the people who build and maintain trainlines and infrastructure
* Airlines
* Travel agencies (with the possible exception of local tourist guides)
* Hospitality industries (hotels, motels, travel lodges etc)
* The shipping industry and all its related industries, like port authorities and shipping-container makers
* Delivery industries - couriers, transport, armoured cars etc
* Primary industries that supplied materials and consumables to all of the above - the oil industry and the steel industry among them
* Real estate, when everywhere on the planet is five minutes from all the best locations
and last but by no means least, governments. They could pass a law, but their entire population could decamp overnight if they didn't like it. People can be citizens of wherever, pay income tax there (if there even is any), yet spend 90% of their time in New York or London (until the idea of cities themselves became obsolete) or on the beach. State and country borders would become utterly ineffective as anything more than lines on a map and perhaps areas of local council responsibility. A large chunk of what governments are built on would turn to quicksand, at least until they recalibrated to mindshare instead of physical presence.
Oh, there would still be governments, of sorts. A lot of people like having other people tell them what to do, and some people like to be the ones doing the telling.
I wonder how many governments would ban teleportation technology within their borders, as a kneejerk reaction? And what if the big-dog countries talked it up as Something Terrible, while the countries which always think they're getting the pointy end of the stick in world relations embraced it and massively boosted their productivity and capabilities? Would the big guys, whipped into an anti-teleportation frenzy by politicians, invade the little guys to "wipe out the evil"?
And really, what chance does anyone have against teleportation-equipped forces? It's a whole new war game when the enemy can fill the space around your vehicles, or in your barracks or command posts, with anything from expanding foam to twelve tons of custard to your own missiles to the Pacific Ocean. Or when they can remotely remove your items and dump them or use them against you. They could probably win just on psychological means, by regularly teleporting the command staff, sans modern accoutrements, into embarrassing locales.
See, it's that kind of global conflagration that a mild-mannered teleportation inventor could very well find themselves in the middle of.
*looks around for something to do*
I've been bored enough at work to write pages and pages on the problems inherent in the early days of teleportation - not so much inventing it, but trying to introduce it to the world. Sure, eventually everyone would use it for everything because it's the fastest way to get from A to B, but the bit before that could be a little dramatic for the inventor, especially if they have no financial backing. Imagine the backlash from the following industries:
* Car and other road vehicle manufacturers, including cargo haulers
* Roadmakers and repairers
* People who make consumables and accessories for cars
* Train makers, and the people who build and maintain trainlines and infrastructure
* Airlines
* Travel agencies (with the possible exception of local tourist guides)
* Hospitality industries (hotels, motels, travel lodges etc)
* The shipping industry and all its related industries, like port authorities and shipping-container makers
* Delivery industries - couriers, transport, armoured cars etc
* Primary industries that supplied materials and consumables to all of the above - the oil industry and the steel industry among them
* Real estate, when everywhere on the planet is five minutes from all the best locations
and last but by no means least, governments. They could pass a law, but their entire population could decamp overnight if they didn't like it. People can be citizens of wherever, pay income tax there (if there even is any), yet spend 90% of their time in New York or London (until the idea of cities themselves became obsolete) or on the beach. State and country borders would become utterly ineffective as anything more than lines on a map and perhaps areas of local council responsibility. A large chunk of what governments are built on would turn to quicksand, at least until they recalibrated to mindshare instead of physical presence.
Oh, there would still be governments, of sorts. A lot of people like having other people tell them what to do, and some people like to be the ones doing the telling.
I wonder how many governments would ban teleportation technology within their borders, as a kneejerk reaction? And what if the big-dog countries talked it up as Something Terrible, while the countries which always think they're getting the pointy end of the stick in world relations embraced it and massively boosted their productivity and capabilities? Would the big guys, whipped into an anti-teleportation frenzy by politicians, invade the little guys to "wipe out the evil"?
And really, what chance does anyone have against teleportation-equipped forces? It's a whole new war game when the enemy can fill the space around your vehicles, or in your barracks or command posts, with anything from expanding foam to twelve tons of custard to your own missiles to the Pacific Ocean. Or when they can remotely remove your items and dump them or use them against you. They could probably win just on psychological means, by regularly teleporting the command staff, sans modern accoutrements, into embarrassing locales.
See, it's that kind of global conflagration that a mild-mannered teleportation inventor could very well find themselves in the middle of.