Teleportation will kill the economy.

[aphex]

I was REALLY bored today and got to thinkin.

If we were able to teleport anything anywhere it would destroy parts of the economy.

You wouldnt need a car anymore, you wouldnt need a mover, you wouldnt need delivery men, no more B&M stores, no more lots of stuff....

We need to think about this before we do it people....

 

[Harvey]

Yeah, but the Hot Deals kiddies would get their rebates sooner.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Yeah, but the Hot Deals kiddies would get their rebates sooner.

Touche.

 

[BD2003]

Yeah, but youd need lots of people to make and maintain transporters...

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Yeah, but youd need lots of people to make and maintain transporters...

You think a former delivery man could handle such a technical job?

 

[Rivergater]

it would make stuff a lot cheaper though and it would benefit the economy overall.
a good analogy would be when cars and trucks were becoming commercialized in the early 20th century, horse drawn wagon businesses were displaced...

 

[Maverick]

I think we'd need nanotechnology too. That would be the end of our current economy. Once manufacturing and distribution are both gone...our present economy will change.
Maybe then our society wouldn't be so focused on the acquisition of wealth. It'd be like Star Trek.

 

[Ultima]

What about when both teleportation and matter replicators (working with nanotechnology or whatever else) are commonplace? You don't need a car to go to work anymore so why not get one for fun on the weekends? Nanites can keep the roads in permanently good condition for zero cost. What do you want to drive today? A ferrari? No problem. Just make one with the replicator and off you go.

These technologies will have massive implications for society (imagine how they could be abused) but I think they are many decades away, at the very least.

 

[FoBoT]

yeah, all those transportation people would be unemployed, just like the wagon makers, horse shoe dudes, donkey farmers, plow horse trainers, and all the other people that never moved on after their technology became obsolete

 

[dirtboy]

I'm sure there would be a fee to replicate name brand items. After all, engineers aren't going to design things for you to replicate for free.

 

[Ultima]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
I'm sure there would be a fee to replicate name brand items. After all, engineers aren't going to design things for you to replicate for free.

well I guess eventually the concept of money is going to become outdated, isn't it? What's the point when anyone can replicate their own BMW, 50" TV, wood for house, hell anything as long as they have source matter? It would put much of society on an equal level. I guess almost everyone would be middleclass. Not everyone though. Like you said somebody does have to think up these designs and somebody has to design the matter replicators themselves. Maybe that's where AI replaces who's left? AI doesn't care about money or payment.

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
I'm sure there would be a fee to replicate name brand items. After all, engineers aren't going to design things for you to replicate for free.

Someone would "hack" whatever system is in place to prevent illegal replication.

 

[Peetoeng]

Originally posted by: aphexII

Originally posted by: BD2003
Yeah, but youd need lots of people to make and maintain transporters...

You think a former delivery man could handle such a technical job?

Remember from Spaceball, when mel brooks found his arse in front of him because of teleport technician error? :Q