Things that could change the world overnight

[randomrogue]

I was having a conversation with the girlfriend about what I would do if I invented teleportation. How would I stop the technology from being compromised, manipulated, militarized, or shelved? How would I get the information out there? What kind of money would I charge?

My answer doesn't matter right now. What struck me was how teleportation would instantly change the world. No need for cars, planes, trains, or anything beyond recreational and exercise vehicles. Our dependence on fossil fuels would change, the geopolitical landscape would drastically alter, and if we thought the internet made the world a smaller place we haven't seen anything yet. The idea of borders would probably cease. Is it possible? Well since 1993 we think the answer is yes.

Certain things changed the world. The wheel, irrigation, the printing press, and the combustion engine. It wasn't quite overnight though. Today though we can transmit information instantly. Part of my answer above was that I would upload the information to the internet, email every news organization on earth, and just get it out there fast. Wealth would be secondary since even if I didn't get a penny from it I'd still be rich from the Nobel Prize.

Is there anything within our lifetimes that could change the world overnight?

 

[Vaux]

Interesting subject. I have always been fascinated with time related events, like the ability to stop time or to travel back in time. I don't think it would happen in my lifetime, but theoretically time travel is possible. Well I should say that to travel forward in time is certainly possible, but traveling back in time has issues.

I'd list time travel among the things that would immediately change the world.

 

[woolfe9998]

If we're talking about something more probable than teleportation, I'd say the ability to sustain a fusion reaction in a cost-effective manner would be pretty world changing. However, accounts of its feasibility and imminence seem to vary quite a bit.

Teleportation has a very mixed potential by the way. A terrorist could teleport himself right into the White House with bomb in hand, for example. Or people could teleport themselves into your house past your locked doors to commit crimes. It could be a very scary development.

 

[randomrogue]

To be fair we should probably not use things that probably have no chance of happening in our lifetimes or at least within a couple generations.

Time travel has no science to back it up. I could come up with all kinds of things. What if we got rid of religion? What if we could grow new limbs? What if we could harness the energy from our galaxy? Not really the point though.

Another one that's interesting is that the UN says we can cure hunger with about $30B a year. There's a little bit less than a billion malnourished and starving people and the cost to help them is almost nothing but we don't do it. It's not necessarily something that would change the world for everyone but it's a pretty big deal.

We could get rid of nuclear weapons within our lifetime.

 

[randomrogue]

\
Teleportation has a very mixed potential by the way. A terrorist could teleport himself right into the White House with bomb in hand, for example. Or people could teleport themselves into your house past your locked doors to commit crimes. It could be a very scary development.

Yes. It would probably be pretty nasty until people realized there are no borders and no reason to wage war over borders. Our need for petroleum would decrease so drastically that we would not need to fight for that resource. So that leaves religion. You would have religious fundamentalists using it to wage war and eventually they would either win or they would lose. I'd bet on religion going out of favor but I'm slightly biased in favor of it going away.

 

[woolfe9998]

Yes. It would probably be pretty nasty until people realized there are no borders and no reason to wage war over borders. Our need for petroleum would decrease so drastically that we would not need to fight for that resource. So that leaves religion. You would have religious fundamentalists using it to wage war and eventually they would either win or they would lose. I'd bet on religion going out of favor but I'm slightly biased in favor of it going away.

I'd say the there would have to be a counter-veiling technology, like an energy field which would prevent teleportation into areas where it is applied. Or else the use of the teleporters would have to be controlled and confined so that it is exclusively used for legitimate transportation.

 

[irishScott]

Within our lifetimes? Given the way 3D printing is going, I expect we'll have something resembling a synthetic replicator in our lifetimes. Perhaps even an organic one, given that researchers in Scotland have managed to 3D print stem cells.

In 20-30 years organ donation will likely be a thing of the past or at least much reduced (3D print stem cells on the proper lattice and urge them to grow correctly, you get a new organ), and the average person will be able to make decent quality common items in their garages, probably out of metal, plastic, or glass. Imagine being able to 3D print your own prescription lenses.

 

[randomrogue]

I'd think you'd want something like you can't teleport within say 5 miles. That way people still walk and bike and get physical exercise. You'd have business versions and personal versions. Maybe limit them to certain times. That way you could teleport anywhere on Earth for work but not use it to go down the street to the bar or to take a dump on your ex girlfriends lawn across the country.

New things are scary. Ever been in a car/bus/plane with someone who's never done it? It's terrifying for them. I've been in 3rd world countries where full grown adults had never stepped foot on a bus and there sure was a lot of vomiting going on. To them they were going the speed of light. New things are dangerous. We've dropped 2 nuclear bombs and had a bunch of nuclear accidents.

 

[randomrogue]

Wow I had no idea we've printed stem cells. That's a great one!

 

[irishScott]

Wow I had no idea we've printed stem cells. That's a great one!

Yep, just happened last February. Here's the technical paper and the gizmodo article. Amazing potential.

http://gizmodo.com/5981800/scientists-have-3d-printed-embryonic-stem-cells
http://iopscience.iop.org/1758-5090/5/1/015013/pdf/1758-5090_5_1_015013.pdf

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Within our lifetimes? Given the way 3D printing is going, I expect we'll have something resembling a synthetic replicator in our lifetimes. Perhaps even an organic one, given that researchers in Scotland have managed to 3D print stem cells.

In 20-30 years organ donation will likely be a thing of the past or at least much reduced (3D print stem cells on the proper lattice and urge them to grow correctly, you get a new organ), and the average person will be able to make decent quality common items in their garages, probably out of metal, plastic, or glass. Imagine being able to 3D print your own prescription lenses.

They haven't printed stem cells in the sense most think of it. They started with stem cells and used 3D printing techniques to work on physical qualities, but they did not "make" them.

I should think this would have research potential but organs grow and develop. Production is possible but highly sophisticated living things being made on demand by this process? I think it would be highly unlikely.

Still it's cool. As far as replicators go? The IP lawyers will strangle it.

I think we're about 5 generations away from practical immortality. I may be glad I missed that curse.

 

[Moonbeam]

Think of the man who asked to start with a grain of wheat and double it for every square of the chess board as a reward for some service to a king and think about Moore's Law.

Some say we are headed for a Singularity.

 

[DrPizza]

What makes you think teleportation would save on fossil fuels? What if teleportation was more energy intensive than driving? That is, instead of $500 in fuel to ship a truckload of goods across the county, it cost $550 in fuel (electricity this time though). It would be cheaper, as it would eliminate the need for a driver, thus would probably be widely adopted. But, at the same time, it would greatly increase our reliance on energy; with fossil fuels continuing to provide the majority of our electrical power.

 

[PowerEngineer]

How about Willis Linsay's Stepper?

http://www.kurtnalty.com/LongEarth/Willis_Linsay_Stepper.pdf


Those interested in exploring how an overnight "game changer" would percolate through society might enjoy reading "The Long Earth" by Steven Baxter and Terry Pratchett.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Earth


I think it's fair to say that every "advance" comes with some ancillary problems and tends to destabilize the status quo. The transition to a new status quo can be a rough (and potentially dangerous) ride. Nuclear fission/fusion is an obvious example.

 

[Cpus]

A replicator able to make almost anything

 

[irishScott]

They haven't printed stem cells in the sense most think of it. They started with stem cells and used 3D printing techniques to work on physical qualities, but they did not "make" them.

I should think this would have research potential but organs grow and develop. Production is possible but highly sophisticated living things being made on demand by this process? I think it would be highly unlikely.

Still it's cool. As far as replicators go? The IP lawyers will strangle it.

I think we're about 5 generations away from practical immortality. I may be glad I missed that curse.

No they haven't made them, but the point is they've taken one big step closer to practical use. Before it was "stem cells may do something good." Now it's "stem cells can do something good given a decade or two of development.".

Unlikely? We can transplant organs from other human beings, despite differences in "development". I fail to see why one made out of perfectly compatible stem cells wouldn't be an improvement. Sure the process still has a long way to go, but the concept is quite viable.

IP lawyers can't stop internet piracy. How are they going to stop, say, wrench "piracy" when all one needs is a 3D printer and a schematic of a given wrench?

 

[randomrogue]

What makes you think teleportation would save on fossil fuels? What if teleportation was more energy intensive than driving? That is, instead of $500 in fuel to ship a truckload of good across the county, it cost $550 in fuel (electricity this time though). It would be cheaper, as it would eliminate the need for a driver, thus would probably be widely adopted. But, at the same time, it would greatly increase our reliance on energy; with fossil fuels continuing to provide the majority of our electrical power.

As a kid I remember our solar panels being unable to heat the pool. They broke all the time and were terrible. Today if you live in a sunny climate solar panels will pay for themselves in only a couple years since even with AC and Heat on you'll generate more electricity than you consume in your entire home. Add a couple more years to the ROI if you remove the $10,000 tax credit if it makes you more comfortable.

The argument of moving pollution from coal to nuclear and how there's always a cost to generate the electricity that you use for your "clean" electric car can be made but just looking at how solar power has changed in the last 10 years should make you think twice about what is possible. In California we use solar power to run our homes. In Northern Europe they use geothermal. Something as simple as a tiny delta in the temp of the earth and your home is enough to give you a lot of heat during the winter. Look at how efficient Iceland and Sweden are at utilizing it.

I think the argument that any of these new ideas will use a lot of energy is certainly valid but I also think it will be temporary and subsidized.

 

[randomrogue]

IP lawyers are a joke unless you live in the USA. So while 400 million people might have a problem getting sued over a replicator the rest of the world will be busy using it. The USA will have no choice but to cave in since they'll need it.

That's another thing that would at least change the USA overnight. Tort reform.

 

[Mixolydian]

Overnight delivery.

(UPS Next Day Air)

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Replicators remove the need/value/usability of money.

A post-scarcity society, like in startrek, will demand an entirely new system of governance.

 

[Vaux]

Time travel has no science to back it up.

Whoa, it certainly does! How much do you know about Einstein's theories of relativity? Gravitational time dilation?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Whoa, it certainly does! How much do you know about Einstein's theories of relativity? Gravitational time dilation?

Enough to know that you can't post from both pit and mini.

Clearly traveling into the future is not only possible, but necessary whenever movement occurs... which leads me to a very important question: when your hand moves relative to the rest of your body it undergoes a small amount of time dilation: so that means if you have a present-hand, it must be a past hand that emerged, right?

 

[Vaux]

Enough to know that you can't post from both pit and mini.

Haha, I am slick like that. Or, I am from Pittsburgh and recently moved to Minnesota, but that is not nearly as interesting.

Clearly traveling into the future is not only possible, but necessary whenever movement occurs... which leads me to a very important question: when your hand moves relative to the rest of your body it undergoes a small amount of time dilation: so that means if you have a present-hand, it must be a past hand that emerged, right?

 

[Murloc]

Teleportation has a very mixed potential by the way. A terrorist could teleport himself right into the White House with bomb in hand, for example. Or people could teleport themselves into your house past your locked doors to commit crimes. It could be a very scary development.

unless you need teleportation booths and they suck a lot of energy.

 

[dank69]

unless you need teleportation booths and they suck a lot of energy.

This would be necessary anyway (the booth part, not the energy part) because otherwise, teleportation would be too dangerous. Too easy for a person to teleport to a spot occupied by another person or object if you could just teleport anywhere.