Things that could change the world overnight

[Bacstar]

It's hard to imagine teleportation tech that wouldn't require a booth at the other end. (then again, I guess we're talking magical tech to begin with). One thing that has always bothered me about it though is that if you're reassembled at the other end, is it still you? I mean it could be a perfect copy of you, but would your personal consciousness have been destroyed?

In some ways it would be irrelevant to the rest of society as the reconstructed person would have all the memories, etc, etc of the teleported person. It would clearly be a big deal to the consciousness that just got vaporized though.

There was a movie that had this problem. I can't remember the name, but it had a magician who could "teleport" but each time he did it, it left behind a copy... and the copy was usually "disposed of".

 

[colonelciller]

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?

stem cells are ALREADY saving people's lives... practical use is already being realized every day. there will be more coming down the road

 

[Dr. Zaus]

There was a movie that had this problem. I can't remember the name, but it had a magician who could "teleport" but each time he did it, it left behind a copy... and the copy was usually "disposed of".

Spoiler

That's the twist at the end of the movie written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

featuring Batman, Alfred, Wolverine,

 

[disappoint]

We've teleported entire atoms a few years ago.

Now if only you could pull apart all the atoms in your body, scan in their attributes and put them together again, you've got teleportation ala Star Trek.

You're gonna need a hell of a 3D printer for that! Not to mention unwavering faith that pulling you apart atom by atom doesn't mean death because you can just print a copy of you out. Who needs quantum teleportation in that case? Just print out your data anytime you want and make copies of yourself. You could even 3d photoshop yourself any attributes you'd want. You could give yourself a bigger wang or make yourself look like my little pony who even defecates rainbows.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

We've teleported entire atoms a few years ago.

Now if only you could pull apart all the atoms in your body, scan in their attributes and put them together again, you've got teleportation ala Star Trek.

You're gonna need a hell of a 3D printer for that! Not to mention unwavering faith that pulling you apart atom by atom doesn't mean death because you can just print a copy of you out. Who needs quantum teleportation in that case? Just print out your data anytime you want and make copies of yourself. You could even 3d photoshop yourself any attributes you'd want. You could give yourself a bigger wang or make yourself look like my little pony who even defecates rainbows.

At that point no natural-born people will be left. Only superior 'choped folks.

 

[disappoint]

At that point no natural-born people will be left. Only superior 'choped folks.

What will the internet look like without pointy elbow posts?

 

[waggy]

Spoiler

That's the twist at the end of the movie written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

featuring Batman, Alfred, Wolverine,

lol

though it was a good movie.

 

[Onceler]

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.

If I could travel through time I would arm General Lee's army with modern firearms and watch them slaughter the North.

 

[Onceler]

There was a movie that had this problem. I can't remember the name, but it had a magician who could "teleport" but each time he did it, it left behind a copy... and the copy was usually "disposed of".

The Prestige

 

[fskimospy]

If I could travel through time I would arm General Lee's army with modern firearms and watch them slaughter the North.

I too would want to use my newfound fantastic powers to preserve slavery.

 

[shira]

I think a real game-changer would be a technology to cost-effectively create a totally life-like robot, built (and updateable) to the exact specifications (personality characteristics, intelligence, appearance, sex drive, etc.) of the purchaser.

Just imagine being able to create your perfect mate. Society could also create highly-intelligent, well-informed, altruistic politicians who performed their jobs according to the needs of society, not according to the needs of deep-pocketed donors.

Of course, such robots would pretty much make humans obsolete. Why hire a human when a company can have a slave-robot built who has exactly the characteristics the company needs and works for nothing? And if the robots can be created that superior to humans, why should the robots put up with humans in the first place?

 

[Paul98]

We've teleported entire atoms a few years ago.

Now if only you could pull apart all the atoms in your body, scan in their attributes and put them together again, you've got teleportation ala Star Trek.

You're gonna need a hell of a 3D printer for that! Not to mention unwavering faith that pulling you apart atom by atom doesn't mean death because you can just print a copy of you out. Who needs quantum teleportation in that case? Just print out your data anytime you want and make copies of yourself. You could even 3d photoshop yourself any attributes you'd want. You could give yourself a bigger wang or make yourself look like my little pony who even defecates rainbows.

Teleported quantum states, not entire atoms. Even with this we can't send information doing it.

 

[disappoint]

Teleported quantum states, not entire atoms. Even with this we can't send information doing it.

Orly?

http://www.livescience.com/7647-teleportation-milestone-achieved.html

Article:
Teleportation Milestone Achieved

LiveScience Staff
Date: 23 January 2009 Time: 06:35 AM ET

Scientists have come a bit closer to achieving the "Star Trek" feat of teleportation. No one is galaxy-hopping, or even beaming people around, but for the first time, information has been teleported between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter — about a yard.
This is a significant milestone in a field known as quantum information processing, said Christopher Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who led the effort.

Teleportation is one of nature's most mysterious forms of transport: Quantum information, such as the spin of a particle or the polarization of a photon, is transferred from one place to another, without traveling through any physical medium. It has previously been achieved between photons (a unit, or quantum, of electromagnetic radiation, such as light) over very large distances, between photons and ensembles of atoms, and between two nearby atoms through the intermediary action of a third.

None of those, however, provides a feasible means of holding and managing quantum information over long distances.

Now the JQI team, along with colleagues at the University of Michigan, has succeeded in teleporting a quantum state directly from one atom to another over a meter. That capability is necessary for workable quantum information systems because they will require memory storage at both the sending and receiving ends of the transmission.
In the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science, the scientists report that, by using their protocol, atom-to-atom teleported information can be recovered with perfect accuracy about 90 percent of the time — and that figure can be improved....

 

[randomrogue]

If I could travel through time I would arm General Lee's army with modern firearms and watch them slaughter the North.

Yeah when I mentioned changing the world I meant in a positive way. Not going back in time and giving Hitler nuclear weapons or training the Khmer Rouge to kill people better.

 

[Paul98]

Orly?

http://www.livescience.com/7647-teleportation-milestone-achieved.html

You can not send information from A to B, without getting information at A and sending it to B.

Lets say I am at A and you are at B, we both have our atoms setup. I can not just teleport the information from A to B. You will not get any information at B until I send a photon or communicate in a normal way with you about the results I got at A.

Now there are interesting uses for this, but we aren't going to be teleporting information back and fourth without "talking" to each other.

 

[Juddog]

I think a real game-changer would be a technology to cost-effectively create a totally life-like robot, built (and updateable) to the exact specifications (personality characteristics, intelligence, appearance, sex drive, etc.) of the purchaser.

Just imagine being able to create your perfect mate. Society could also create highly-intelligent, well-informed, altruistic politicians who performed their jobs according to the needs of society, not according to the needs of deep-pocketed donors.

Of course, such robots would pretty much make humans obsolete. Why hire a human when a company can have a slave-robot built who has exactly the characteristics the company needs and works for nothing? And if the robots can be created that superior to humans, why should the robots put up with humans in the first place?

Reminds me of the movie "Hardware", where humans were working in factories to produce killer robots.

 

[Happy_Helper]

I'd say advancing medical technology to the point that people don't die would change the world.