What would you do with a transporter?

[at Quark's]

I'd beam into the houses of people I didn't like, steal their car keys, then beam to the other side of the world and dump the keys in a drain.

Just to annoy them.

Given how often it happens I can't find some of my stuff which I'm absolutely certain should be there, this might already be happening to me

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Given how often it happens I can't find some of my stuff which I'm absolutely certain should be there, this might already be happening to me

I think someone is already taking all my pen lids, remote control battery covers and various halves of sock pairs from me.

I'll catch 'em one day. Then I'll beam their brains into space.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I'd beam into the houses of people I didn't like, steal their car keys, then beam to the other side of the world and dump the keys in a drain.

Just to annoy them.

Hmm...or you could beam every spring out of their cars. NO SPRINGS!

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Hmm...or you could beam every spring out of their cars. NO SPRINGS!

Endless applications.

Beam the wheels into space.

Beam the car into space.

Thing is though, they'd notice that immediately. If it's keys, they'd spend hours looking for them. Rechecking jacket pockets again and again. Opening and reopening drawers and cupboards. Hours of irritation.

It has to be the keys.

Other good ideas:

Beam sharks into swimming pools.

Beam gorillas into crowded nightclubs.

Beam people's eyes out of their heads and then beam the eyes back in but backwards.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Desalinate seawater. No more droughts!

 

[Jedi Marso]

Desalinate seawater. No more droughts!

We have the ability to do that now, without transporters, if only we were willing to tackle 'big' projects again like the Golden Gate bridge and Hoover Dam.

Gimme three dedicated nuclear plants on the west coast, chain three desal plants to each power plant, and run huge pipelines inland to Lake Mead, the Colorado River, and AZ/NM. It would be jobs up the wazoo, new infrastructure, and fresh water in places that desperately need it. You could create large swaths of green living space and new farmland. It could also be a new source of national pride and purpose.

But we don't dream big dreams as a nation anymore.

 

[matthunter]

I'd use it to steal money. So much money. Beam into the bank vault. Fill a duffel bag with cash. Beam out. Rinse and repeat when I run out.

Are you familiar with the TV Trope "Cut Lex Luthor A Check"?

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Are you familiar with the TV Trope "Cut Lex Luthor A Check"?

I am now!

 

[Takeru]

I'd use it to become a tyrant and rule the world.

 

[Oddish]

As am I, and one of my favorite examples of it is in the Pokémon anime. Meowth has a nearly unique gift: as a Pokémon, he can understand any other Pokémon, and translate what it says into human language. In other words, he gives trainers the ability to talk to their Pokémon with zero translation errors. With that ability, he could make himself (and Jessie and James) richer than Giovanni. However, it never occurs to them or anyone else to do this. But I digress.

Even if it was only partially effective, i.e. couldn't rematerialize living things still alive, transporters could solve a lot of problems. Nuclear waste? Just beam it into oblivion. Crazed dictator murdering his people? Same thing. Found oil/gold/whatever but don't want to destroy the environment? Beam it on out.

 

[1001001]

I'd use it to become a tyrant and rule the world.

That goes without saying…

 

[Timewalker]

So, suppose you have this incredibly clear dream one night, telling you how to build a transporter, and it turns out you can do so with off the shelf components that are within your financial reach. After a few weeks (or months) of constructing the thing, and doing some (more or less rigorous) testing, it seems you've actually built a working and safe transporter, as far as you can tell.

Now, what do you do with it? Are you going public with it, patent it and become filthily rich? Would you only tell and share it with a few friends? Or do you keep it your own well-kept secret to do with it whatever it is you want to do? (In that case, what would you use it for?) Or do you think no good could come of such an invention and quietly abandon the thing?

(I myself am still undecided what I would do, but it was fun to fantasize about it for a while).

(Edit: replaced 'build' with 'built' in 1st paragraph)

I just thought of a long list of ways this could be misused - in addition to the many gruesome ways listed in this thread for killing people, mutilating their bodies, ruining the Moon, and so on.

Therefore I'd keep it to myself, while using it to make money in smaller, unobtrusive ways, while finding a way to explain how my moving company is superior to all others because stuff gets there on time, with nothing missing or stolen or damaged.

(I don't have a moving company in RL, but based on the horror stories I've read about and my own experiences, a transporter would be a wonderful way to make this a less-stressful experience)

When politicians I dislike are on stage and in the middle of their assorted debates and speeches, I de-materialize their clothes and replace it with a bright colored polka-dot clown suit, complete with crazy wig.

Of course, the inevitable question is "why the clown suit?" and the answer is... do any of us really want to see those guys naked?

Actually, the political party currently running my province of Alberta is the United Conservative Party (UCP). There are quite a few people who refer to them as the "United Clown Posse".

Depends on the tech.. if its one that destroys the object its transporting.. then just material, or your enemys..
but, it honestly depends on range etc. Can I transport to the moon? Mars? Next system over? or to just the corner store? Then if I release it, all the tourist spots will become JAMMED with people.. then there's the people and governments that would just "Disapear" people. Yeah, keep it to myself. In my will give it to people.. after I'm done with it.

Or you could put yourself in a pattern buffer, with orders to rematerialize you when whatever killed you is no longer a problem and you can be rematerialized, cured, and go on with your life.

I'd use it to steal money. So much money. Beam into the bank vault. Fill a duffel bag with cash. Beam out. Rinse and repeat when I run out.

Why not beam the money/baubles out instead of yourself in? That way you can't be accidentally locked in if something goes wrong.

Wouldn't you rather steal (transport) the stuff money can buy?

Depends on what it is. I recall reading in some TOS story - don't recall which one, whether novel, short story, or fanfic - that it was actually illegal to transport unique works of art via transporter (ie. the Mona Lisa, Statue of David, etc.), because once the pattern is in the buffer, endless copies can be created, and they'd all be no different from the original - and thus they would become worthless.

Cut my four hour round trip work commutes to 47 seconds? Yeah. That for starters. Then be a world hopping tourist without paying for a hotel. Sums it up for me.

Until you get caught without documentation to show how you got there.

^I could understand how prices of some commodities would plummet (assuming the cost of operating the transporter is significantly lower than transporting them the old fashioned way).

I don't know about those wars though. If groups of people (or governments) started stealing valuable resources from another country by using the transporter (e.g. precious metals), then yes. But then again, a transporter would in principle be reconfigurable into a replicator, which would eliminate any reasons for theft. Still some nations may feel a grudge (in case they were the sole suppliers of a rare resource, and find that resource worthless now since anyone can replicate it).

People will start wars for any reason. Think of the millions of people around the world who drive for a living, from taxis to buses to ambulances to truckers, pilots, ships' captains and crew, and so on, plus the people who design, manufacture, and repair them. Take their livelihoods away and you'd have even more millions of people worldwide who are out of work. They'd need to either find other jobs or be retrained. They can't all be retrained to work in some area of transporter technology.

But transporter use is instantaneous for any distance.
Sure, use the transporter to travel to another continent.
But would you use the transporter to get down the street? A couple miles away? A neighbor a couple blocks away?
What about across the state? To a nearby city? Across town?
It's all the same travel time, so what would be too ridiculous for transporter use?

Disabled people would finally be able to go places that are inaccessible to mobility-challenged people. A few days ago there was a garage sale I couldn't get to for not being able to get up and over the friggin' curb. And that was just across the parking lot.

We had a fire alarm recently. I live on the 4th floor. I use a wheeled walker that I'm not strong enough to carry. The elevator is something we are not supposed to use. Thankfully a firefighter did let me use the elevator, and I'd already stuffed the cat in her carrier so both of us got downstairs.

A transporter able to transport the elderly and disabled in case of emergencies and situations where they need the elevator but can't use it would be really helpful.

I'd want to scale it up.

The ultimate recycler......beam all nukes to the Moon---beam all fissile and other ores and valuable goods to repositories.

use with scanner to beam all fossils out and replace with inert rock, etc.

Who wants to look at a radioactive dump when they look at the Moon? Beam the stuff into the Sun, after extracting all useful materials.

As for fossils... uh-uh. Ditto artifacts. They become scientifically worthless if not documented in situ before being removed.

Fossil fuels?! Most Mainers would freeze in the winter without them!

Beam the nuclear waste to the Moon and set it off! Then we can play Space: 1999 for real!

Solar panels for heating.

The Moon is actually critical for life on Earth, due to the tides. This would be a very different planet without those tides.

I suppose it could revolutionize firefighting. Just beam the flames away! Or the oxygen. Or beam water over the blaze.

Flames are gases, and there's a lot of ash involved as well. We actually experienced a day where it was raining ashes here due to the wildfires, and my city isn't anywhere near the active fires.

Beaming away the oxygen would starve the fires, but it would also kill all oxygen-breathing life forms. Beaming water would work, but you'd need a lot of it.

I think someone is already taking all my pen lids, remote control battery covers and various halves of sock pairs from me.

I'll catch 'em one day. Then I'll beam their brains into space.

That sounds gruesome.

As for your socks, do you have a cat? I used to have a cat whose kittens were taken from her sooner than she was ready to let them go. She finally started stealing socks, though not in pairs. I was left with one of each color, and never did find the ones she took and hid (they were her substitute kittens and she was NOT going to let THEM be taken). Fortunately I don't care if my socks match or not. Eventually I bought large packs of all-white socks so it didn't matter if she stole one now and then.

Desalinate seawater. No more droughts!

As long as you leave enough salt water in the oceans for the lifeforms that need it, otherwise you'd have a lot of dead sea life, some of which are really important in the human food chain.

 

[at Quark's]

They can't all be retrained to work in some area of transporter technology.

I would tend to agree.

Then again, when computers started to make serious inroads into company life, similar things were said about classical office jobs. ('One computer can replace the work of 100 men and we'd need only 5 to program them! What will those other 95 people do?'). Turns out, we still need the people, just in very different ways that weren't predictable before the advent of the technology.

So, I'm not excluding the possibility that such an invention would have a transformative effect we can't jet foresee, creating entirely new dynamics in economy and corresponding job positions.

 

[Timewalker]

I would tend to agree.

Then again, when computers started to make serious inroads into company life, similar things were said about classical office jobs. ('One computer can replace the work of 100 men and we'd need only 5 to program them! What will those other 95 people do?'). Turns out, we still need the people, just in very different ways that weren't predictable before the advent of the technology.

So, I'm not excluding the possibility that such an invention would have a transformative effect we can't jet foresee, creating entirely new dynamics in economy and corresponding job positions.

I'm just thinking of how it's happening here in RL, with my province so dependent on the oil & gas industry, and the federal government on a crusade to replace fossil fuels. Even a thing like the ban on plastic straws and cutlery is having a noticeable effect for disabled people who need straws to drink and the "biodegradable" ones that either turn to mush as you're drinking or leave a foul aftertaste (the biodegradable forks sent with my pasta has an offensive aftertaste and I just tossed them in the garbage, whereas I'd have kept, washed, and reused a plastic fork).

This prohibition has resulted in restaurant owners scrambling for things that aren't prohibited, it's driving up costs for them and for the customers, and people who had already invented less-problematic biodegradable items aren't getting them approved.

So if chaos is already ensuing in one country over a law about straws, cutlery, food containers, and plastic bags (another thing I use and reuse many times), think of the utter CHAOS that would result worldwide if an invention like the transporter were suddenly available BEFORE TPTB had a plan in place for retraining people who would be out of a job, a plan as to whether or not traditional modes of transportation (ie. cars, trucks, planes) would still be allowed, and what they'd do about the people who refused for religious or psychological reasons to use the transporter.

Not to mention issues like liability if someone were hurt or killed, either by being beamed into nothingness or killed in a gruesome way like in ST: TMP.


Not trying to be depressing or negative about this, just realistic. I'd personally love it if I had access to a safe, affordable transporter. There are so many places I could go that I can't now. As a non-driver in a region of Canada that has no bus service like the Greyhound, not that the Greyhound was disabled-friendly, and we haven't had train service in decades, I'm stuck. I was lucky to get a volunteer driver from the seniors' centre to take me to a neighboring town for eye surgery 4 years ago. But the last time I left this city for a non-medical reason was 19 years ago.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I just thought of a long list of ways this could be misused - in addition to the many gruesome ways listed in this thread for killing people, mutilating their bodies, ruining the Moon, and so on.

Therefore I'd keep it to myself, while using it to make money in smaller, unobtrusive ways, while finding a way to explain how my moving company is superior to all others because stuff gets there on time, with nothing missing or stolen or damaged.

(I don't have a moving company in RL, but based on the horror stories I've read about and my own experiences, a transporter would be a wonderful way to make this a less-stressful experience)


Actually, the political party currently running my province of Alberta is the United Conservative Party (UCP). There are quite a few people who refer to them as the "United Clown Posse".


Or you could put yourself in a pattern buffer, with orders to rematerialize you when whatever killed you is no longer a problem and you can be rematerialized, cured, and go on with your life.


Why not beam the money/baubles out instead of yourself in? That way you can't be accidentally locked in if something goes wrong.


Depends on what it is. I recall reading in some TOS story - don't recall which one, whether novel, short story, or fanfic - that it was actually illegal to transport unique works of art via transporter (ie. the Mona Lisa, Statue of David, etc.), because once the pattern is in the buffer, endless copies can be created, and they'd all be no different from the original - and thus they would become worthless.


Until you get caught without documentation to show how you got there.


People will start wars for any reason. Think of the millions of people around the world who drive for a living, from taxis to buses to ambulances to truckers, pilots, ships' captains and crew, and so on, plus the people who design, manufacture, and repair them. Take their livelihoods away and you'd have even more millions of people worldwide who are out of work. They'd need to either find other jobs or be retrained. They can't all be retrained to work in some area of transporter technology.


Disabled people would finally be able to go places that are inaccessible to mobility-challenged people. A few days ago there was a garage sale I couldn't get to for not being able to get up and over the friggin' curb. And that was just across the parking lot.

We had a fire alarm recently. I live on the 4th floor. I use a wheeled walker that I'm not strong enough to carry. The elevator is something we are not supposed to use. Thankfully a firefighter did let me use the elevator, and I'd already stuffed the cat in her carrier so both of us got downstairs.

A transporter able to transport the elderly and disabled in case of emergencies and situations where they need the elevator but can't use it would be really helpful.


Who wants to look at a radioactive dump when they look at the Moon? Beam the stuff into the Sun, after extracting all useful materials.

As for fossils... uh-uh. Ditto artifacts. They become scientifically worthless if not documented in situ before being removed.


Solar panels for heating.

The Moon is actually critical for life on Earth, due to the tides. This would be a very different planet without those tides.


Flames are gases, and there's a lot of ash involved as well. We actually experienced a day where it was raining ashes here due to the wildfires, and my city isn't anywhere near the active fires.

Beaming away the oxygen would starve the fires, but it would also kill all oxygen-breathing life forms. Beaming water would work, but you'd need a lot of it.


That sounds gruesome.

As for your socks, do you have a cat? I used to have a cat whose kittens were taken from her sooner than she was ready to let them go. She finally started stealing socks, though not in pairs. I was left with one of each color, and never did find the ones she took and hid (they were her substitute kittens and she was NOT going to let THEM be taken). Fortunately I don't care if my socks match or not. Eventually I bought large packs of all-white socks so it didn't matter if she stole one now and then.


As long as you leave enough salt water in the oceans for the lifeforms that need it, otherwise you'd have a lot of dead sea life, some of which are really important in the human food chain.

What a highly reasoned post!

I'd definitely use the device for environmental cleanup and pollution mitigation. And travel to beauty spots around the world.

 

[matthunter]

Think of the millions of people around the world who drive for a living, from taxis to buses to ambulances to truckers, pilots, ships' captains and crew, and so on, plus the people who design, manufacture, and repair them. Take their livelihoods away and you'd have even more millions of people worldwide who are out of work. They'd need to either find other jobs or be retrained. They can't all be retrained to work in some area of transporter technology.

True, but transporter tech does also remove the issue of "can't afford to relocate to seek a new job".

Freight might still be needed - transporter tech in the Federation has payload limits (two blue whales and accompanying water seemed to be pushing it).

 

[Ovation]

Until you get caught without documentation to show how you got there.

Meh. I’d risk a few hours at a time. No one’s ever asked me for paperwork about how I got there once out of the airport in the two dozen countries I’ve visited. Half of them didn’t even stamp my passport.

 

[Oddish]

People will start wars for any reason. Think of the millions of people around the world who drive for a living, from taxis to buses to ambulances to truckers, pilots, ships' captains and crew, and so on, plus the people who design, manufacture, and repair them. Take their livelihoods away and you'd have even more millions of people worldwide who are out of work. They'd need to either find other jobs or be retrained. They can't all be retrained to work in some area of transporter technology.

Like I said in another topic... where the wheels of progress roll, someone always gets ground up underneath them.

Freight might still be needed - transporter tech in the Federation has payload limits (two blue whales and accompanying water seemed to be pushing it).

The whales in ST IV were humpback whales. They're only about two-thirds as long as blue whales, and weigh about half as much.

 

[matthunter]

The whales in ST IV were humpback whales. They're only about two-thirds as long as blue whales, and weigh about half as much.

True, but if you were taken to a future where your species was extinct except for you and your unborn kid, you'd be blue.

 

[Oddish]

True, but if you were taken to a future where your species was extinct except for you and your unborn kid, you'd be blue.

Good one.

According to the novelization, Starfleet had tissue samples of humpbacks, enough to generate additional specimens. With the probe called off, they would have time to repopulate the species, with George and Gracie teaching the language and carrying on the culture.