top 10 things that would happen if we had transporter technology

There are a great many American that remember the iconic Star Trek series.  It has permeated our public consciousness in so many ways that we don't even realize how many developments we have that were spawned at least in some part by the crew of the Federation Starship Enterprise or some derivation of it.  James T Kirk took all of these advancements for granted while we only really get a better communicator than he ever hoped for.

So what if we had transporters?  Scientists are working night and day trying to figure out the transporter.  In the Gene Roddenberry version of it all, your whole human essence (including clothes, electronics and whatever else) are scanned into a 'pattern buffer'  This buffer is then used to transmit the instructions on how to re-create you where ever you want to be at a molecular level.  They use it all day long without a care.  It's no different than the George Foreman grill today.  Used without a care to George or the grill's inventor.

So what would happen?

10.  Goodbye Transportation Industry - At first transporter travel will only be used by the very rich that are very brave.  But once the technology is proven (over years of transporting inanimate objects and possibly some of your neighbors more annoying pets) people will be using transporters to get where they want to go.  Eventually roads will be reclaimed and reconstituted as livable space because the need to travel on them is gone.  Airplanes will be a thing of the past as well as nearly every kind of conveyance we can think of.  The only reason we will drive anything is because it's fun, not because we need it.  Maybe parking lot cops will still use segways, I'm not sure.  They are awfully fun. 




9.  Disneyworld just got a LOT more crowded but the Epcot center is losing business - Access to Disneyworld was always limited by 2 factors.  Overall price to the park, and access to travel via 'frequent flyer miles'  I'm pretty sure the airline industries are regretting doing that whole frequent points thing now.  Well transporters just took out a BIG variable in that equation.  The overall vacation will cost 1/2 as much, opening it up for MANY more people.  I would assume we could go anywhere the internet can take us now, we wouldn't use cellphone data streams, we would be afraid that someone would be holding the apple Iporter the wrong way and lose our signal.  Problem is, since we can go ANYWHERE we won't want to go to the Epcot center to buy expensive hobnobs at the England area or eat Bratwursts in Germany there, we would just go to the actual country instead.  So Disney will tear down the Epcot center and turn it into the 'History of transportation' center which will whisk visitors to yesteryear and put them in a car or bus driving around the buildings of the Epcot center so they can relive the fun of the worldwide phenomena of the Traffic Jam.

8. No more bathroom breaks at the factory - I believe that on of the first uses of transporter technology as we test it for safety etc, will be to transport away urine and feces into waste treatment so nobody in a factory will need to get up from their job for a 'potty' break.  High power executives that think of themselves as far too important will have waste transporters and nutrient importers, so they can sit in long winded meetings nearly forever.  Food would only be eaten for enjoyment not for nourishment.  nutrients would be transported immediately into your stomach for digestion.  Between the two, overall productivity will go through the roof!  If only they could transport me some sleep, I would be UNSTOPPABLE!!!

 7.  Immortality for all  - Right off the bat it would seem that if we have a place that we are saving the scanned image of us we could use that image as a backup.  Every morning right after we shower (we don't want to buffer a grubby version of ourselves do we?)  we jump into the transporter and run it just to store our image as we transport ourselves to work or wherever we are going.  Then if we happen to get ourselves killed during the course of the day, we can just re transport from our backup.  Star trek has often explored this bit of transporter trickyness but I'm certain if we actually had it.  Everyone would have backup copies of themselves to prevent and put off actual death.  But it gets better than that, Doctors would now make a backup of a patient before they ever operated on them just in case there was a 'complication' (Doctors don't have problems, patients have problems).  They screw up, no problem, we'll just re-start from the backup.  So not only will you be immortal, but all of your mortal woes would be fixed as well. 

6.  Food is free! and REALLY good - This one will piss off most of the French (but really, what doesn't) and all of those hoity toity food critic types on the food network.  If I'm able to make a copy of myself, why not make a copy of the food I've prepared before I've tasted it.  Once I taste it, if it was the best one I made, I keep it and re-use it.  If it's just so-so, I'll erase it and try again.  Once I have optimal meals saved in my HUGE pattern buffer, I just call up my favorite sandwich (Turkey on Rye version 18.23b) and there I am, satisfied with the best sandwich.  Of course people would then post their best food on the internet until we all had the BEST of every kind of meal and recipe available to us.  Talk about picky eaters!

5.  Weight watchers???  Take a hike! - Now that we have a backup of ourselves, we can eat ourselves silly.  Surely we can keep a backup of our body in it's prime state and every time we step in, it updates all parts of our image to return to the prime state of where we were.  We gain 10 lbs on a cruise (yes there will still be cruise ships, because their point is not travel, but relaxation) We hop into our transporter and it scans us and adjusts our body back to where we didn't have that weight, but keeps our brains and memories intact so we can remember the great time we had stuffing ourselves with the midnight dessert buffet.  Of course it will also give us our optimum muscle tone and vision as well. 

4. Everyone could invent anything - If we have transporters we can create prototypes of objects that have never existed and feed those instructions into the buffer.  Then the transporter makes them and we can see if they work.  Everyone that has a hair brained idea would be able to see if it is actually any good.  Of course the whole problem is, an idea is an effort to build a better mousetrap.  Who needs mousetraps?  If you have transporters that can basically reorganize matter I'm not sure how many problems you really have anymore.




2.  You can't get rid of critics - Critics will claim that food wasn't meant to be prefect and there is something not quite right about replicated transporter food that only a truly refined pallet would be able to detect.  There would still be food creation contests but their relative importance would be diminished.  These critics would permeate all corners that the technology would inhabit.  "People weren't meant to live forever", "I weep for a future that will no longer feel the pull of the open road" and the like.  Fortunately, those people will die out along with the people that prefer the sound of vinyl records played through a diamond chip needle.


3.  Who wants to live forever?  - The problem with immortality is that we would then have a really big population problem.  People would still have children, but now nobody is dying.   I'm afraid the governments of the world would start using the transporter to make sure the worlds immortals are sterile.  Otherwise the would would collapse under its own weight.  Currently the bearing of offspring is natures way of making us somewhat immortal.  Our genetic information is passed on through our progeny.  With transporters, we don't need to pass on anything to anyone.  We can take it with us.

1.  The only thing left of any importance would probably be art - Clearly, transporter technology would make us a race of superhuman immortals.  As a result, we would cease to have any importance at all.  We would no longer struggle to survive (like we do now ?) and instead we would become lazy in our perfection.  The one thing we would have left going for us would be the arts.  They would be truly unique and still spring from the hopefully still fertile minds of humans.   But would stories be interesting anymore?  Without the human struggle for survival, how would we gain a frame of reference to appreciate movies?  What art would stir the soul that has a feeling of innate permanence?  I'm not sure.  If you become immortal, do you lose your sense of appreciation?  I don't know.

I can't wait for transporter technology...I think

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Top 10 50/50 bets

There comes a point in every persons life where they have what those in the philosophy field call a null choice. This means that either way you choose, based on the information you currently have, you will have an equivalent value for an outcome. Lets take for example Saturday early morning TV. When I was a boy this was when I was excited enough about the new cartoons coming out that I woke up particularly early to make sure I didn't miss a one. Well on the occasion that I was VERY early, I would have the choice of 2 test screens (one with an Indian and the other with a standard color pattern in grayscale) or the Farm Report or Car auctions. I would watch the Farm report sometimes and Car auctions the other times. Both of them were about as interesting as the other. So I would just choose one and watch until the REAL tv began. But how to choose? when faced with a bunch of equal choices how do you commit to go with one or the other? Now in these days of remotes, you just flip back and forth so you don't really see either one. But back in the day, that clunky channel changer (went up to 21 but you didn't need near that many) was liable to break a young boys fingers from overuse not to mention wake everyone else in the house.

I present to you the top 10 ways to pick a 50/50 choice.

1. Flip a coin - This of course assumes that you have a coin to flip. This method has likely been around as long as there have been coins which is a VERY long time. At least back to ancient Rome if not to the Phoenicians. Every coin of course has what is termed as a heads side and a tails side. The head of course would be some revered public figure. The interesting thing about that is back then they would certainly be alive, but now most certainly would not be. The coin flip is so universal that it has been the subject of Twilight zone episodes (where the coin actually landed on edge) to comic books (remember Two Face? he wasn't just in the movies). Not a very interesting method, but infinitely recognizable.






2. Nearly any opening casino bet. - I consumed an early blog with the subject of my favorite casino bets, but this is more based on favorite bets of the casino. Remember, when you win, the casino wins. As a result, the games that have 1 to 1 payoffs (double your money) are the ones that the casino likes because many people are willing to play them. This includes a hand of blackjack, a passline bet on craps as well as the field or big 6/8, red or black (or any other number of roulette bets), or my latest favorite Paigow poker. Each of these bets will double your wager with a win. They are considered 50/50 (of course they really aren't, but that's my other blog). If you are new to gambling, or more specifically new to table games one of these bets will likely be your introduction. Slot machines ARE NOT in any way 50/50 bets.

3. Jan-Ken-Po! - That's what they call it in Japan. it's common name in the US is Rock-Paper-Scissors or more recently Rochambeau. It involves pounding your fist on your open palm 3 times and then showing the sign of Rock, which beats Scissors. Paper, which beats Rock, I'm not sure how exactly, or Scissors which, more obviously beats paper. This was the first REAL method of determining who get to ride shotgun or who gets the last licorice whip in the box. This method is so popular that it has become the design methodology behind MANY games that people enjoy on the computer. More elaborate yes, but definitely derived from this humble beginning. Once you embark on judgment determined by the Gods of Jan-Ken-Po, you were immutably bound by it's decision. No crying, No complaining. Fate, and your hands, have spoken.

4. Shooting odds or evens - Popular as math became more of a factor you would shoot or stick out one finger or two after both parties shouting 'one two three SHOOT' the sum of the fingers would then be summed up, and if your total count is odd then the person that picked odd wins and so on. This method like Rock paper scissors starts to affect your psyche in that you start to believe that you either can be read or can read your opponent. This of course is nonsense because how can you read an odd or even amount of fingers based on disposition? I suppose there are trends based on mood or something, but I think the elements involved would be so subtle that it would be impossible to quantify. Very popular because of it's quick nature, it is usually done in a best 2 of 3 contests to make sure everyone has a chance. Sometimes known to decide who can get that sweet apartment.




5. Eeny Meeny - This is the first method of choice when you are making a choice that DOES mean something to you. The eeny meeny method goes as follows. You say the eeny meeny rhyme and as you point in turn each of your possible choices (there could be many) to the beat of the poem until at the end of the poem you rest on your choice. There is a problem with this method in that there are several versions of the poem and the propensity to ad-lib phrases in the poem in order to fix the choice being made makes it an easy one to give up in the face of any of the other options. The poems goes roughly like this:

Eeeny meeny miney moe. Catch a Tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go. Enny meeny miney moe.

In some variants you would then end with a change in cadence and phrase My mother told me to pick the best one and you are IT. There are many interchangeable phrases that were used in the place of certain lines, one of them banned in the late 70's on school grounds but continued still in the underground, the deep south and northern Idaho. Also the last line could include any number of VERY's in front of 'best' which prompted the Nevada gaming commission to ban the eeny meeny method from being used in any official wager.

6. Pick a hand, any hand - Maybe the first 50/50 game it involved your mom and a treat. she would put the small treat in one hand then put both hands behind her back and come out with two closed fists and ask you to pick one. if you picked correctly...TREAT! if not. Crushing defeat. Most kids were happy enough at this age to simply be given the choice. the treat was just a nice surprise. Later this would become a method for kids to flim flam each other as treats were put in back pockets or simply dropped offering the friend picking a choice of nothing or better yet, nothing. In underworld variants of pick a hand, both hands are kept behind the back of the person thus allowing for a quick switch after the choice has been made. Take it from me, if you see someone offering you a pick a hand in this fashion, take your money and leave the casino!

7. High card cut. - Normal every day life finds the cutting of high card used usually to begin a friendly poker game. High card starts the deal. A variant of this method is still used in casinos today. When your chip denominations are colored up in a poker tournament, the left over chips are then given to the high card dealt at the table. This was the favorite 50/50 method of film noir the cutting of a deck of cards to reveal a high card was usually used to determine who had to perform a difficult or undesirable task. The best part of this is in the movies the cutting of cards would nearly always involve the Ace of Spades. The dramatic value of that particular ace could not be overstated.




8. Stop watch odd even - This one is personal. When I got a digital watch that had 100ths of seconds. I would turn on the stopwatch and stop it after a moment and see if the last number was odd or even. it worked fairly well and gave me a great opportunity to show off my cool watch.











9. Thinking of a number - This way required one impartial arbiter of the contest. Usually a parent of at least 2 siblings. I am thinking of a number between 1 and X where X is an improbable number and never the number chosen by the initiator. The inherent problem with this method is that people tend to gravitate to certain numbers. Number in the high 30's and in the mid 70's are most popular in the 1-100 and once you gain this little tidbit, you only need to know the individual's preference in high or low. With so many more fun methods of impartial choosing of equal choices I'd rather give each child a club and let the field of honor decide.

10 Spin the Racquet - Once again a personal choice. Whenever you start a tennis match, you have to decide who Serves first. This is actually a pretty big benefit because if you start with your serve that means that if the match is close, you will always be serving to add pressure to your opponent and your opponent will always be serving for the match if they lose. This is always started with the spin of a racquet and the other player calling up or down. the racquet is stopped and the logo on the butt of the handle will show the outcome. I have seen this protocol broken by someone asking odd or even on the number that is printed on the balls. novel indeed, but tradition is tradition. I've never participated in a tournament large enough to know if there is a difference at the pro level, but I doubt it.






I nearly forgot this episode, nearly.

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The conundrum of freedom and a free society and Quantum Physics

I've had an HD tv for over a year now, I have recently found out that just because you have HD tv doesn't mean you are getting HD signals. I was so happy with the TV in general that I was unaware that I could have more. Two weeks ago I got a 10 dollar antenna that would give me HD channels that I was previously not getting. I plugged it in and was amazed at the picture I was then receiving. I noticed that people that are on TV in HD can not hide behind their makeup anymore, but aside from that, it is an amazing picture that I now enjoy.

So on my new channels, there was channel 7-2 that had an interesting documentary about how America as a first truly free society has inadvertantly created the saddest people.

This brings me to my thought. If it weren't for the realization that I could have a better TV picture with the purchase of an antenna, I would not have the better picture that I then used to watch the program to tell me that I'm probably sadder as a result of my wanting to get a better picture. Woah...

This brings me to my next thought. This kind of thinking, the kind where you blame a prior event for a following event. Such as: assume i get a call on the way to a destination from someone that asks me to change my planned route in order to do them a favor. At that point, if anything happens during that trip that is bad, I can then blame the person that changed my course for any and all dammage I sustained from my bad experiences. Some people take this a long way, and then of course to the absurd. If you're parents never met, you woudln't have been able to loan me the money I needed for my wildly successful business, so instead of giving you a gift, I'll give your mom and dad a gift. Then there is the other side of it. If nothing happens during your altered course, did you avoid a tragedy that would have befallen you? This happens in stories often. Had my mother not made me stop and get her her medication, I would not have missed my flight, and I would have been dead when It crashed. Wild.

This brings me to my final thought. If you're unaware of the theories of quantum physics, I'll tell you one of the theories. It concerns the state of sub atomic particles. Lets say that these particles are like little light switches. They can be ON or OFF. According to this theory, the light switch doesn't decide wether or not it's ON or OFF until it's observed being one or the other. This example is brought forth in the Schrödinger's cat example. According to this example, This cat is in a box unseen by people and the box has a sub atomic particle attached to a canister of poison gas in the box that will kill the cat. As long as the particle is not observed, the cat is neither alive or dead but dependent on the state of the particle. Once someone looks in the box, The particle then decides what to be and either sets off the gas, or doesn't. It's this theory that some people think means there are many different realities and every possible outcome of the choices in your life continually alter the reality you are in. Pretty heavy I know, but that means that in my prior thought, I missed my flight, but in a different reality I blew up on a plane. Which means, that you really can't blame prior events for current consequences because both outcomes occurred.


I was happy with my TV before I knew the HD channels were there, but now I am even happier that I have them. Should I now get more HD programming via Cable or Satellite? Hmmm...