Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for April 25, 2013
Transcript:
Bob: A transporter beam app? Oh, that would be great! Joe: Yeah, but not for the airlines. The unintended consequence would wipe out the travel industry and tank the economy. Bob: Hmm... I suppose... but there's still be an upside to that. Joe: How so? Bob: It'd also wipe out the TSA and their shoe fetish. Joe: Good point. Bring on the transporter beam!
trspence over 11 years ago
I’m in!
firedome over 11 years ago
brilliant, bob!
Salinasong over 11 years ago
simpsonfan2: And you were going to LA!
Varnes over 11 years ago
When the conversation is at the “transporter beam” stage, you’ve had more than a couple drinks…They’re about two drinks away from “I love ya, man….”………..
Brass Orchid Premium Member over 11 years ago
The economy is still reeling from the trauma dealt by the paddle-wheeler. It can’t survive another hit like that!
Randy B Premium Member over 11 years ago
Have Jeffrey give Lars a call and short-circuit the whole “inventing” step.
pcolli over 11 years ago
I still think the “beam” would be the wrong way to go. I prefer the idea of an inter-locational portal, where distances between places are made irrelevant.
thirdguy over 11 years ago
If your luggage got beamed somewhere else, you would never get it back!
roctor over 11 years ago
The baggage must be attached to you by a space lanyard.Unless she’s in the other room.
jmcenanly over 11 years ago
The transporter may not only upend the travel industry, but manufacturing as well. Why build something in a factory when you can order it from a replicator?
tripwire45 over 11 years ago
Why does inventing something revolutionary that would improve our lives but put one industry out of business automatically “tank the economy?”
vwdualnomand over 11 years ago
i’m still waiting for a flying car(jetsons). america will have high speed train travel that competes with the airlines. and, a cure for cancer(you would think all that money raised by walks, etc… that they would used the money more wisely instead of using it for lawsuits)
J Short over 11 years ago
I wish they would invent something to tank the tax industry.
Q4horse over 11 years ago
The transporter doesn’t actually transport anything. It destroys the original when it is scanned and than assembles an exact replica at the destination. Step in the transporter and be executed, than be replaced by a carefully government reprogrammed replicate. Yup, the government will love this technology.
Lyons Group, Inc. over 11 years ago
Albert Enstein said that time travel is possible. I wonder if he mention anything about teleportation?
KEA over 11 years ago
I’m wondering what it’s going to do to battery life
Beleck3 over 11 years ago
boy all the negative vibes about transporters! can’t you people be positive about being transported. “killed and re-assembled”? geesh!!
where the imagination, the good way. lol
getting rid of the TSA and their shoe fetish would be worth it alone. who says we have to be “executed” to be transported?that’s what i want to know!
hope flies out the window with the transporter. but then again. think of all the Republicans we could transport to Somalia in their Libertarian Paradise! now that is a positive!!!!
avtar123 over 11 years ago
I’ll buy one.
puddlesplatt over 11 years ago
the more we invent, the more landfills needed !
freewaydog over 11 years ago
Yeah sure, let more terrorists in,…but then again there’s bad ppl everywhere,…
Gokie5 over 11 years ago
One of the advantages of having to remove your shoes during airline screening is that when you’re 75, you don’t have to do it anymore. Woo hoo!
DutchUncle over 11 years ago
Read Larry Niven’s essay “Theory and Practice of Teleportation” (he’s a science FICTION writer, not a scientist), in which he discusses the factors he considered before writing a series of stories involving “teleport booths” (think phone booth sized space, step in, dial your destination, swipe your card, poof).
- How does the cost vary with:- weight? shipping small valuables is worth it, shipping big things still needs trucks?- distance? Is it the same cost to go near or far?- height? Is it more expensive to “lift” something up to a mountaintop?- movement – including the rotation of the earth? What happens if you go to the opposite side of the planet, which is moving in the opposite direction as the earth spins?
Can it be individualized, or is there still benefit to having transport hubs (short-distance vs. long-distance technology)?
If it’s cheap enough, suddenly everyplace in the country can be a “suburb” of everywhere else. No more flyover places. OTOH when the power goes out, or the line goes down, you’re stuck somewhere for a while…
Rare vacations aren’t rare anymore. Anyone can get to Antarctica, or the Galapagos. But only so many people can fit, so tickets for timeslots still exist.
Burnside217 over 11 years ago
I’ll take the transporter-ish devise (portal, not dematerialization). Boeing can build unmanned aircraft. The federal agents can keep their gloved hands to themselves.
dabugger over 11 years ago
lets hope any demise of TSA will be a shoe in…..
Zero-Gabriel over 11 years ago
Teleportation may happen one day…But despite that… Planes, Trains and Cars, Motor-Cycles or Bicycles will still be around for those who still like to enjoy a ride…I mean till this day, Horse-riding still hasn’t gone out of style yet…
ibid Premium Member over 11 years ago
It would also screw up real estate. You can live in Bermuda and work in New York. Property values in cities would plummet. Maybe the reason there’s a global government in Star Trek is because anyone can go anywhere at any time and that’s the only way to still have laws.
yimhere over 11 years ago
Egon said to never cross the beams….. but it’s inevitable!!
Thomas Hamrick Premium Member over 11 years ago
It’s not destinaion – but the journey…
AlonzoQuijano over 11 years ago
Ooooh! That sounds a bit like Riff-Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show! “We return to Transylvania, prepare the transit beam!”
Happy, happy, happy!!! Premium Member over 11 years ago
It would change the transport industry. FedEx, UPS Etc. would not be hurt one bit.
Happy, happy, happy!!! Premium Member over 11 years ago
Windows 8 is why I went iOS.
Potrzebie over 11 years ago
I heard the Airline lobby is what kept us from having flying cars and jetpacks.
proverbs14.29 over 11 years ago
As long as it doesn’t cause cancer like the backscatter x-ray machines. Of course I’d have to get a smart phone, too.
sbeavin over 11 years ago
Yep end the tsa dog and pony show.
The Life I Draw Upon over 11 years ago
Let us not forget every delivery service. Choose it from the Internet website transport it from the factory floor to your home / office. A transporter would be the 3D printer of the future.
pcolli over 11 years ago
Or the pleasure booth!
sarah413 Premium Member over 11 years ago
Shoe fetish? Is Imelda Marcos returning from the great beyond?
Can't Sleep over 11 years ago
You said: "So it took Wiley all week to get to this … ?
No, dd. It’s only Thursday.
Ernest Lemmingway over 11 years ago
Ah, and ruin the chance to make their lives miserable when they get a whiff of the cheese on my feet?
.How many studies—independent and by the government—have shown the TSA is not only ineffective but a major drain on the federal budget? How many times has the TSA failed to do its job? Look it up and be prepared to be horrified. As our found father Benjamin Franklin once put it, “Those who give up a little bit of liberty for a little bit of security will gain neither and lose both.”
bransom over 11 years ago
Read about the candle makers union in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Of course they hated the light bulb!
Kali39 over 11 years ago
I don’t know – transporter beams aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be. Still, there are advantages…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-vSss-03mM
Timothy Madigan Premium Member over 11 years ago
It’s potentially too green an idea so it must be evil.
route66paul over 11 years ago
There would still have to be some travel – the people that build the booths have to travel to the new destination to set up and calibrate the new booth. As the distances get further and further, it will be a longer and longer trip to build one……
chasobrien over 11 years ago
Amen!
live.the.future over 11 years ago
Putting the airline industry out of business in favor of transporters would tank the economy? Is that what happened when cars replaced horse carriages?facepalmNon Sequitur is funny but Wiley’s non-education in economics is readily apparent.
Kali39 over 11 years ago
Leonard McCoy: I signed about this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered all over space by this gadget...Captain Kirk: You’re an old fashioned boy, Bones.
Caddy57 over 11 years ago
Ya canna change the laws of physics laws of physics , ya canna change the laws of physics captain. I miss the REAL Dr. De Mento!