The Side Effects of Teleportation

Every time I come back to Germany from a trip to the US (like I did yesterday), I suffer from jet lag. And then I always wish teleportation had been invented already.

But what might the side effects of teleportation be? Don't they have the potential to be even worse?  Since teleportation doesn't exist yet, all we have is conjecture to go on.  Well, that and fiction.  Our own Elana Johnson and Genn Albin tackle the subject in their novels with the side effects not too severe, while the TV show Fringe had Walter invent a teleportation device whose usage caused a rash of side-effects, from sunburn to decompression sickness (and ultimately death).

What do you imagine the side effects of teleportation might be?

6 comments:

E. Arroyo said...

I remember someone turning into a fly. In a movie, of course. =) Personally, I'm not ready to be beamed anywhere. Though I'm chicken to fly too.

Unknown said...

Oh, I do like that episode of Fringe.

Anonymous said...

After watching many, many episodes of Star Trek, teleportation doesn't seem like a safer option. They always say it's safe, but there are countless episodes about people dying, being lost in limbo, being infected by parasites, etc, etc, so I'm a little skeptical ;)

Matthew A.J. Anderson said...

I've always thought that the 'transporters' from Star Trek were great for a Horror story. Because they say: "It takes you apart, then puts you back together on the other side."
What would happen if I took you, put you through a meat slicer, and as it cut off each slice I walked it to the other side of the room, putting you back together? How is the transporter different from that?
Oh, but it's all sciencey with atoms and 'energy transfer'. But what if when they move you from one place to another, it's not the same person? How can you tell? What if when they pull you to pieces, you die, then when they zap it all back together, it's no different from replicating a new person from recycled atoms?

What are the side effects of teleportation, you ask?
Horror and Death as far as I can see.

Penelope Sanchez said...

I think that we are a long way off before using anything related to teleportation. We don't know everything about the human body and until then I think sending someoen through a teleportation device, once someone invents one, is completely insane. They may be telported and the things that comes out the other end won't know anything about their history. They could be a completely blank slate.

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Spacemonkey1 said...

I had a funny thought ,they beam you up and your soul is left standing there . . .