The Year of Teleportation: 2020

I would really like traveling if traveling wasn't involved.

I made this statement to my family during our mini-vacation last week. Packing for 6 kids and two adults presents challenges. Loading everything up in a Tahoe with a limited amount of storage space takes time and creativity. Think old-school Tetris with luggage. Then, before departure, the age old struggle of who rides where ensues. When the wheels finally start to turn, there's a sigh of relief, but also dread at the thought of traveling only a few miles before someone needs to use the bathroom. So, the real hassle of travel, is the traveling. Once at the destination, the fun begins until it's time to pack up, load up, and return home. So, I would really like traveling if traveling wasn't involved.

While I listened to the kids beg for snacks three minutes into our trip, I daydreamed about teleportation. Imagine for a moment the luxury of punching in a destination keycode and within seconds arriving at the chosen location. No more road trips. No more free hernia checks at the airport. In fact, consider how great it would be to teleport from your own home in the morning, visit any Paris in the world and sleep in your own bed again at night. Travel, without the traveling nightmare!

But is teleportation possible? On sci-fi movies and shows, people can teleport from one place to another. Consider Star Trek and the famous line, "Beam me up Scotty." For now, though, teleporting is relegated to the special effects of Hollywood. Although being able to disappear from one place and then reappearing in the exact same condition at another location sounds incredibly handy, it is not actually feasible according to the laws of physics. If it ever becomes possible, I imagine each teleportation trip sucks years off of your life, kind of like the torture machine in "The Princess Bride."

If one truly thinks about it, Covid-19 forced many to teleport virtually. Think of all of the visits to relatives made through Zoom and Facetime. Within seconds, friends on the East Coast can "visit" friends on the West. My wife started teaching English to Chinese kids while sitting at our computer desk in the middle of the United States. Youngsters can virtually visit grandma and grandpa while they wait for the pandemic restrictions to ease. And then, there are live cams around the globe. I can marvel at Yosemite Falls, gawk at African Wildlife, and observe departing and landing flights at the airport in Prague, all from the comfort of my home. I type in the destination, and Voilà, I "teleport" there. Okay, it isn't exactly teleportation, but maybe the next best thing.

Visiting places online eliminates the need for passports, luggage and Dramamine. If a child needs to go to the bathroom, just hit pause on the stream...the live one, that is. There's no problem with bumper to bumper traffic and no one asks, "How much longer, Daddy?" And maybe most importantly, no one needs worry about pandemic restrictions or contracting Covid-19.

And then of course, there's date night. The pandemic forced people around the globe to use their imaginations. Take your special someone on a virtual museum tour, visit ancient Rome, or book an evening with an Italian Chef and learn to cook a perfect dish native to the city of Naples. Click a link and find yourself immersed in the culture of another Country, all powered by the ability to teleport via the World Wide Web.

Sure, we're not living in the age of Star Trek, but technology continues to evolve. And though we won't ever be able to physically teleport, we can virtually travel almost anyplace in the world. And like I said, I don't mind traveling, if traveling isn't involved.