What If Teleportation Was Real?

I love science fiction because the possibilities of what can exist in the science fiction world are unlimited. Teleportation, time travel, telepathy, portals to other dimensions! Imagine a world in which any of these and other unfathomable concepts were real— concepts that only exist within the depths of our unlimited imagination.

Science fiction, I believe, has always fascinated us! I know it deeply intrigues me! Science fiction also gives us a temporary escape from reality. With science fiction, we have the chance travel to the edges of the universe, or find ourselves stepping through a portal into another dimension. We have the chance to encounter and then either befriend or fight off strange creatures or alien beings. There is also, of course, the incomprehensible advanced technology.

Would we really want to live in a world in which any of these unfathomable concepts exists? Would you? Would I?

Initially, I would love to live in a world where concepts like teleportation or time travel existed. But would I, you, or anyone really truly want to live in a world in which these concepts exist? They are amazing to ponder, but thinking more into it, they or any such concept of science fiction would be dangerous!

Let’s look into a few of the concepts that exist in science fiction:

Teleportation

Imagine never being late to work, school, an appointment, or anywhere for that matter ever again! Imagine if you could teleport to anywhere ANYWHERE! in the world in mere seconds! Or just imagine teleporting to get out of an awkward or perhaps dangerous situation. You could even teleport physical objects too!

Some T.V. shows that have teleportation include Star Trek and Doctor Who. Movies such as The Fly (the 1958 and 1986 remake), Jumper (2008), and Fantastic Four (2015) have teleportation as well. As much as I am fascinated by teleportation, I admit, I have never watched an episode of Star Trek or Doctor Who. From what I vaguely gather though with Star Trek, beaming through the Transporter and teleporting is seen as a normal occurrence. No one I think acts as if its a big deal. They just teleport. I have never seen the movie, Jumper or Fantastic Four. I did see the movie, The Fly (the 1986 version starring Jeff Goldblum) and found it extremely disturbing. It traumatized me as a kid. This movie is also a great example of how teleportation could go wrong!

So how would teleportation even work? It's quite complicated and there are numerous theories out there. One common idea that I have come across is the idea that when you teleport, you are transporting every single particle from point A to point B. To do so, every single particle is essentially destroyed then rebuilt again all in mere seconds or even less! This all is very complex and mind boggling.

Time Travel

This has to be perhaps one of the most popular concepts of science fiction. Time travel is in a wide array of books, movies, and T.V. shows: H.G. Well’s 1895 novella, The Time Machine, the movie Back To The Future (1985), and the recent movie Tenet (2020) which I really want to see by the way - they all include Time Travel.

And this is no surprise, really. Time travel is truly fascinating and has always fascinated us! We all might or at least most of us would love to step into a time machine. Right? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? You step into a time machine and travel either back or forward in time. Eventually, you decide to return to the present. You step into the time machine and you can’t get it to function. Or worse, the time machine has mysteriously vanished or maybe even destroyed! Upon your horrific realization, you are permanently stuck to where ever part of time you traveled forward or back to. That would be my biggest fear! And my luck, that would be the very thing that would happen to me if time travel (as we see it in films and books) were real.

On a more positive note though, I would love to time travel to different time periods. Imagine if time travel were real? A student could travel back in time to do some serious research! Yeah… all while risking the chance to maybe never being able to return to the present all for the sake of writing that perfect report!

Telepathy

Telepathy! This, by far, I think has to be one of the most controversial and dangerous concepts that exist in science fiction. Telepathy, as we all know, is the ability to access and read one’s mind. In a more disturbing sense, it also acts as a sort of mind control. In this way, it is a concept that can easily be abused. That story I briefly mentioned that I am working on? It includes telepathy and so far, it is becoming extremely controversial.

Telepathy in some movies include: The Shining, both Steven King’s novel (1977)and film(1980), Total Recall (1990), and Independence Day (1996)

As disturbing and ultimately dangerous as I find telepathy, I find it just as intriguing! I think telepathy could be used for some good actually. How so? Imagine accessing one’s mind for good intentions. Maybe in an attempt to solve a murder case or even on a less drastic level, just to find out who did something. A person can easily lie and deceive you. But with telepathy and mind reading, the secrets that one hides within their minds are now accessible. Unfathomable, huh? Or just scary?

Cloning

Okay, yes, cloning does exist! It is no longer stuff exclusively of science fiction anymore! However, there are still aspects of cloning that we can (still) only dream about. Cloning would be a way to resurrect long gone extinct species from species that have relatively recently gone extinct such as the Passenger Pigeon, the Dodo bird, to creatures from the ice age like Wooly Mammoths and Saber-tooths, to dinosaurs … wait a minute!

For cloning to be possible, you need to be able to extract DNA. When Wooly Mammoths and other ice age creatures are discovered, their DNA had been preserved under the permafrost. Sounds like cloning of extinct creatures is indeed possible.

Movies that feature cloning are Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel, and later, the 1993 film), Pokémon The First Movie (1998) and The Island (2005). Jurassic Park is the perfect example of why cloning prehistoric creatures might not be the best idea. But then again, it’s all just a story / movie, right? We don’t really know if that’s how these creatures would behave? Then again, I really don’t want to find out and be stalked, chased as prey by a T-Rex or worse, a velociraptor!

Another aspect of cloning would be the idea of cloning people. This alone sounds very controversial. However, there could be a few benefits, I suppose. If you develop a clone of yourself, you can be in two places at one time. Your clone can be at work or attend an important meeting that you just can’t otherwise get out of, all while, the real you spends some leisure time. This idea of course could back fire. The clone could get into trouble and do something evil. And since it looks and behaves exactly as you as you’ve programmed it, guess how troubling for you that would be?

All of these concepts of science fiction are both fascinating and unfathomable. Of course, the one’s mentioned just scratch the surface of what is possible in the science fiction world.

Now, would you still want any of these concepts of science fiction to exist?