If i could have any superpower, it would probably be this one. going to be late for school? boom. not anymore. want to stand on that tall structure that is impossible and probably illegal to climb? no longer. don't have the resources to go travelling around the world every night? faced with a supervillan? as you can see, problems disappear as fast as you do when you teleport. but perhaps teleporting isn't as perfect as one would think.
Problem #1: Vectors
Imagine you jump out of an airplane without a parachute. "oh well," you say. "i can teleport." herein lies the problem. you consist not just of matter, but energy. thermal energy keeping your organs at the right temperature, electrical energy in your nervous system, and kinetic energy making you move. And making you fall. The only way to break your fall is to teleport to the opposite side of the earth, where you will be fallin up, wait for your momentum to run out, and teleport back.
In movies people often teleport somewhere else, and their velocity just disappears. That is ridiculous. In order to cancel a force, you need to apply an equal but opposite force. If you are sitting on a train and you quickly hop home to grab your wallet, you will find yourself plowing through your house's walls at 60 km/h before falling to the ground outside your house, most likely dead, impaled by a 2x4. in the idealized version of teleporting, their velocity magically disappears, and, more implausibly, when they get back on the train the velocity magically reappears. Basically, in order to teleport the way you do in the movies, you would need to not only have the teleporting superpower, but also the ability to exert arbitrary amounts of force upon yourself.
In movies people often teleport somewhere else, and their velocity just disappears. That is ridiculous. In order to cancel a force, you need to apply an equal but opposite force. If you are sitting on a train and you quickly hop home to grab your wallet, you will find yourself plowing through your house's walls at 60 km/h before falling to the ground outside your house, most likely dead, impaled by a 2x4. in the idealized version of teleporting, their velocity magically disappears, and, more implausibly, when they get back on the train the velocity magically reappears. Basically, in order to teleport the way you do in the movies, you would need to not only have the teleporting superpower, but also the ability to exert arbitrary amounts of force upon yourself.
"oh well," you say. "i'll just not teleport while on moving things."
Problem #2: The Earth Is Round. And Spinning.
Lets start out simple. If you teleport to the opposite side of the earth, you will find yourself upside down, or rather, right side up but with the world upside down. if you teleport 90 degrees around the world, you will find yourself lying on your side. Not that bad. Except for vectors. when standing on the equator, you are hurtling east at 1670 km/h. But east is not a linear direction. East wraps around the earth; east is a direction of rotation. And vectors are straight lines. So I will arbitrarily define a direction, and call it X. You are travelling 1670 km/h in an X-wardly direction. At that moment, X and East are the same direction. But elsewhere on earth, X and East are different from one another. In the diagram below, the straight arrows are X, and the curved arrows are east (the blue circle is the earth, viewed from the south pole.)
So. The guy at the top of the diagram is standing "still", as in not moving relative to the earth. The earth is spinning, and, if he is on the equator, he is moving at 1670 km/h in an easterly direction, but, more accurately, in an x-wardly direction. So the guy teleports himself clockwise 90 degrees. boom! He is smashed into the ground at a speed of 1670 km/h. if he teleports the other direction, he flies off into the sky before falling to his demise. and if he teleports all the way around the world, he is upside down, and moving in a direction opposite to that of everything else. so you would find yourself hurtling at 3340 km/h relative to the ground, and you would most likely disintegrate in the air. So travelling any geographically significant distance would be deadly, but short distance travelling would probably just throw you to the ground, which would be inconvenient and painful, which would negate the purpose of teleporting.
Problem #3: The Journey
This is my least concrete problem, but, considering that film, the usual reality in which teleporting occurs, is not overly concerned with accuracy, this may be the most relevant.
Climbing mount everest is impressive. Teleporting to the summit is not. Defeating a supervillan with your bare hands is macho. Armed with the ability to teleport is... well... still pretty awesome, but that's beside the point. There's a quote that goes something like this: "life is a journey, not a destination". If life were all about finishing everything we instantly, then we would die right after reproducing. Teleporting would possibly take the joy out of life by removing the journey, the climb, the struggle, the battle, etc.
There are many more issues with teleporting that i haven't mentioned. The earth is orbiting the sun, our solar system is drifting through our galaxy, and our universe is expanding, sending us hurtling away from the center of the universe. These will all present similar problems as the second problem. There are also probably many more problems that i haven't thought of, so feel free to share them in the comments section. or share about how i just crushed your dreams of someday teleporting.
Because of my conclusion that it would actually suck to be able to teleport, i must now pick a different superpower as my favorite. and the choice is obvious... LASER EYES!!!
There are many more issues with teleporting that i haven't mentioned. The earth is orbiting the sun, our solar system is drifting through our galaxy, and our universe is expanding, sending us hurtling away from the center of the universe. These will all present similar problems as the second problem. There are also probably many more problems that i haven't thought of, so feel free to share them in the comments section. or share about how i just crushed your dreams of someday teleporting.
Because of my conclusion that it would actually suck to be able to teleport, i must now pick a different superpower as my favorite. and the choice is obvious... LASER EYES!!!
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Your points are quite good. But say someone is falling out of a plane at a fast pace towards the ground, teleports to the other side of the earth, and starts flying away from earth. They should be able to keep slowing down, and if getting too high above ground, just teleport back toward ground, and constantly go up until they slow to a stop.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think one of the big dissadvantages to teleporting is the fact that it probably won't take energy. I know I would likely rather teleport somewhere than walk or bike. People would just get fatter or just much less fit depending on body type.
And if I were to have a superpower, it would be that whatever I mime is actually there. So say I do want to ride a bike, then I could. It would just be invisible. And yes, I realize that it is a pretty rediculous superpower, but cool, fun, and also convenient.
But why would you want laser eyes? Though pretty cool, that could cause problems. Unless it's just like a lazer pointer.