Re: How long for teleporters to replace airliners?

Wildepad wrote:

Suppose that tomorrow morning a researcher unveils his theory on
matter teleportation and demonstrates a working model.

He puts it into public domain and distributes complete plans so that
anyone with moderate soldering skill, a lot of patience, and $187.43
can build their own unit which can teleport, at the speed of light,
one cubic millimeter of anything from a transmitting chamber into a
receiving chamber up to seven inches away, regardless of any energy or
matter which happens to be between the two stations.

Further suppose that scaling up the device is only a matter of money,
to the point that being able to send two cubic meters from NYC to LA
requires a $70,000,000 machine using an average of $6.18 worth of
electricity.

Even further suppose there is nothing which is in any way harmful or
hazardous either to the material being transmitted or to external
objects/forces. (Convenient safety features and the impossibility of
certain forms of misuse are inherent in the effect and are not
dependent on hardware design/construction/operation.)

Q1: How long would it take for such a thing to pass all the
scientific, political, and sociological hurdles to become available
for public use?

Political: Prosperous communities and neighborhoods would be likely to
keep them out -- too likely to bring in riffraff. This might take a
generation to change.

If people and companies whose income depended on other transportation
methods were cut in on the profits, it might be developed faster than
if they weren't given any incentive to avoid lobbying against it.

--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers.".
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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