I received this question as a homework assignment. The date is May 31, 2058 and it is exactly 20 years since a company released a transporter beam capable of transporting both living and inorganic objects between any two points on the Earth. The point is to describe how it has changed any of employment, manufacturing, transportation, education, travel or politics. You also have to describe how it would impact countries that could not afford the technology. Any ideas that aren’t obvious like roads becoming obselete, living and working in different places or international travel becoming instant?
I believe it is instantaneous transportation, but the assignment wasn’t clear as to whether or not a country would have to purchase incoming/outgoing stations for itself, and whether or not those would have to be transported there and how they would.
And a question, why would more people work from home with the transporter beam being invented?
This is what I’ve done so far:
“Beam me up, Scotty!” This famous catch phrase was made famous by Captain Kirk on the hit show Star Trek nearly 90 years ago, lest did the writers know that less than a century later, it could be done for real. As we’ve hit the 20th birthday of the Transporter Beam released by the Boolean Institute, I thought this would be a great time to reflect on what it has done for our civilization.
Walking, driving and flying; these are all methods of transportation that have been left in the past in most modern countries today. The ability to travel in an instant has revolutionized the way we do business. Importing and exporting used to be done by ship or maybe even plane, today it is done simply by loading the transporter beam. International trade has become simple, with products being moved between wealthy countries with ease.
But some countries like Russia are unwilling to make the switch to the Transporter Beam fully and use the technology sparingly just
like the former French airplane the Concorde. The cost of the outgoing and incoming stations for the Beam would cost a substantial amount for Russia, something they do not want to harm their economy. But both Canada and the United States have become reliant on the Transporter Beam, which uses a technology mimicking the speed of sound for people to travel around the world.
I had a moment to catch up with the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. James Rose, and he told me, “The Transporter Beam has changed everything about our lives. We do business easily; have more times for things we enjoy and can travel to another part of the world in seconds. The only negative to the Beam is the harm it causes countries who cannot afford it, who lose lots of commercial interest.”
As I analyzed what the Prime Minster said, I was intrigued by the final thing he mentioned. Since the Transporter Beam has come to life, very few of us have thought about the countries that cannot afford the technology. The entir
continent of Africa, still full of raw materials to die for, has not improved for the past 20 years and much of it still lies impoverished. The Transporter Beam’s cost would still cost countries in Africa too much of their annual GDPs. Until the switch to the Transporter Beam is made, countries in Africa and even parts of South America will be left out of the world’s economic picture.
But the Transporter Beam certainly has made life in North America a lot easier. With an estimated 73% of people working outside of their home province, many can finally find a job that suits them personally.
