Lots of sci-fi books and movies describe the process of warping/teleporting/jumping whatever they want to call it as a near instantaneous jump across space-time, either that or a process which significantly speeds up the travel time across the void of space. But what would it be like exactly? And how would it work?
There are so many variations on the simple concept, lets take a look at just a few of them;
Foldspace Engines, Frank Herbert's Dune Series: In the Dune series, only the richest in society can afford to teleport and it is confined to capital ships in space. These ships have engines which can fold the fabric of space linking one point to another. The problem is, if anything is in the way (planet, comet, star etc) the ship will smash into it and be disintegrated. To counter this, the Spacing Guild which has a monopoly on space transport uses Navigators, humans suspended in Melange Spice gas which gives them prescience, allowing them to see obstacles before they hit them and guide their ships around them.
Jaunting & Doorways, Stephen King's The Jaunt and Dark Tower Series: In the Jaunt, teleportation is accomplished by Jaunting, an instantaneous process. The twist on it though, is you have to be asleep to live through it. The theory behind it is that the physical part of you goes through alright, but your consciousness doesn't, it literally takes what seems like millions of years to pass through, aeons spent in white nothingness which sends you insane, then suddenly you're brought back to reality with a crash which kills you because of the shock, hence the need to be asleep. In the Dark Tower, Doors which look just like any other door link worlds and different times together, just step through one and you're in another world. It's simple and elegant.
Farcasting Dan Simmonds Hyperion Series. The Farcaster network is a network of portals developed by machine AI which links the 200 or so worlds of the Human Hegemony together into a cohesive network. People can live on one planet and work on another, they just Farcast to the other one like we'd get in a car to go to work. The richest members of the Hegemony have houses in which every room is on a different planet - all linked by Farcaster portals. The Hegemony has a river which runs through every planet, it flows into one Farcaster portal and out another. It's a really in-depth system which depicts teleportation as a way of life, just another thing humanity uses like we would cars.
So, how do you think teleportation would work? Available to everyone or restricted use? Commonplace in society or on capital ships only?
If you feel like contributing some other sci-fi examples please do, it's an interesting topic that can be seen in a lot of different lights.
There are so many variations on the simple concept, lets take a look at just a few of them;
Foldspace Engines, Frank Herbert's Dune Series: In the Dune series, only the richest in society can afford to teleport and it is confined to capital ships in space. These ships have engines which can fold the fabric of space linking one point to another. The problem is, if anything is in the way (planet, comet, star etc) the ship will smash into it and be disintegrated. To counter this, the Spacing Guild which has a monopoly on space transport uses Navigators, humans suspended in Melange Spice gas which gives them prescience, allowing them to see obstacles before they hit them and guide their ships around them.
Jaunting & Doorways, Stephen King's The Jaunt and Dark Tower Series: In the Jaunt, teleportation is accomplished by Jaunting, an instantaneous process. The twist on it though, is you have to be asleep to live through it. The theory behind it is that the physical part of you goes through alright, but your consciousness doesn't, it literally takes what seems like millions of years to pass through, aeons spent in white nothingness which sends you insane, then suddenly you're brought back to reality with a crash which kills you because of the shock, hence the need to be asleep. In the Dark Tower, Doors which look just like any other door link worlds and different times together, just step through one and you're in another world. It's simple and elegant.
Farcasting Dan Simmonds Hyperion Series. The Farcaster network is a network of portals developed by machine AI which links the 200 or so worlds of the Human Hegemony together into a cohesive network. People can live on one planet and work on another, they just Farcast to the other one like we'd get in a car to go to work. The richest members of the Hegemony have houses in which every room is on a different planet - all linked by Farcaster portals. The Hegemony has a river which runs through every planet, it flows into one Farcaster portal and out another. It's a really in-depth system which depicts teleportation as a way of life, just another thing humanity uses like we would cars.
So, how do you think teleportation would work? Available to everyone or restricted use? Commonplace in society or on capital ships only?
If you feel like contributing some other sci-fi examples please do, it's an interesting topic that can be seen in a lot of different lights.
