Would you choose invisibility or teleportation?

You could turn invisibility on and off as you like and there would be no time limit. Your clothes would turn invisible too, and you could decide whether the items you are holding would be visible or not.

There would be no limits on how many times or where you could teleport. The items you hold while teleporting would be teleported too. You would also have the ability to know if the place would be safe to teleport to, so you wouldn’t teleport and get impaled by an icicle or teleport inside a wall and get your insides filled with concrete or something.

Personally, I don’t know which one would I pick. Invisibility would be awesome for pranks and stuff, but teleportation probably would be more useful for everyday life.

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

eat both pills

RBWells,

Teleportation by a long shot, though I would be afraid it would make me fat and unhealthy (never walking just teleporting everywhere).

If you are saying I can hold another person and teleport us both? Abso-damn-lutely teleportation, can you imagine the savings on travel?

wooki, (edited )

Thinking too small.

Contract out to nasa or highest bidder and transport goods and people to ISS. Transport goods and people to mars. Get spacesuits and transport asteroids to the highest bidder. Become richest person on earth.

Lemminary, (edited )

Plot twist: The conspiracies are true and NASA drugs you and abducts to you experiment on you and learns to milk that sweet teleportatium out your ears while tied up in an underground warehouse somewhere in Area 51.

wooki,

Oh great now it’s a horror story.

CheeseNoodle,

Me being able to teleport would prove that FTL is possible so I think I’d have to take it for that alone. Invisibility in comparison is tricky but very grounded in existing physics.

Hangglide,

Why would teleportation necessarily be faster than light?

kent_eh,

Some assumptions are common with teleporting.

If it takes the same time to travel 10 meters or 10000 kilometers that kinda implies faster than light.

victorz,

To light, there’s no difference in those times, as I understand. A light particle doesn’t experience traveling at all. From its own perspective, it exists where it is created, then immediately where it is absorbed, in the same instance. So you could say it doesn’t experience time at all. All of its energy exists in its velocity, and none of it in its movement through time.

Don’t ask me to prove or explain this, because I don’t remember where I heard it or if I even remember it correctly. 😅

Sentau,

Actually light does experience time in its own frame of reference. For somebody observing(us in this example) the light or any object that moves at the speed of light in vacuum, it would seem that object is not experiencing time at all, that is, if there was clock on the object and we tried to measure the time that clock reads, it would give the same number as the result of the reading irrespective of when or where we measure it in our frame of reference.

intensely_human,

It was my understanding that light does not experience time.

And yes it does experience time from our dimension because the speed of light is finite, making the lifetime of a photon as observed from a different frame of reference, non-zero.

victorz, (edited )

I think the point I was trying to make was that the lifetime of the photon is nonzero to us, from our perspective, but zero to the photon, from its perspective. All of its energy is in its velocity.

Remember in Interstellar when they slingshot around the black hole and it cost them like 80 years or whatever? The time around them went by faster as a result. Well a photon going at c would see time around it going by at max time speed as well, so it would arrive at its destination immediately after it departed. (From its perspective.)

That’s how I understand it.

victorz,

By what you’re saying, it sounds like you’re confirming what I said, just in a different way. A photon experiences time, but in its own frame of reference, the time experienced is zero. From its perspective, the time it takes to travel from one destination to the next, is zero. Just like the clock following it would show, from our perspective. Or am I misunderstanding?

Sentau, (edited )

First of all, talking about a photon’s experience is weird because when moving at the the speed of light, the transformation equations associated with changing the frame of reference start having infinities appearing within them which makes it impossible to mathematically define things like time elapsed or distance travelled.

Secondly it is a little confusing to talk about of frames of reference but I will try my best to explain.

Assume there are two balls(A and B) in an empty region of spacing moving away from each other at speed of 1m/s. Since there are refrences in the background, we have no idea of both the balls are moving or ball A is the only one moving or ball B is the only one moving. From ball A’s perspective, it would seem like ball B is moving away from it while it is stationary. Vice versa for ball B which thinks A is moving while it is stationary. Now let us say that the balls have a way to measure the time elapsed and distance travelled. Now when ball A sees that 10 seconds have passed and that ball B has travelled 10m. To verify this it measures the reading shown by ball B. To its surprise it finds out the reading from B’s instruments show that only 8 seconds have and that B travelled only 8m. This is the time dialation and length contraction that happens in special relativity. Till now everything is fine but interesting things start to happen when you switch perspectives. In the frame of reference of B, it measures that 10 seconds has passed and that A has moved 10m in that duration. When it tries to verify these measurements from A’s instruments, it finds out that they show that only 8sec have passed and that A has only travelled 8m. Now we are in trouble as these measurements seem incompatible. Not only are the instruments not agreeing with each, other, the instruments don’t even agree with themselves depending on the frame. This is eventually resolved by the realisation that the order of events is not the same for all frames. In A’s, frame, it seems to B that started measuring late by 2s while from B’s frame it seems A started measurements later. Adding this 2 second delay in both frames solves all the measurement inconsistency issues.(The numbers used are random. If you actually calculate the difference in measurements coming from a relative velocity of 1m/s, the differences will be exceeding small)

Now that a basic understanding is out of the way, let us discuss the case of the photon. From our frame of reference, the photon is moving at the speed of light, we can measure with our instruments for how long the photon moved and what was the distance it moved but when we measure using the photon’s instruments we see that the clock always shows the same time and no time has lapsed. From the photon’s frame, it seems like it is stationary and everything else is moving at the speed of(which is obviously not true. Weird things happen when we try talk of moving at the speed of light beacuse of the infinities I aluded to before) and so while it clock is ticking, the clocks of the world around it seem stopped. So in conclusion while it valid to say that photons experience no time, it is only because we can’t go to the photon’s frame of reference because physics and math fail us that point.

Sorry for the incredibly long reply.

intensely_human,

Are you referring to dark matter? What kind of invisibility is grounded in physics?

It would require matter (including the inter-particle interactions) involving no absorption or emission of photons.

According to some models, subatomic particles exert action at a distance by exchanging photons.

This is what bothered me about the notion of a “black domain” in the Three Body series

CheeseNoodle, (edited )

You’re wayyy over complicating it, invisibility is just a matter of taking the light that hits you, bending it around you and putting it back in place. We can already do this on a small scale with fixed stationary setups.

Even simpler is just a very accurate and fast camera/display system that records and displays the background onto itself.

EmoDuck,

Do I keep my velocity relative to earth if I teleport? Because if would really suck if I teleported from one side of the equator to the other one and am suddenly moving at 3300 km/h

Chetzemoka,

There’s always a catch, huh …

Rednax,

In the same line of thinking: do I go blind if I turn invisible? After all: no light falls onto the receptors in my eyes, it all just passes through.

AceFuzzLord,

Teleport. I could be running late to something important but in the blink of an eye be there right on time. Plus, absolutely no need for any form of transport when you can just teleport.

hansl,

If Flash taught me anything, is that being slow doesn’t make you late, but being fast makes you lazier, and laziness makes you very late.

mycatiskai,

If you had the teleport jump ability from the book Jumper that would be pretty cool and useful. The character fills a cistern by being in water and in the cistern simultaneously which would be a great way to help drought suffering areas while also helping flooding areas.

EmoDuck,

I’m looking for a new book to read but wasn’t blown away by the movie. How different is the book?

mycatiskai, (edited )

Far better than the movie. Much crap was added to the movie. Better antagonists in the book and the sequel was also good. Upon searching just now I found that there are a total of four novels in the series.

Jumper, Reflex, Impulse and Exo all by Steven Gould. Now I have two more books to read.

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Teleportation every time. It’s just too useful. Invisibility is really only useful for mischief and security. And both can also be done with teleportation.

IronKrill,

And you could make a killing on selling instant travel.

LetterboxPancake,

Or make instant travel a killing. Straight to the moon.

intensely_human,

Altair-4

paddirn,

Invisibility, while cool, just seems like it’d only be cool for a little bit. Like, oh wow, I can sneak into the girl’s room without anyone seeing, woooh. Or I could maybe attempt to rob something and carry whatever I can hold. Meanwhile, Teleportation would mean being able to go literally anywhere on Earth instantaneously. Would almost never need a car or plane ever again in my life. You could take a vacation to a new country every weekend. You would have a get out of jail free card for life. You could talk to anybody you wanted to (assuming their security didn’t tackle and/or kill you if they were important enough).

RegalPotoo,
@RegalPotoo@lemmy.world avatar

Teleportation would be neat assuming you can just totally disregard basic laws of physics like conservation of momentum - otherwise you end up either as a red smear somewhere, or accidentally turn yourself into a kinetic energy weapon

jol,

I would be afraid of accidentally teleporting into a wall.

Maalus,

That’d be covered by the “you know if it’s safe” clause

intensely_human,

Yeah but then the wall is fucked up.

qyron,

I always understood teleportation as a accelerate-decelerate sequence to reach the end point, as in not A to B but A to B to C, where B is the midpoint where you have enough momentum to naturally stop at your destination.

RegalPotoo,
@RegalPotoo@lemmy.world avatar

A lot of depictions of teleportation seem to imply that you instantaneously move between two distinct points in space without having moved through the intervening matter - if that’s the case you have to deal with a whole lot of complexity to ensure that you are moving at an appropriate speed at your destination - it depends a lot on your reference point, but imagine teleporting from the equator to the north pole without accounting for the difference in velocity of the ground due to the earth being a sphere. If you were standing still on the equator but preserved your momentum through the jump, you’d be moving at 1600km/h when you arrived. Air friction and the sonic boom alone would mess you up, let alone if you collided with something.

You are right, you could solve it by having the teleportation move you through some sort of hyperspace and making the jump almost instantaneous so you have time to accelerate and decelerate, but even then you’d need to hand wave away where the energy goes. Imagine the same set up, you’ve accelerated through hyperspace towards the pole, then decelerated back down to end up going 1600km/h slower than you started. For an average person this is about 8 MJ of excess kinetic energy that has to go somewhere

AgentGrimstone, (edited )

Teleportation would be so much useful. I spend 80% of my time alone. People already can’t see me.

intensely_human,

I spend like 99% of my time alone and I feel like draw attention everywhere I go.

TheDoctorDonna,

I’m already invisible.

Onaltau,

Who said that…?!

intensely_human,

Lucky

3migo,
@3migo@lemmy.world avatar

Not even a question for me, absolutely teleportation.

I wouldn’t need to own a car, never need to pay for plane tickets or any sort of transportation.

I can go anywhere at any time. Live anywhere and then just blink where I want/need to be.

Invisibility doesn’t provide nearly the same practical applications. The only useful thing I can think of for invisibility would be to hide inside a bank vault and steal money, but that could technically be achieved via teleportation too.

intensely_human,

You could also surf all day without getting sunburnt.

roofuskit,
@roofuskit@lemmy.world avatar

Invisibility does not get you out of the bank vault.

Usul_00_,

And unless you are stuffing your orifices, don’t think you are getting far with a theft of floating cash anyhow

intensely_human,

I’d just steal the regular cash

PowerGloveSoBad,

Invisibility. Ever been the only person in a friend group who owns a truck?

“Oh, I guess the family and I will need to book some expensive flight tickets… unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just give us a ride”

“Oh, I guess my administration will need to invest billions in foreign aid… unless PowerGloveSoBad wants to just carry all the boxes”

ExtraMedicated,

Your country needs you(r truck).

ace_garp, (edited )
@ace_garp@lemmy.world avatar

Grandma got a new phone… . . . -=Invisibility on=-

AeroLemming,

Just charge people for it. You could say $100 per teleport and then give your friends a “discounted” rate of $50. That’s still like $300 to move half a dozen people and all you have to do is show up and spend a couple of minutes going back and forth.

PowerGloveSoBad,

PowerGloveSoBad’s Mom: PowerGloveSoBad? It’s Mom. I was talking to Aunt Kathy and she said you charged her $50 to move that stuff in her attic. Call me back or I’m coming over.

AeroLemming,

Oh no! Anyway…

Neil,
@Neil@lemmy.ml avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Eylrid,

    You could still be naked. Who’s going to know?

    JawnZ,

    Teleportation solves the world energy crisis, invisibility does not.

    hungryphrog,

    How could teleportation solve the energy crisis? I’m too lazy to think myself so pls elaborate.

    qyron, (edited )

    Scratch costs with transportation. No need for any means of transportation.

    Also a lot more free time. No commuting, no early leave to get somewhere on time. Just blink and you’re there.

    JawnZ,

    In addition to what the other commenter said: from the description of OP, the teleportation is basically “magic”, ergo free potential energy (by moving objects from one place to another).

    Create a large magnet in a generator that’s very tall, free transport the magnet up to the top, let it fall slowly creating electricity. It’s basically how hydro works: the sun “transports” water, in the form of clouds, to a higher point, gravity pulls it down, we use that to make energy.

    gmtom,

    What if you could only teleport yourself and not other objects?

    JawnZ,

    There would be no limits on how many times or where you could teleport. The items you hold while teleporting would be teleported too.

    Sure, if you choose to change the parameters from what OP said, it might change the outcome.

    That said, the other guy already answered you. It would become less efficient if you only had your body weight, but it still a solve of unlimited (though small volume) energy.

    blackstampede,

    Build a flywheel with a bunch of places to stand positioned around the wheel, teleport to the higher platforms as the wheel turns.

    Chobbes,

    I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It could use energy proportional to the energy that could be gained by moving an object somewhere.

    JawnZ,

    There would be no limits on how many times or where you could teleport. The items you hold while teleporting would be teleported too.

    Sure, if you choose to change the parameters from what OP said, it might change the outcome.

    otter, (edited )

    It could help in a lot of other crises too

    During a natural disaster, you could jump back and forth carrying aid in, and the wounded people out. In any time sensitive crisis, you could get people out of harms way. This bit is more complicated, but you could potentially help out during floods and fires, depending on how far the ‘teleport other stuff with you’ extends to.

    A reasonable limit might be ‘Only what you could physically carry yourself’, in which case you’d need to be a lot more strategic. In that case, you could work on personal strength and be a one-human-rescue-team. When there isn’t a disaster, you could probably shuttle light weight (but important) stuff for a fee, then use that money to fund your own charity to do good

    As for this prompt, you could probably just teleport away when someone might see you, or teleport to spots that people can’t see. So you could do most things that invisibility would allow

    TheBananaKing,

    Even better, portals.

    All the benefits of teleportation, plus you could slap a portal to the sun in front of people you don’t like.

    AeroLemming, (edited )

    I feel like opening a portal to the sun would result in lots of highly pressurized, super-heated plasma shooting through and fucking annihilating everything in a massive area around the portal. I guess you could do it if you wanted to blow up, like, an entire building with a tiny and short-lived portal. Same thing in reverse when opening a portal into space.

    TheBananaKing,

    “Don’t like” was kind of understated.

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