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.

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.

Got_Bent,

I seem to be alone in that I see teleportation as a great way to travel all the time without ever having to set foot on a plane again. The time and money saved would allow me to visit with distant friends on the regular.

applebusch,

And move to a cheap spacious house in the middle of nowhere, ideally somewhere absolutely beautiful. You could work anywhere you want and never need to actually live there. You could also become the first person on every planet and moon. I’d probably try to get nasa to pay me a billion dollars to be on call to teleport anything they want to anywhere in the solar system.

victorz,

awesome for pranks “and stuff”

Myeah 😏

Hedgehawk,

Teleportation. There’s the obvious advantges like no commute. The biggest, however, is that I would just feel so much safer (as a woman). Dodgy situation? Just teleport away.

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.

Stern,
@Stern@lemmy.world avatar

Most of the things you want to do with invisibility you can do with teleportation, but likely better. The only exception being hiding in the lockerroom of your preferred gender but bruh, c’mon this isn’t a 80’s movie. Also maybe faking a haunting since the invisibility lets you make stuff “float”.

Wanna be rich or just have loot? Teleport somewhere you know has it. Grab and go.

Wanna kill somebody? Teleport to their bedroom while they sleep and shoot them. Or for the less messy alternative, teleport in, grab them, teleport a hundred feet above Point Nemo, drop 'em, and dip.

Wanna live a life unbothered by anyone? Teleport to the middle of nowhere and slowly bring in supplies. Pop out and back in whenever you feel like it.

Tedesche,

If I could somehow be assured that the world wouldn’t immediately turn in me when they discovered my super power and try to capture me for its own ends, teleportation. If not…definitely invisibility. Much easier to hide the power, not just myself.

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

Lemminary,

Does the teleportation come with a bampf noise or do I have to carry my own bluetooth speaker and a button? This is make or break for me.

qyron,

Do I sense Nightcrawler vibes?

Tedesche,

No, that super sense wasn’t one of the options.

qyron,

The best teleporter ever created, regardless the drawback.

Lemminary,

Yes! Although someone requested an Elderman sound and now I want the sound effect to be customizable via an app.

Mostly_Gristle,

I want the H2G2 Krikkit robot teleportation noises: the sound of 100,000 people saying “WHOP!” when you appear, and 100,000 people saying “FOOP!” when you disappear.

AeroLemming,

I only want teleportation if it makes me sound like an Enderman!

Thorny_Insight,

Invisibility.

I don’t know why but I love the feeling of being able to watch people without them knowing about my presence. I spend a lot of time in nature and intentionally dress to blend in and I love that often when I hear/see people near me I can just stand there in plain sight and they still often don’t notice me.

RogueBanana,

I don’t know if this is creepy or cute but uh keep doing but not next to me

Asudox,
@Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

What if he’s already invisible and saw you typing this comment?

ohlaph,

Teleportation. Hands down

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Teleportation. Doesn’t matter if you can see me when I can just pop in and out in an instant.

Snorf,

If you can pop in and out fast enough then you can be there and not be there at the same time.

seanziepples,

Wear clothes that cover your identifying features

killeronthecorner,
@killeronthecorner@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll teleport to where you can’t see me. Checkmate legtards

Neil,
@Neil@lemmy.ml avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Eylrid,

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

    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

    southsamurai,
    @southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Yeah, teleportation solves way more real life problems than invisibility does.

    Invisibility in the real world, for a civilian, is really only good for pranks and crime. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing, but teleportation can do all of that and more.

    Tedesche,

    You could use your invisibility to become the most effective citizen journalist in the world though. Get footage of Exxon execs scheming with politicians to fuck the planet or get world leaders on tape dismissing the Geneva conventions, that sort of thing.

    AeroLemming,

    You could do that just as well with teleportation, possibly even better depending on what security measures you need to bypass. Teleport in, plant a bug, dig through their computer for anything incriminating, teleport out.

    Of course, obtaining evidence in this way makes it illegal to use in court, but that doesn’t really matter because the people you’re after will never be taken down in court anyway.

    Tedesche,

    Of course, obtaining evidence in this way makes it illegal to use in court

    That’s why I said citizen journalist. Exposing corrupt people in the news is a major step towards criminal court, and even if there is no case, public opinion can be swayed and that’s a death sentence in many ways.

    uberkalden,

    You could in most cases so the same with teleportation

    Gamerman153,

    Assuming they don’t have access to thermals…

    Tedesche,

    Good question whether or not invisibility extends to the infrared and ultraviolet spectra. That’d be pretty clutch.

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