Hyperdrive or Transporter

Norade · Post by **Norade** » 2005-10-04 08:38pm

Would you rather humanity as a whole discover the hyperdrive or discover transporters? They are both useful and after some people post I'll get my opinion in as well.

Lancer · Post by **Lancer** » 2005-10-04 08:59pm

Transporters.

An entire host of related technologies can be reverse-engineered from them (most notably replicators) and is also within our capability to build.

Discovering the principles behind hyperdrive is nice and all, but without any hypermatter on hand, good luck trying to get one to work.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2005-10-04 09:06pm

Discover Hyperdrive.

Why do I care about some way of making the US postal service obsolete versus having an extremely fast FTL?

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2005-10-04 09:49pm

Hyperdrive

Screw transporters, get me out of this backwater Star System!

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-10-04 10:03pm

... Except that there's no way we could fuel any useful Hyperdrivewe created.

Sharpshooter · Post by **Sharpshooter** » 2005-10-04 10:07pm

Transporters. While the original form's a travesty, the spin-offs and stuff that can be developed from it would help solve a number of the immediete problems that we currently face, such as waste disposal, recycling, world hunger, and all that sort of stuff. Imagine, instead of having to go through the messy process of killing and butchering a cow to get the meat, as well as the problems of contamination already present in the meat, you just march a herd into a giant transporter and flip a switch. The bovine get broken down into their base componants, and in the room next door, replicators use the newly-formed base materials and convert them into the final product, even forming the styrofoam tray and the shrinkwrap. You can get that extra bit of meat out of the cows that might've been wasted or unusable, or could convert the material to other stuff. Trash could be disassembled and sorted into base elements for use by businesses and industries, paper could be dis and re-combobulated and used time and time again, and the manufacturing of certain goods could be increased a hundredfold, plus you might be able to take out the majority of the pollution that might be produced from factories and such.

Or something of that nature.

Morilore · Post by **Morilore** » 2005-10-04 10:10pm

Much as I want humanity to get its ass off the ground and to the stars, the transporter just has so many immediately useful applications...

Quadlok · Post by **Quadlok** » 2005-10-04 10:28pm

The transporter would be signifacantly more useful, even from a space exploration perspective, at this point. It would allow us to place equipment directly into orbit with no need for rockets at a tiny fraction of the price. Hyperdrive does you no good if you can't get the damn thing off the ground.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2005-10-04 11:39pm

And for people asking for transporters...I suppose a clarification but when a person goes

humanity as a whole discover

I doubt he's talking about digging it up from the ground. Unless he wants to present a scenario wherein one side is completely useless and the other is just as useless.

Unless you want to tell us how exactly is the discovery of the transporter going to tell squat about it?

Darth Quorthon · Post by **Darth Quorthon** » 2005-10-04 11:43pm

I would say hyperdrive, because the transporter is a terrible weapon in the wrong hands, and we all know there are plenty of those around. The transporter would have a ton of uses, but I just don't think I would feel safe knowing a bomb could be transported into my living room, or some nut could scatter my atoms to the four corners of the Earth.

Maybe I'm just paranoid...

Also, I think that there would be the possibility that, if we had the knowledge of hyperdrive, but not the means to power it, it would give us something to work towards/look forward to and may have a "unifing effect." Just a possibility of course, but "hope springs eternal...". If we had the transporter and the means to power it right away, it might be too much instant gratification and could cause complacency.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-10-04 11:43pm

Quadlok wrote:The transporter would be signifacantly more useful, even from a space exploration perspective, at this point. It would allow us to place equipment directly into orbit with no need for rockets at a tiny fraction of the price. Hyperdrive does you no good if you can't get the damn thing off the ground.

How would a real life transporter permit one to violate conservation of energy like that?

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-10-05 01:21am

Hyperdrive, unlimited resources is better than more efficient transportation.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2005-10-05 01:22am

I'd argue neither a real life one nor the startrek version allow that kind of a violation, but hook a large capacitor up to a nuclear reactor and see what happens; it might work. It might explode. Either event should be fun

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-10-05 01:33am

The Silence and I wrote:I'd argue neither a real life one nor the startrek version allow that kind of a violation, but hook a large capacitor up to a nuclear reactor and see what happens; it might work. It might explode. Either event should be fun

Are you offering to volunteer?

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2005-10-05 01:39am

Nah, I'll set up the equipment, and of course the cameras, but I'll send in the lackeys first. Can't have fun watching the clip repeatedly if your dead...

But seriously there are a plethora of uses for transporters even if power restricts its use.

That said, hyperdrive appeals to my sense of wonder--I assume that we are given a hyperdrive along with the ability to opbtain hypermatter? If not then transporters win by default, but that is kinda a lame scenario.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-10-05 01:44am

The Silence and I wrote:But seriously there are a plethora of uses for transporters even if power restricts its use.

So long as there isn't a lot of solar flare activity or you aren't near a hospital's MRI room or nuclear reactor or electrical transformer or a mild electrical storm or...

Hedgehog's Roommate · Post by **Hedgehog's Roommate** » 2005-10-05 01:59am

I'm sure that the wars galaxy didn't always have hypermatter. I've also never heard that it's a requirement. If there's some EU source that says otherwise I apologize, but I just don't see it as a prerequisite.

Morilore · Post by **Morilore** » 2005-10-05 02:13am

I think its fairer to assume that the discovery of hyperdrive implies the discovery of the technology necessary to sustain it, otherwise the whole purpose of this thread is gutted.

Spetulhu · Post by **Spetulhu** » 2005-10-05 07:25am

Morilore wrote:I think its fairer to assume that the discovery of hyperdrive implies the discovery of the technology necessary to sustain it, otherwise the whole purpose of this thread is gutted.

The same should go for transporters then.

Hyperdrive would allow us to get out of this solar system, so that's what I would pick. We'll just have to live with expensive surface-to-orbit transportation until someone manages to come up with a cheaper alternative.

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2005-10-05 11:13am

Assuming the hyperdrive is light enough to be used, then definitely that. But really, I'd be happy with a warp drive at that point. Transit time is insignificant next to the simple ability to get somewhere.

Actually, considering how much risk is involved in an unmapped jump, I'd actually rather take a warp drive (not even on the list...) but I suppose with micro-jumps it should be doable.

On the other hand, we'd still have very little actual space exploration. With transporters, we'd have a lot, but it would be closer to home. Hmm. I'd go with an FTL system... nearly any at all.

Norade · Post by **Norade** » 2005-10-05 12:32pm

The factor I was looking at most was the fact that the research leading up to hyperdrive would likely teach use more than figuring out how to destroy something and make a new copy at a different location.

This isn't to say that they wouldn't both be huge advances but one would be far more so. I say this partly because oif something I read in Popular Mechanics or Science (Can't remember which) which said that scientists had teleported a proton. If anybody can confirm or deny this it would be well recived.

Quadlok · Post by **Quadlok** » 2005-10-05 12:58pm

Darth Servo wrote:
Quadlok wrote:The transporter would be signifacantly more useful, even from a space exploration perspective, at this point. It would allow us to place equipment directly into orbit with no need for rockets at a tiny fraction of the price. Hyperdrive does you no good if you can't get the damn thing off the ground.
How would a real life transporter permit one to violate conservation of energy like that?

Did I even imply that? Whats cheaper, powering a transporter off the national grid or building and fueling a heavy lift rocket? In any case, I'm suggesting it be used for equipment, not humans, as there are a plethora of safety and ethical issues at work here.

Also, lets say we get hyperdrive, and start launching probes out into deep space. And lets just say that an alien intelligence finds one of these probes and decides it wants this new, more advanced form of ftl for itself. I'd rather not take the risk that they would decide to take it by force rather than by trade.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-10-05 02:29pm

Matt Huang wrote:Discovering the principles behind hyperdrive is nice and all, but without any hypermatter on hand, good luck trying to get one to work.

Yup! I would LOVE To say Hyperdrive as well, But a Hyperdrive without Hypermatter is bloody useless. And as far as I know, No one really knows how Hyper Matter is made.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2005-10-05 02:53pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:
Matt Huang wrote:Discovering the principles behind hyperdrive is nice and all, but without any hypermatter on hand, good luck trying to get one to work.
Yup! I would LOVE To say Hyperdrive as well, But a Hyperdrive without Hypermatter is bloody useless. And as far as I know, No one really knows how Hyper Matter is made.

Y'know...one could point out the sheer stupidity to assume we would discover the means to a Hyperdrive, but no means to POWER it.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-10-05 02:54pm

Quadlok wrote:Did I even imply that? Whats cheaper, powering a transporter off the national grid or building and fueling a heavy lift rocket?

You said it would be a "tiny fraction of the price".

In any case, I'm suggesting it be used for equipment, not humans, as there are a plethora of safety and ethical issues at work here.

Did I even mention the ethical issues of transporting humans? No. If someone else did, put that point in the response to them, not me.

Also, lets say we get hyperdrive, and start launching probes out into deep space. And lets just say that an alien intelligence finds one of these probes and decides it wants this new, more advanced form of ftl for itself. I'd rather not take the risk that they would decide to take it by force rather than by trade.

Its called "self destruct"