@snipejaeg I wonder though if we wouldn't see people opting in to local communities that have a culture they like. Absent the pressure of being near work, where would people choose to live?

@Annalee Good point... we need to get Malka Older on here bc I think the answer is #microdemocracy

@waidr that was my thought--if folks don't have to work near where they live, they can basically take their jobs with them to a small town. I've been seeing folks do that in my remote-first company: they move to a small town and bring their job along.

@waidr @Annalee Corollary to the Prestige effect - what would religions say about the technology? I could see small fundamentalist groups becoming (more) isolated from culture as a whole.

@mithriltabby I wonder if it would, though. I work for a remote-first company and I've seen several folks join up, then move to a small town where they like the community, because they can bring their job with them.

@Annalee Now multiply that by everyone who grouses about the rent in Silicon Valley. If the cost of transport is low enough, everyone gets their big back yard and can still visit any restaurant they want.

@mithriltabby you'd certainly get some kind of cronut effect--random restaurants all over the world would get suddenly SWAMPED with lines-around-the-block people after going viral.

@ErykDonovan precisely! If people could commute to work from anywhere in the world, would that ease up the pressures of urbanization?

@Annalee I could see that being the case potentially, but then there is also the infrastructure to consider too right? IE How much power would these devices use, who would repair, install and maintain them, and how they would connect together.

Meaning, that higher population centers still may be more viable right?

@Annalee @ErykDonovan This is something I wish Dan Simmons had explored in his Hyperion novels, but his focus was elsewhere.

@starbreaker @ErykDonovan Right--same with Star Trek. They don't really get into the impact of transporter tech on earth and how it would change conceptions around sense of home and place.

@Annalee @starbreaker @ErykDonovan The transporter in Star Trek was conceived for production reasons so they didn't have to film the ship or shuttlecraft landing in every episode. It was a time/money saver, so they never explored the broader implications.

@ErykDonovan @starbreaker @Annalee I do feel that some of the novels delved into it more, how you could transport from Starfleet HQ over to, say, MIT to do some research for a few hours.

@Annalee @starbreaker @ErykDonovan I think something like a transporter/teleporter would definitely allow people to live where they want and find work anywhere. It would make travel in general easier, more affordable. Going to visit family or friends would be much easier. If travel time were eliminated, the world would be much smaller.

@jenrjones @ErykDonovan @Annalee Has anybody read Alfred Bester's *The Stars My Destination* (aka *Tyger, Tyger*)? That novel features personal teleportation, called jaunting, and presents it as a skill the vast majority of people can learn. It gets to the point where having spaces that people can't jaunt into is a status symbol (because of assassinations and such).

@starbreaker @Annalee @ErykDonovan I haven't, but that sounds really interesting! *adds to reading list*

@jenrjones @ErykDonovan @Annalee

It's pretty old, and probably problematic in terms of Bester's treatment and characterization of female characters, but it might still be worthwhile. I hope you enjoy it.

@starbreaker @Annalee I've never read those, I need to check it out.

@ErykDonovan @Annalee _Hyperion_ and _The Fall of Hyperion_ go together. Likewise for _Endymion_ and _The Rise of Endymion_.

@Mnewton @Annalee Going to small towns and buying their cheaper goods would increase the scarcity that can be experienced in small towns. Goods are finite. This would, in effect, be retail gentrification and actual small town denizens would be priced out of their own food.

@therotund @Mnewton Yeah, another aspect to the transporter question is definitely gentrification. If folks can live anywhere, the reach of gentrification expands in a big way.

@Annalee @Mnewton Soooooo much. The small town/big city divide is so complicated because it is just as much about culture as anything else.

@therotund @Annalee @Mnewton But you could use transporters to get goods where they are needed...

I wonder if you'd get SuperMals away from any town, with both people who work there and people who shop there teleporting in from wherever.

@Anke @Mnewton @Annalee I mean, it depends on the economics of transporting - because that tech sure isn’t going to be free under capitalism. And capitalism supports a class structure that encourages the wealthy not to share shopping space/experience with those who work.

@therotund @Annalee @Anke Yes, if we're assuming this tech would be introduced to the world as it is today, it would be seized by the rich and used mainly to reinforce the status quo.

...but as long as we're dreaming about magic tech, I'm choosing to include free, equal access to it in that dream.

@Anke @Mnewton @Annalee I think SuperMals would be interesting but malls in general are dying so I wonder if we’d just see goods transported to our homes instantly like Amazon Super Extra Prime.

@therotund @Annalee That is definitely a concern. There are a lot of different levers and balances that would be thrown off by a sudden massive increase in mobility of both people and goods.

@Mnewton @Annalee I grew up in a small city 100mi from the nearest full-service airport.

Living in a largish city with an airport 20 minutes from home has made me much more likely to travel. Accessible transporter tech would be this times much more.

@Annalee Can it carry cargo? What is the price per ton per distance compared to other methods of transport?

The implications of cheap instantaneous transport of stuff are huge. Implications for only people-transport are a different kind of huge.

Also depends on how it works: can you teleport from anywhere to anywhere? From a "bus stop" to a central station? Etc.

Hm...

@Mnewton @Annalee That's what I would guess with low cost transporters. If you can go anywhere instantly there isn't a lot of reason to clump together--in big cities or small towns.

@takmo that's actually what prompted the question! I work for a remote-first organization, and so I work with a lot of folks who are in small towns. They've taken their job with them.

@Annalee Oh man, that sounds like the eventual dream-job for me! I'm excited to see which other businesses and organizations jump on the bandwagon.

@therotund what prompted the question is working for a remote-first company where colleagues have taken their remote job with them to a small town. So I was thinking more of folks living, shopping, and existing in community in a small town while working somewhere else.

But it is indeed a multifaceted question, and gentrification is a huge factor.

@Annalee So, I know a lot of people of color who have been forced out of the Bay Area due to gentrification - and I think remote-first could help with that if adopted on a large scale? But I also struggle with the idea that all small towns need revitalizing in the first place because that depends on what we are looking at as “vital.”

@therotund I lived in a small town for four years, and a common fear in local government was the lack of jobs. Kids grow up and leave town for work and never move back. What I'm wondering is, in the absence of capitalist pressure to live where you work, would people self-select into smaller communities?

@therotund Gentrification would still be a huge issue, however, and so would local economics.

@Annalee My family is from a small town - there is definitely concern of the same. I left for a lot of reasons but I’d at the very least visit more often if transporter tech existed. I think that would be a benefit everything else aside for reasons of keeping people connected.

@Annalee What I'm wondering is whether we'll see people getting their food in the US-suburbs/rural model (where you drive to a distant store in a large vehicle-equivalent, and have a fairly impersonal transaction to get a large amount of stuff) , or an urban/small town model (where you frequently go to a local center for small amounts of things, often interacting with the same small group of people and building interpersonal connections).

@Annalee Because I think that ends up having a significant impact on how transportation technology affects communities - how does it interact with those mundane interactions, like getting food, or participating in community events (if it's as easy to go to a SF con in Helsinki as it is to go to the local community council meeting, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to go to the community meeting unless there's something else luring me there), or churches etc

@clay oh gosh, churches! Teleporters would have all sorts of impacts on where people worship, because theology would suddenly be way more important than geography.

@Annalee OTOH, the lure of never being unable to attend Friends conferences because they're in places with no bus service :)

@Annalee On a more general level: I wonder if we'd see more micro-denominations... and then more ecumenical gatherings from such groups coming together to get something accomplished.

@Annalee (this line of thought only relevant in faiths that have those sorts of divisions, of course)

@clay it seems likely! Also a lot of sorta...flash-cons? it'd be much easier to get a bunch of people together, so you could do impromptu readings/dinners/panels.