Facebook wants to build a teleporter by 2025. Granted it’s a virtual reality teleporter, but that got me thinking: what are the ethics of teleportation in a Capitalist society?
Star Trek epitomized teleportation in a Utopian society—beaming crew members and whales to planets and to the ship—aiding in the United Federation of Planets’ mission to go where no one had gone before. There was no money in Star Trek. But there is money in our world.
What is to prevent teleportation from occurring until we watch a short ad?
What is to prevent the teleportation overlords from injecting subliminal advertising messages upon reassembly of our bodies (assuming that teleportation means to deconstruct our bodies at the molecular level, transmit them to another place instantaneously, and then reassemble)?
What if to boldly go where no one has gone before means to have more likes and higher click-rates than ever before?