spock@hope.UUCP (Chris Ambler) (03/21/86)
> Subject: ST/Tomorrow People > Newsgroups: net.startrek > From: madd@bucsb.UUCP (Madd(ly) lost in the Net....) > > Forgive me for my ignorance, (I am new here), but what is the transporter > dilemma? There are obvious problems with transportation that requires > devices that can be taken off, but all I an find about ST's transporters > is that it must be done from the ship. Any form of communication can be > used to tell someone to beam you to the ship. Well, to further clarify (i hope not to the point of nausea...), There is a transporter net (:-)) that covers the entire planet. If you can get in touch with any remote station, you can be transported anywhere, although it might take a few trips (Remember Uhura's job in Trek III?). The only problem is that it is very expensive, so most people opt for other means of transportation. Of course, if you are SF, they pop the bill... -Spock! (Christopher J. Ambler, University of California, Riverside) -"Captain, I see no reason to bother Starfleet..."
markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark F. Vita) (03/26/86)
In article <179@bucsb.UUCP> madd@bucsb.UUCP (James Frost) writes: >About the _Tomorrow_People_ show: >Yes, I'm another one who saw it. The last article I read said that he >(the author) wasn't sure it the "jaunt" (or however you spell it) was >a natural ability or a mechanical one. The answer is yes. They could >do it naturally, but this was usually quite limited, and they also had >another, larger, thingamabob that did matter transportation without >mental powers. This sounds like it was lifted from Alfred Bester's novel "The Stars My Destination" (also known as "Tiger! Tiger!"). In this book, certain people have the ability to teleport themselves over short distances through sheer mental effort. It's definitely presented as a purely natural ability. In the novel, this ability is referred to as "jaunting", named after the first person to demonstrate the ability, some French dude named Jaunte. (As I recall, the way they got him to do it was by locking him in an airtight tank and slowly filling it with water...) For anyone who has seen "Tomorrow People" and read TSMD, is any more similarity between the two besides this jaunting business? If so, I'd be very interested in seeing it; TSMD is one one my all-time favorite books. Is "Tomorrow People" still being shown anywhere? Meanwhile, back in net.startrek... -- "What is that? Some sort of uniform?" "What, this? Just something I slipped on." Mark Vita Dartmouth College USENET: {decvax,cornell,linus,astrovax}!dartvax!markv ARPA: markv%dartmouth@csnet-relay CSNET: markv@dartmouth
buchbind@agrigene.UUCP (03/26/86)
> > There is a > transporter net (:-)) that covers the entire planet. > The only problem is that > it is very expensive, so most people opt for other means of transportation. Other problems: Transporters can be dangerous. Some people just don't like the feeling or idea of being taken apart, molecule by molecule, and reassembled (e.g. McCoy). -- Barry Buchbinder (608)221-5000 Agrigenetics Corporation; 5649 East Buckeye Road; Madison WI 53716 USA {{harvard|topaz|seismo}!uwvax!|decvax|ihnp4}!nicmad!agrigene!buchbind
garys@bunkerb.UUCP (Gary M. Samuelson) (03/27/86)
In article <4345@dartvax.UUCP> markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark F. Vita) writes: >This sounds like it was lifted from Alfred Bester's novel "The Stars >My Destination" (also known as "Tiger! Tiger!"). In this book, >certain people have the ability to teleport themselves over short >distances through sheer mental effort. It's definitely presented as a >purely natural ability. In the novel, this ability is referred to as >"jaunting", named after the first person to demonstrate the ability, >some French dude named Jaunte. (As I recall, the way they got him to >do it was by locking him in an airtight tank and slowly filling it with >water...) Close. He first demonstrated this ability when a fire suddenly started, threatening his life. He "jaunted" to the location of a fire extinguisher, more or less by reflex -- i.e., he didn't intend to jaunt, didn't know he could, and wasn't trying to -- he just had this sudden urgent desire for a fire extinguisher. Later, researchers decided the only way to get him to do it again was to put him in another life threatening situation. So they put him in an airtight, shatterproof tank, filled it with water, closed the valve and smashed it in his sight. Fortunately, he did it again. Eventually they learned enough about the process to teach people how to do it under less urgent circumstances. Gary Samuelson