Claudia and I had another brainstorm for our interstices project today, this time focusing on our chosen idea; instant teleportation devices. We’re going to do two written articles about them, one a news website article based on the technology when it first emerges, highlighting all the possible implications for its introduction into society, aswell as the negative ones. I’ll write that, while Claud will make a tabloid newspaper article that highlights the destructive power and scandals about the technology going wrong, and having a large scale negative impact, based in the later years when the technology has become well established, and vital for our day to day life.

Initially, the teleportation device will take the form of booths situated all over the world, like phone booths, which people can use at a cost to travel anywhere they like. Further in the future, everyone will have their own handheld device that can instantly transport them away anywhere in the whole world they want, very specifically.

The repercussions of which could be massive. For one, all other methods of transportation could become obsolete. No more cars or roads, no more planes. Less pollution, although perhaps the machines emit more dangerous radiation that can have an impact on our health. The social implications would be the breakdown of boundaries between territories, as it will become much easier for cultures and nationalities to blend in with each other. Everyone will become more similar, have increased understanding of each other and there could be fewer wars or disputes. Distance no longer means that we have to see any less of family and friends who live far away, and less time spent travelling means more time for everyone, so perhaps more work or more social lives for all. It also adds to the desire people will have for everything to be instant, and time can no longer be wasted waiting for things, and this can affect all manner of the way we see things. And then in her article set later on, Claudia will be examining what happens when things go wrong, and the radiation gets too much or the teleportation devices, at this point now integral to our daily life, suddenly stop working properly, sending only bits of people across the world, disfiguring them forever. What happens when our trust in this technology is lost when isolated cases like this happen and people are too afraid to make use of it, after abandonning all other alternatives.

Just a few ideas we’ve had so far. I’m thinking it might be a bit too far fetched for what the brief wants, but we’ll tailor it. I’d like to get Mike’s opinion before we start anything definate.

Yesterday, Claudia and I teamed up to tackle the until now rather silently lurking interstices project, which Mike told us all about, but didn’t really seem to mention it to anyone else. It’s all about inventing a future technology (flying cars, teleportation machines, telepathy devices, whatever) and considering the social impact that it’s likely to have on the world, in the same way that the internet or mobile phones have a had a huge impact on the way we live now.

We threw around a number of ideas. Some just plain daft, albeit highly humourous ones such as devices to make animals able to talk to us, the repercussions being that they begin to talk to each other and form a huge rebellion against the human race, ultimately destroying us and then waging wars between the species until there’s nothing left. But then I think it says in the brief that it can’t really be stupid things like that, which is a shame. Hovering things, like hoverboards, hover cars etc seemed interesting, as did telepathic devices, though the technology behind that needs some clarification. I think our most promising idea at this point might be instant teleportation machines, where anyone can go just about anywhere instantly, thus eliminating pretty much all other forms of transport and the inability to see people anywhere in the world. This will make everyone alot more connected to each other, it’ll be easier to live anywhere else (which has good and bad aspects) and cultural identity will begin to deminish because of this. There’s lots of things you could speculate there, and I have done so a bit in my workbook this afternoon, but I want to do more brainstorming with Claudia, and not just think about it all by myself.