One day, after a tiresome five-hour road trip from Lahore to Islamabad, with my three siblings in an overcrowded backseat, I sat down and wondered how fortunate I would be if I had a teleportation device. How comfortable my life would become if I could travel hundreds or thousands of miles with just a click of a button! If only I had unlimited resources and time, I would devote my entire life to inventing a teleportation device.

Every invention starts with a crazy idea. A British engineer said that Thomas Edison’s idea of the electric bulb was “an absolute ignis fatuus,” a deceptive goal or hope. A French general told the Wright Brothers that “Airplanes are interesting scientific toys, but they are of no military value.”

No matter how ridiculous and bizarre an idea may seem initially, time proves its significance to the world.

Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to another, without affecting the physical space between the atoms. To put it in layman’s language, a teleportation device is like a huge fax-machine, which prints out 3D figures, but with a shredder at the departure point. Some scientists believe that teleportation is not possible, however, I aim to prove them wrong!

You may wonder why I am so stubborn in saying so; well, my dear friends, there are immense benefits that come with teleportation devices, and I believe you will agree with me too.

Teleportation means instant travel. It saves time and reduces fatigue. Jet lag will be an issue of the past. Imagine if you can just say “Beam me up, Scottie” and be teleported to another planet. Why wait in unbearable traffic jams or waste hours commuting in a train or suffer from delayed flights if you had the ability to apparate like Harry Potter? If you get late for school, just press a button and you would be the first to reach your school.

Teleportation would also be a solution for air-pollution. It will eradicate the need for transportation vehicles like cars, buses, motorbikes, ships and even planes. By inventing a teleportation device, I could help save the planet singlehandedly. It would be the end of our dependency on petroleum, nuclear reactors and coal power plants.

Just think of the reduction in operating costs to companies that want to transport their goods from one continent to another. This would be the end of the transportation industry!

One of the greatest benefits of teleportation would be that it would make it simpler for people to be rescued in case of life-threatening situations or natural disasters. In case there’s a fire, hurricane, flood or earthquake, hundreds of precious lives could be saved by just teleporting the victims up and materialising them in another safer part of the town or country.

And how lovely it would be to be able to travel to any part of the world! I could attend a science conference in Germany and join my family back in our country just in time for dinner. Or visit a robotics fair in Japan and be back to baby sit my younger sister while my parents teleport to meet my grandparents.

No one will need to miss family members living far away or let years pass by before families can get together again. I know how much my grandparents miss my little cousin who lives in the US. With my teleportation device, they can hug her goodnight and tuck her in bed as often as they want.

Through my invention, my name will be immortal. Half the world will sing my praise for the breakthrough positive effect on the environment and the ease in mobility. The rest will curse me for destroying a number of industries. No matter. I will be famous!

“In every seed of good, there is always a piece of bad”, true there are plenty of cons that come with teleportation and complications which I will have to face as an inventor. Criminals could use these devices for their nefarious activities. If one could teleport anywhere he wants to, robbers could beam in and out of banks, houses, jewellery stores and who knows where else! It would become a total catastrophe.

Another challenge I would face would be accuracy of teleportation. What if the teleported matter does not reappear in to its original state? What if a man’s arms fail to stick to his shoulders? What if he materialises between another matter, like teleport into a solid bricks? What if his atoms get lost in thin air? Anything is possible.

There will many challenges to surmount, but anything can be accomplished with hard work and unlimited time and resources. Teleportation device is a wonder to think of, it is a wonder if scientists invent it. What I wish to do is to invent this device and use it in all fair means.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 20th, 2019