It's Friday, so let's lighten up and have a little fun. This story about the upcoming movie Jumper talks about teleportation and how MIT professors feel about it. As you would expect, the answer is not too exciting. But the story doesn't mention the first science fiction novel that includes personal teleportation, The Stars My Destination.

Published in 1956 by Alfred Bester, the first Science Fiction Grand Master, The Stars My Destination is my favorite science fiction novel. Read about it in Wikipedia and see the book on Amazon. Much praise has been heaped on this book, as you can see in the listings I provided.

Unfortunately, few movies satisfy a real science fiction fan, because the scriptwriters and directors are usually new to the genre and get fascinated by the superficial. Since this movie will come out in February rather than June, the studio obviously doesn't expect it to be a blockbuster. And if the director and scriptwriters had met with folks at MIT before starting, rather than after they finished the movie, I'd be much more impressed.

In the Bester book, only the very rich have cars to drive around in. The rest of the people teleport. Wouldn't it be nice if we could avoid cars and think about where we wanted to go, and were immediately there?