A robot system that gives the user the sensation of being in the location the robot is in would reduce the need to travel. Replacing telephones for the purpose of meetings and even tourism. Imagine taking a gondola ride for 60 EU in Venice by inhabiting a robot already there for that purpose.
Grandma can visit her grandkids, boards of directors can attend meetings from across the globe, scientists can collaborate. And all with some small fraction of the energy and time cost associated with old world physical travel paradigms (flying, driving etc).
Moving mass around is very costly. Moving a consciousness? Considerably less so. If the capabilities of the occupied machine are sufficient it will be a cheaper, safer, "less brown" alternative to standard travel techniques.
The key is going to be making this technology ubiquitous. All those dead land line phones need to be replaced with telepresences.
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