Imagine for a moment you created a device that generate a wormhole of sorts, that opened its other end anywhere in the universe based on the settings. That is, you could make it that if you stepped through the base you would end up in Disneyland, the Kremlin, the North Pole, or the moon.
The first thing i thought of were the travel it would allow. But then i realized two other side-effects. One, it would destroy the travel and transportation industries, unless they could not be personal devices, and second, with no restriction on where one could go, no place would be safe from anyone who could get their hands on one. Limiting the devices to a government would put them stop the world, making everyone vulnerable to instant attack.
Star Trek related to these two issues, by limiting the range of teleporters, making them non-personal devices, and allowing for transporter shields. Even replicators were not perfect, and people who didn't have them had to pay.
There's so much that we rely on because of the space we must travel or go through to get places. If that were removed, so much would change.
Hmm... just a thought.