Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"In 1977, it took about eight months for a slightly faster more refined mechanism to put punk in the window of Holt Renfrew. It's gotten faster ever since."
- William Gibson
 |
| Flash Crowd (Flash Mob) | ||
| What you call a group of people who suddenly appear at an interesting location. |
In this novella, Larry Niven explores some of the social consequences of having unlimited, cheap teleportation. One social consequence is that when millions of people see something interesting about a location on mass media, all of those who think "gee, I'd like to check that out" can get there in the blink of an eye.
At this point in the story, the Tonight Show has reported on an interesting ocean phenomenon at Hermosa Beach.
| "...The next thing anyone knows, every man, woman and child in the country has decided that he wants to see the red tide at Hermosa Beach..."
"Another flash crowd. It figures," said Jerryberry. "You can get a flash crowd anywhere there are displacement booths." |
| Technovelgy from Flash Crowd,
by Larry Niven. Published by Fantasy And Science Fiction in 1972 Additional resources -
|
Displacement booths are the technology that allow teleportation to work.
Niven is not the first person to worry about the social and political consequences of teleportation. In his classic 1956 novel The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester wrote this about the development of the ability to jaunte (teleportation by mental ability):
You might also enjoy reading about the transo, a commercial teleportation device, from Clifford Simak's excellent 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. Simak also explores the effect that cheap teleportation has on business and society.
Also, check out Smart Mobs, a website devoted to non-sf writer Howard Rheingold's book of the same name. He writes about the use of communication technology (cell phones and messaging) that allow groups of people to coordinate mass action.
(Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting this item.)
Within three generations the entire solar system was on the jaunte. The transition was more spectacular than the change-over from horse and buggy to gasoline age four centuries before. On three planets and eight satellites, social, legal and economic structures crashed while the new customs and laws demanded by universal jaunting mushroomed in their place.
Bester covers many of the same situations, including burglary by teleportation, teleporting gangs of looters, desecration of the environment and long-distance space teleportation. Niven, on the other hand, does some nice work in trying to figure out the physics of how point-to-point teleportation across the face of the Earth might be done.
(Read more about the jaunte stage)
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Flash Crowd
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Flash Crowd
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
| Switzerland May Cap Population At Ten Million |
| California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone |
| Chinese Hospital Tries Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' Cosplay |
| A Remarkable Coincidence |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
