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"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Displacement Booth | ||
| A teleportation portal. |
The displacement booths were the sole and ubiquitous form of travel in the future society of the novel.
| A displacement booth was a glass cylinder with a rounded top. The machinery that made the magic work was invisible, buried beneath the booth. Coin slots and a telephone dial were set into the glass at sternum level.
Jerryberry inserted his CBA credit card below the coin slots. He dialled by punching numbered buttons. Withdrawing the credit card closed a circuit. An eyeblink later he was in an office in the Central Broadcasting Association building in Downtown Los Angeles. |
| Technovelgy from Flash Crowd,
by Larry Niven. Published by Fantasy And Science Fiction in 1972 Additional resources -
|
Displacement booths are similar to the more technologically advanced stepping discs created by the alien Puppeteers of Niven's 1970 novel Ringworld.
In Flash Crowd, Niven explores the idea more thoroughly than in Ringworld. He adds additional material about how stepping discs are used by Puppeteers in his new book Fleet of Worlds, written with Edward M. Lerner.
Compare to the telepomp from The Man Without a Body (1877) by Edward Page Mitchell, the
stepping discs from Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven and the
trip box from Eye of Cat (1982) by Roger Zelazny.
Also, see the libra-transmitter from Into the Meteorite Orbit by Frank R. Kelly, the cosmic express from The Cosmic Express by Jack Williamson, Jaunte from The Stars My Destination, the Transo from Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford Simak and the geofractor (1939) from One Against the Legion by Jack Williamson.
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'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
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'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
