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Displacement Booth
A teleportation portal. (Read the full article)
| "This seems more likely than the free teleportation depicted in other novels. After all, somebody will spend millions (or more likely billions) developing the technology, and will want to earn back the money. Also, in the excerpt, it mentions that "Withdrawing the credit card closed a circuit." In that case, how would the coin slot work?" (Ace 9/9/2006 5:37:08 PM ) |
| "The coin slot would work the same way as with a candy machine. When the correct or minimum amount of money is inserted, you're sent to your destination.
I believe Niven was thinking more in lines of a phone booth (they used to be enclosed). You'd drop in a coin or coins, dial the number, and be connected. He added the credit card part.
While cell phones have replaced phone booths, using a debit or credit card is standard on most transactions. A self-checkout in a grocery store will take a card or cash." (Bill in Houston 4/8/2009 1:44:55 PM ) |
| "If you wanna see how a society with teleportation on demand would really work, log into Second Life.
" (Moondragon 5/11/2009 4:11:50 AM ) |
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