"Flash Crowd" is a
1973 English language novella by
science fiction author Larry Niven, one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instantaneous, practically free
transfer booth that could take one anywhere on
Earth in milliseconds.
One consequence not predicted by the builders of the system was that with the almost instantaneous reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide — along with criminals — would flock to the scene of anything interesting, hoping to experience or exploit the instant disorder and confusion so created.
In various other books, for example
Ringworld, Niven suggests that easy transportation might be disruptive to traditional behavior and open the way for new forms of parties, spontaneous congregations, or shopping trips around the world.
Other reading
- "Flash Crowd" is on pages 99-164 of the paperback edition of The Flight of the Horse, copyright 1973 by Larry Niven. The story (or parts of it) was originally published as "Flash Crowd" in Three Trips in Time and Space, copyright 1973 by Robert Silverberg, ed.
- "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club" is on pages 41-52 of the paperback edition of A Hole in Space, copyright 1974 by Larry Niven.
- Other stories in this series are in these two books and in All the Myriad Ways.
On the web
On the
World Wide Web, a similar phenomenon can occur, when a web site catches the attention of a large number of people, and gets an unexpected and overloading surge of traffic. This usage was first coined by John Pettitt of Beyond.com in 1996. Notorious examples include the
Slashdot effect, and the "Instalanche" (when a smaller site gets links by the extremely popular blog
Instapundit). See
hints how to deal with flash crowds (search for crowds keyword).
See also
- Flash mob, real-life phenomenon involving crowds gathering suddenly.
- Slashdot effect, analogous phenomenon in the context of web traffic. To support online democracy the Webmobs social software supports visibility of the Flash Crowd.
-1973- 1974 1975 1976 1977 . 1978 . 1979 . 1980 . 1981 . 1982 . 1983
..... Click the link for more information. English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. While there is some disagreement of what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a
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Hugo Award - David Gerrold, (born 1944)
- Mark S. Geston, (born 1946)
- Edward Gibson, (born 1936)
- Gary Gibson
- William Gibson, (born 1948)
- Alexis A.
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Larry Niven
Larry Niven at Stanford University in May 2006
Born: March 30 1938 (1938--) (age 69)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Novelist
Nationality: American
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The transfer booth is a fictional teleportation technology from Larry Niven's Known Space universe, and other stories. It is inexpensive, with a trip anywhere on Earth costing only a "tenth-star" (presumably equivalent to a dime), and the existence of cheap, common teleportation
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EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001. Their greatest hit, their debut single "time after time", peaked at #13 in the Oricon singles chart.
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Ringworld
Cover of first edition (paperback)
Author Larry Niven
Country United States
Language English
Series Ringworld, Known Space
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Ballantine Books
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A Hole in Space (ISBN 0-86007-853-1) is a collection of science fiction short stories by Larry Niven, published in 1974. It contains:
- "Rammer" (this story was later expanded into the novel A World Out of Time)
- "The Alibi Machine"
..... Click the link for more information. All the Myriad Ways is a collection of short stories and essays by science fiction author Larry Niven, originally published in 1971. It contains:
- "All the Myriad Ways"
- "Passerby"
- "For a Foggy Night"
- "Wait it Out"
- "The Jigsaw Man"
..... Click the link for more information. World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, a user views web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigates between them using hyperlinks.
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Slashdot effect is the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site, causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic.
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Instapundit
Instapundit logo
Political affiliation Neolibertarian
Website [1]
Instapundit is a United States political blog produced by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.
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A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.
News media and commentators have often misused the term "flash mob" to refer to nearly any form of public gathering.
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Slashdot effect is the term given to the phenomenon of a popular website linking to a smaller site, causing the smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic.
..... Click the link for more information.