In this audio recording (illustrated with dozens of images), Larry Niven gives a delightful talk on the effects of teleportation on a society. Five years before his “Flash Crowd” was published, this recording is a grand exposition of what goes on in this author’s mind as he works out the impact of new technology. “The limitations you assume for your teleportation are going to define your society.” Isaac Asimov (and a number of other audience members) challenge Larry with questions and suggestions. There’s even a chalkboard talk (which you can follow from the audio). The program provides a very entertaining and complete logical framework for thinking about the problems and advantages of different implementations of mechanical teleportation, with the eager participation of the engineers in the audience.

Thanks to Larry Niven for allowing us to put this online, and to the New England Science Fiction Society (NESFA) and Rick Kovalcik for providing the recording. Brought to you here by FANAC.org, the Fanhistory Project. For more fan history, visit FANAC.org and Fancyclopedia.org . To be notified of new uploads, please subscribe to our channel.

NOTE: There are some typos in the photo captions used in the video. My apologies to all for misspelling several names, and “Denvention”. Thanks to Andrew Porter for pointing out the typos. Rather than replace this MP4 with a new one, I am going to leave it right here so that you all don’t end up with duplicate notifications. My apologies. We will institute a 2nd layer of proofreading after this!

via YouTube