Editing Flash Crowd (section)

{{about|the novella|the flash crowd in a computer network|Slashdot effect|the type of social gathering|flash mob}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
[[File:ThreeTripsInTimeAndSpace.jpg|thumb|First publication in ''Three Trips in Time and Space'', edited by [[Robert Silverberg]] and published by Hawthorn Books in 1973 with cover art by Ivan Seresin]]
"'''Flash Crowd'''" is a [[1973 in literature|1973]] [[English language|English-language]] [[novella]] by [[science fiction author]] [[Larry Niven]],<ref name="Prucher2007">{{cite book |last=Prucher |first=Jeff |title=[[Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction]] |date=2007-05-07 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199885527 |pages=65–66 |chapter=flash crowd |access-date=19 July 2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJCS0reqmFUC&pg=PA65}}</ref> one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instant, practically free [[displacement booth]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://entertainment.time.com/2012/06/13/lord-of-the-ringworld-in-praise-of-larry-niven/|title=Lord of the Ringworld: In Praise of Larry Niven|last=Grossman|first=Lev|date=June 13, 2012|work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=19 July 2016}}</ref>

One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost immediate reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide{{Snd}}along with criminals{{Snd}}would [[teleportation|teleport]] to the scene of anything interesting, thus creating disorder and confusion. The plot centers around a television journalist who, after being fired for his inadvertent role in inciting a post-robbery riot in Los Angeles, seeks to independently investigate the teleportation system for the flaws in its design allowing for such spontaneous riots to occur. His investigation takes him to destinations and people around the world within the matter of less than 12 hours before he gets his chance to plead his case on television, and he encounters the wide-ranging effects of displacements upon aspects of human behavior such as settlement, crime, natural resources, agriculture, waste management and tourism.