June 21, 2009

• Technology May Have Fueled the Political Battle in Tehran

  As demonstrators throng Tehran’s streets, cell phones, Facebook and Twitter have emerged as key players in the political battle there.
  
  “Flash mobs” organized by such “social networking” tools have also played into political unrest in Estonia, and even in the U.S. presidential election, in which candidates’ fans triggered turnout for events from their computer screens, rather than from old-fashioned door-to-door canvassing.

  Who saw it coming? Well, the best candidate may be science fiction author Larry Niven, 71, whose 1973 novella Flash Crowd foresaw riots self-assembling thanks to brand-new technologies.

  Since it’s a science fiction novel, Niven wrote about the unintended effects that discovering teleportation (the “beam me up, Scotty” deal) would have on society, but he says he readily sees the connection, one he saw coming with news reports feeding riots in Los Angeles in the Vietnam era.

  “Flash mobs are an artifact of the Internet, yes, but also of easy travel,” says Niven, by e-mail. “Without modern roads, cars and motorcycles, flash mobs would not happen. With instant travel (teleportation) they would become even easier; and that was my point.”

  • 10:41 pm
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