“in the nighttime heart of Beirut, in one of a row of general-address transfer booths,
Louis Wu flicked into reality.”

(Ringworld, 1)

The idea of “transfer booths” is introduced in Ringworld by a character named Louis Wu.  It is the evening of Louis’ two hundredth birthday, and he wants to extend the celebration as long as possible. 

As Larry Niven describes: “Louis Wu had gone alone, jumping ahead of the midnight line, hotly pursued by the new day.  Twenty-four hours was not long enough for a man’s two hundredth birthday.” (Niven 1-2)

So Louis enters a booth, dials a number corresponding to a place, inserts his credit card, and finds himself in the “reality” of an entirely different area of the planet.  Such an ability to travel without jet-lag, luggage, cramped seating or long flights seems fantastical to say the least. 

But Larry Niven was not far off from our own reality when he wrote of transfer booths.  Louis Wu’s ability to travel vast distances in the blink of  an eye may be possible within our lifetime.  But only if you don’t mind dying first.