[throwaway81523]

There was a Larry Niven story where if you tried to call a certain guy, every phone in South America would ring instead. Anyone remember which story it was? The phone thing was just a throwaway line, not a significant plot point.

[p0w3n3d]

It might have been the Ringworld

"Well?"Nessus began to pace the floor. "Many disqualify themselves by obvious bad luck. Of the rest, none seem to be available. When we call, they are out. When we call back, the phone computer gives us a bad connection. When we ask for any member of the Brandt family, every phone in South America rings. There have been complaints. It is very frustrating."

https://www.naneahoffman.com/the-blog/shelf-care-alien-archi...

[jagged-chisel]

“ When we ask for any member of the Brandt family, every phone in South America rings.”

That sounds like the computer had a bad solution to “find a Brandt.”

The comment with the request to find this reference had me thinking it would be a single phone number misconfigured to call a large population.

[Loughla]

It actually had nothing to do with a computer!

It was the luck of either Teela Brown, or Mr. Brandt depending on how you read the genetic trait of luck.

If you haven't read ringworld, you should. It's really quite good.

But stop before you get to ringworld's children or whatever it's called. Niven's furry fetish is in full force later in the series.

[SequoiaHope]

Furry fetish you say? Stop you say? Hmm…

[shagie]

Ringworld. https://sciencemeetsfiction.com/2021/06/20/ringworld-theory-...

    “When we call, they are out. When we call back, the phone computer gives us a bad connection. When we ask for any member of the Brandt family, every phone in South America rings.”