The term ansible refers to a category of fictional technological devices capable of superluminal or faster-than-light (FTL) communication. These devices can instantaneously transmit and receive communicative and informational data streams across vast distances and obstacles, including between star systems and even across galaxies. As a name for such a device, the term ansible first appeared in a 1966 novel by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed (subtitled An Ambiguous Utopia) is a 1974 anarchist utopian science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, one of her seven Hainish Cycle novels. It is one of a small number of books to win all three Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards for Best Novel.