phil@rice.ARPA (08/25/85)
From: William LeFebvre <phil@rice.ARPA> > From: Cate3.SV@Xerox.ARPA > that time the Puppeteer's had not sold the secret of going faster > than the speed of light yet. > From: baylor!peter@topaz.arpa (Peter da Silva) > before the Puppeteers sold the Hyperdrive to Homo Sap... Whoa! Let's get our facts straight. The Outsiders sold the secret of hyperdrive to Homo Sapiens. The Puppeteers did have something to do with it (read "Ringworld"), but the actual sale took place between Man and the Outsiders. ****** SPOILER WARNING! ****** But now that I think about it, it seems that the ending of "A Gift from Earth" is inconsistent with "Ringworld". In "Ringworld", we are led to believe that the Puppeteers used a Starseed lure to force a meeting between the Outsiders and Man, knowing that Man would buy the FTL drive and then win the Man-Kzin war. But, at the end of "A Gift from Earth", the outsiders pick up the trail of a ramscoop robot and compute its destination (or was it source?) and say to themselves, "Ahhh, new customers". Oops! William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University <phil@Rice.arpa> or, for the daring: <phil@Rice.edu>
joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) (08/28/85)
>****** SPOILER WARNING! ****** > >But now that I think about it, it seems that the ending of "A Gift >from Earth" is inconsistent with "Ringworld". In "Ringworld", we are >led to believe that the Puppeteers used a Starseed lure to force a >meeting between the Outsiders and Man, knowing that Man would buy the >FTL drive and then win the Man-Kzin war. But, at the end of "A Gift >from Earth", the outsiders pick up the trail of a ramscoop robot and >compute its destination (or was it source?) and say to themselves, >"Ahhh, new customers". Oops! > > William LeFebvre I don't think this is a problem. The puppeteers used the starseed lure to pull the Outsiders into human space, then when the Outsiders saw the ramscoop robot they followed it to We Made It.
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/03/85)
> But now that I think about it, it seems that the ending of "A Gift > from Earth" is inconsistent with "Ringworld". In "Ringworld", we are > led to believe that the Puppeteers used a Starseed lure to force a > meeting between the Outsiders and Man, knowing that Man would buy the > FTL drive and then win the Man-Kzin war. But, at the end of "A Gift > from Earth", the outsiders pick up the trail of a ramscoop robot and > compute its destination (or was it source?) and say to themselves, > "Ahhh, new customers". Oops! The starseed lure could have lured them into the vicinity, and the scoop gave them the last little nudge? -- Peter (Made in Australia) da Silva UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076