godwin@uci-icse (08/06/85)
From: Dave Godwin <godwin@uci-icse> There is one reason I can think of that will explain the differences in thought pattern between the Protectors of Home and Teela Brown as a Protector. If Teela does not use the Star Drive to get the Ring back on axis, OK so lots of billions of hominids get toasty all over. The race as a whole will continue. If the Protectors on Home had not busted out of the hospitals to make more of their own kind, the Pak would have swept in and destroyed the entire human race. The modern Earth-type human is a mutated abomination in the eyes of a Pak. Brennan and the rest of the Protectors were doing their duty as a whole to the human race. Bigger question, though. This one has always bothered me about Niven's universe. What the heck happens to Home after the Protectors left to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win, because even by Louis Wu's time, Pak were unknown. But whathappens to Home itself, with all that Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the atmosphere ? It bugs me. Dave Godwin UC Irvine
VAF@CMU-CS-C.ARPA (08/10/85)
From: Vince.Fuller@CMU-CS-C.ARPA
Bigger question, though. This one has always bothered me
about Niven's universe. What the heck happens to Home after the
Protectors left to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win,
because even by Louis Wu's time, Pak were unknown. But what happens
to Home itself, with all that Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the
atmosphere ? It bugs me.
My guess would be that the Home Protectors continue to keep the human race as
a whole as its charge, looking out for us and keeping us out of trouble. The
Home colony was given as a failure in the timeline in "Tales of Known Space",
and "Protector" has, at least for me, the impression of being a report that
was never seen by most of humanity - the Protecors probably just kept Home for
themselves as a base. Keep in mind that Protectors live a LONG time,
O(10Kyears), so they need not even supplement their numbers very often. Maybe
the Puppeteer "eugenics" program for Kzinti and humans is really the result of
the Protectors manipulating the Puppeteers... It protects humanity from its
most dangerous adversary to date, and makes more sense than the Puppeteers just
doing it because "they like humans" (as stated in "Ringworld Engineers").
--Vince
-------hester@uci-icse (08/12/85)
From: Jim Hester <hester@uci-icse> I didn't go back and check this, but it was my understanding that Tree-of-Life virus could not survive (or, at least, was not effective) without Tree-of-Life root. That's why the protectors died out in the origianl Earth expedition: the root died, and the virus with it. The protectors on Home would almost certainly take all the root with them, since they did not want to raise more protectors after them. Virus in the air would not be a danger. Jim
carl@proper.UUCP (Carl Greenberg) (08/12/85)
In article <> hester@uci-icse writes: >From: Jim Hester <hester@uci-icse> >I didn't go back and check this, but it was my understanding that >Tree-of-Life virus could not survive (or, at least, was not effective) >without Tree-of-Life root. That's why the protectors died out in the >origianl Earth expedition: the root died, and the virus with it. >The protectors on Home would almost certainly take all the root with >them, since they did not want to raise more protectors after them. >Virus in the air would not be a danger. But there WAS no root on Home: Brennan found a way of making the virus grow in a yam, on Kobold, but he ALSO put one in his body so that it would spread throughout the atmostphere, regardless of where it was... This would mean that Home would probably have the virus there for some time- of course it would need a place to live, and if they all left Home it might just die out naturally, though it might be able to live on anything. (That'd make an interesting story.... Come back to re-colonise Home, everyone turns into protectors....) Carl Greenberg ...ucbvax!dual!proper!carl
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/12/85)
> to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win, because even by Louis Wu's > time, Pak were unknown. Not so. See "the ringworld engineers". Wu had seen Phsstpok's corpse. (pronounce that with a silent ph and t. What other superintelligent logical alien does that remind you of?) > But whathappens to Home itself, with all that > Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the atmosphere ? It bugs me. It's listed as uninhabitable (see the map in "Known Space"), and nobody is crazy enough to visit it. Or if they are they become protectors, read Brennan's journal, and go charging off to the Galactic Core. -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
dave@garfield.UUCP (David Janes) (08/12/85)
In article <3147@topaz.ARPA> godwin@uci-icse (Dave Godwin) writes: | Bigger question, though. This one has always bothered me about | Niven's universe. What the heck happens to Home after the Protectors left | to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win, because even by Louis Wu's | time, Pak were unknown. But whathappens to Home itself, with all that | Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the atmosphere ? It bugs me. Probably the remaining human Pak removed the Tree-Of-Life virus from the atmosphere. They had to remove all the destroyed 'cities', etc. also because this would let normal humans know about thier existance (it would have been mentioned if the ruins had been later found.) I believe it is mentioned in one of the _Ringworld_ books that Louis Wu had been on Home for some reason or another (i.e. Home was resettled.) dave -- The UUCP: {utcsri,ihnp4,allegra,mcvax}!garfield!dave Mercenary INTERNET: dave@garfield.uucp Programmer CDNNET: dave@garfield.mun.cdn "There are two types of people in the world, those who divide the people of the world into two types, and those who can't"
draughn@iitcs.UUCP (Mark Draughn) (08/13/85)
In article <3147@topaz.ARPA> godwin@uci-icse writes: >From: Dave Godwin <godwin@uci-icse> . . > Bigger question, though. This one has always bothered me about >Niven's universe. What the heck happens to Home after the Protectors left >to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win, because even by Louis Wu's >time, Pak were unknown. But whathappens to Home itself, with all that >Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the atmosphere ? It bugs me. More important. What happened to brennan's fleet? They probably won the war, but... As far as they know, Earth is unprotected. Earth is also left without the Brennan-monster to keep the peace. Any time now, the fleet should be returning. Protectors with hyperdrive will be unbeatable. They can do anything they want. (Unless humanity kills them off. But I don't believe thay would.) They might want to rebuild the ringworld. They would certainly slaughter the Kzinti and the Trinocs. They might decide to kill off the grogs, the bandersnatchi, maybe even a few of the puppeteers. Whatever happens, it would make a damned good story. Mark Draughn
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/13/85)
> The protectors on Home would almost certainly take all the root with > them, since they did not want to raise more protectors after them. > Virus in the air would not be a danger. > > Jim Jack Brennan devised a form of tree-of-life virus that could survive indefinitely in the athmosphere, as well as one that could survive and reproduce in a protector's body. Remember how Truesdale was prevented from entering certain sections of Kobold even before he was old enough to trigger the tree-of-life hunger reaction. -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
slerner@sesame.UUCP (Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner) (08/15/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR LINE EATER ***
There has been a lot of talk about Niven's Protectors, and I
seem to have missed (at least) one major story (the one
involving Home) with protectors...
Could you all MAIL me a list of all Niven books/stories with
protectors? I will post a summary here.
Thanks..
(Hmm, that yam sure smells good ;-)
--
Opinions expressed are public domain, and do not belong to Lotus
Development Corp.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner
{genrad|ihnp4|ima}!wjh12!talcott!sesame!slerner
{cbosgd|harvard}!talcott!sesame!slerner
slerner%sesame@harvard.ARPA throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) (08/18/85)
> (Hmm, that yam sure smells good ;-) > Simcha-Yitzchak Lerner Of course, now that Brennan has been tinkering, we are just as likely to say "Yech-O, this yam tastes different!" once we take a bite... Should we lobby for net.misc.yam-classic? Is Brennan on the net? :-) -- (I suppose I should be ashamed for cross-posting to so many groups, but as somebody who subscribes to all of these (I didn't say I *read* them, did I?), I couldn't help myself. I wonder what a penguin Protector would be like? Would tree-of-life virus cure amnesia in a penguin? But I digress...) -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw