Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.8 $; site uiucdcsb Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!packard!ihnp1!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcsb!mcdaniel From: mcdaniel@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: protector psychology Message-ID: <139600015@uiucdcsb> Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 14:57:00 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.139600015 Posted: Sun Aug 11 14:57:00 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 03:59:44 EDT References: <3186@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Lines: 19 Nf-ID: #R:topaz.RUTGERS.EDU:-318600:uiucdcsb:139600015:000:1007 Nf-From: uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA!mcdaniel Aug 11 13:57:00 1985 /* Written 12:14 pm Aug 8, 1985 by rlk@ATHENA.MIT.EDU in uiucdcsb:net.sf-lovers */ PS Why didn't the library on Pak have any reference to the ringworld being built? It did have the reference to the expedition to Earth, which was much smaller. /* End of text from uiucdcsb:net.sf-lovers */ The Earth colony was failing; the protectors there knew they were dying; they were worried (well, as worried as protectors get) about their charges. It was possible that protectors would come with descendents and wipe out the resident breeders, but it was unlikely, as they were too busy staying alive back home: far more likely that childless protectors would research the problem and come out. Ringworld was a going enterprise, and reasonably successful -- but as fragile as a planet (c. f. Canyon, Home, today's Earth. If you can come all the way from the galactic core, you can get enough energy to drop a 20km wide asteroid on a planet, and settle a few centuries later.) Why call attention to themselves?