Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!VAF From: VAF@CMU-CS-C.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Niven's Protectors (SFL V10#313) Message-ID: <3220@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 22:26:55 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.3220 Posted: Fri Aug 9 22:26:55 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 08:04:18 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 23 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 -------