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Ask Larry Niven
If you read science fiction at all, you're familiar with Larry Niven. (If you don't, his work is a great place to start.) Anyway, this is a golden opportunity to learn more about a truly innovative author. (Thanks go to Chris DiBona for arranging this interview; he met Larry during one of his TechTV appearances.) One question per post, please. We'll post Larry's answers to 10 of the highest-moderated questions shortly after he gets them back to us.
What do you think of halo's "ringworld"?
Was your cease-and-desist regarding Elf Sternberg's The Only Fair Game motivated more by a personal aversion to the content, or a desire to retain control over "your universe"? How does this jibe with your statement in Ringworld Engineers that "If you want more Known Space stories, you'll have to write them yourself"?
Fuck Slashdot
In the prologue to one of the Ringworld Engineers editions you talk about how some students went to a convention with banners and were chanting "THE RINGWORLD IS UNSTABLE!". I thought that was cute. What's the weirdest thing a fan of your work has ever done? Something like sending you detailed calculations on how to figure out the density of scrith?
Is the RingWorld really unstable?
In your works you tend to try to pick out trends that'll continue into the future, i.e. organ transplants leading to increased capital punishment and organ thieves, or the role playing game's transformation into "Dream Park" style VR environments. What do you see as the next series of advancements and trends that will affect us in the future?
The first time I read the Ring World many years ago in Russian, I still have this book, it travelled with me around the world :)
Here is the question for you:
What do you think about the Columbia accident and what do you think about the general direction that Nasa should be taking in order for us to actually make some progress in space exploration.
What do you think about the space elevator?
Thank you for your books!
Roman
You can't handle the truth.
Mr. Niven,
Any plans to do a movie (or better yet!) an animated version of any of the Man-Kzin Wars stories? These are, I think, the most accessible stories of Known Space (Ringworld might go over the heads of quite a few folks out there).
Also, why not raise attention about how Wing Commander--both the computer game and the attrocious movie--is almost a direct "borrow" of Man-Kzin Wars?
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV.
How difficult is it to prevent technical anachronism? Early science fiction movies had people being shot to the moon with guns, 2001 would have had us with manned spaceflights to Jupiter, and Star Trek is currently dealing with how to show Starship technology more advanced than year 2003 tech while not being as advanced as the original series' audio intercoms and Motorola cellphone communicators.
Do you have a means of avoiding anachronism? What suggestions do you have for other budding authors regarding this problem?
Terrycloth Lobster
Are the plans for a Ringworld movie (or indeed, any LN filmatizations - Gill the ARM would be great) totaly dead, or can we still hope to see Louis Wu and Speaker on the silver screen?
Moderators: These interviews are probably the neatest thing Slashdot does. Please only moderate up actually interesting questions that can't be answered with a quick Google search, a read through his (excellent) work, a few moments thought, or a handful of words ("Yes, I do like to write.").
;-)
I particularly recall the Dave Barry interview where it seemed like half the questions were pathetic attempts to toss him a straight line, rather then really interesting questions.
I think these are the most "importent" moderations you can do on Slashdot, as they are the only ones that have any real effect on the world. Please consider them carefully.
Again, this is not a question so should this happen to get modded highly please do not forward
Will we ever establish and sustain a colony off of the Earth? If so, where, when and how do you think we'll make it?
You only use 2% of your DNA
In The Ones Who Stay Home, in a recent issue of Analog, you raise some pretty serious issues about terrorism and retaliation.
The technology of violence is an arms race which in my lifetime seems to have been pretty well balanced, attacker vs. defender. Lately, the worst the bad guys have done to the U.S. is take down a few buildings: no nuclear weapons yet in the hands of honest-to-goodness madmen, no "gray goo" against which there is no defense except going offplanet, no asteroids being dropped from the moon.
How long do you think this balance will hold? And what do you think the first weapon will be against which it is infeasible -- because of economics, technology, politics, or otherwise -- to mount a successful defense?
I know most SF writers aren't big on religion, but religion occupies a very large space in your collaboration with Pournelle, "The Mote in God's Eye", yet is conspicously lacking in Known Space. Is the religion in "Mote" all Jerry's doing?
A. Rightmann
Larry,
What 3 or 4 TV SF programs have you found most to your liking over the years (if any), and what significance do you think those shows brought to the overall quality of TV SF?
For instance, if I were to ask myself this question, "Star Trek", the original show, remains a classic, but all the sequelized spinoffs (except portions of TNG, and almost all of "Enterprise", which seems to "get it" again) have driven this show into the state of a repeatedly bludgened, very deceased equine.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Mr. Niven,
I'm always curious about what authors read for either inspiration, or what they find to be good literature. What books (science fiction or otherwise) have influenced your work, or do you find to be delightful reads. Any favorite authors?
Thank you for your time.
-When going for broke, go for Ithaca!
Dear Larry Niven - I regard this /.-item as a real opportunity. ... if yes, what is your opinion? Blatant rip-off of your ringworld universe, or homage? And, what is you opinion of how it compares to your ringworld series?
A question I have had in my mind for a couple of years now: have you read Terry Pratchett's novel "Strata"?
If no, you might find it interesting
yes, we have no bananas
My favorite stories of yours are the series of short stories you wrote about Gil Hamilton, the ARM agent with "invisible hand." Aside from the interesting character, what fascinated me was the strange, nearly dystopian world where a good thing (amazing advances in the science of organ transplants) led to a world so desperate for organs that you could get the death penalty for almost every crime in the books.
In an essay, you mentioned you'd written those stories at a time when you were very concerned about the possibility of that future actually coming to pass -- that the convenience of a technology would make the general population so rabid for it that they would become more tolerant of things we would find excessive and cruel in today's world. You also mentioned that you were less concerned about that specific future coming to pass.
If you were to write the Gil Hamilton stories today, what would be the technology you would be concerned about *instead* of organ transplants? What convenience would you see as the basis and rationalization for receiving the death penalty for breaking the speed limit more than three times?
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Mr. Niven,
First, thanks for the awesome books that you have written-- I am a big fan.
My biggest question about the universe in which many of the stories take place is about the "Outsiders." They seem to be extremely technologically advanced; they jump in whenever something impossible needs to be done, such as the Puppeteers moving their worlds around. How come the Outsiders didn't end up competing with Protectors, or do something on the scale of building a ringworld?
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Having been an avid reader of the "chaos manor" site for a while now, I have to wonder. Are you as tech savvy as Jerry, and (more importantly) with you guys having done SO much together, do you find you "share a brain" occasionally, and is it difficult to write with/without him (and/or Steven) after so much work together?
(pick any one or all to answer, as you choose!)
Thanks for the great work!
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
Well, being a successful and already well known author, when you write something, do you write it just to write something, keep your name known, get money .. etc, or do you write because you feel there is something in your head that needs to be put down in paper and read by others?
In other words, what is the "motive" you are writing for?
Thanks, Khalid
"What you 'seek' is what you get!"
Although Carl Sagan purported to be a fan of fiction based on scientific possibilities, he didn't appear to have much of a use for more fantastic works. You write pretty hard science fiction, so what on earth was Carl Sagan's beef with you?
This is a question directed towards Niven fans, and not the man himself:
Can someone please explain the redeeming value of Destiny's Road? It was agony to finish. I've read other work by Mr. Niven, A Hole in Space being my favorite so far. But DR was slow and uninteresting. I have this theory at the back of my mind that there must be some deep underlying allegory I'm missing that would make it interesting, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.
In these Pak Protectors, we have unbelievably intelligent and clever beings, but wisdom does not seem implied. What are your thoughts on wisdom, and what points were you trying to make? Considering the audience for most of your books (geeks, "smart folk"), it's an interesting point to include.
Side question: where did you come up with the idea of the Pak, especially as human ancestors? It has to be one of the more original conjectures about affects of old age that I have ever read :-)
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
How much bloody SF have you read? Almost all the greats had tons of weird religous subtexts....Vonnegut, Heinlien, PK Dick, Assimov, Carl Sagan, the list goes on and one. Any SF author worth reading talks about things greater than sceince future speculation.
BTW, this isn't a question, so don't foreward it if it gets modd'd up.
click me
I've generally found that most people recognise RingWorld, but few people have heard of my favorite series - Dream Park (it's very hard to find).
Gaming technology, although holography isn't at the stage yet, is constantly moving towards more realism. And trends in online gaming and MMORPG's are setting the mentality. However what are your opinions on the social feasibility of something like DP ever becoming a reality, given the rapid movement away from traditional GMs and social non-computer RPG'ing? Would people just prefer to stay at home fully virtual rather than participating in an event with other actual physical people?
Joyce's father's name is 'Wang Mei Ling'[1] You then say that Joyce took her father's surname: 'Mei Ling'. Now, this is so stupidly wrong, it's hard to believe. In Chinese, the family name comes first, followed by the family name. Joyce would have been Joyce Wang-Trujillo.
For me, this was a 'these guys have done no research at all' moment in the book. I was gobsmacked that no one had commented on line in any way that I could find. Do you not know anything about Chinese culture at all?
Also, the UK title of 'The Gripping Hand' is 'The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye'. Have you ever felt like meeting that guy who came up with that awful title in a dark alley? Is a baseball bat involved? At the very least, he deserves half his head shaved in a proper asymmetrical beard.
dave
[1] Mei Ling is a girl's name, in fact, it's incredibly girly, meaning something like 'pretty beutiful'. No one in their right mind would name a boy Mei Ling. 'Wong Mei Ling' is the Chinese name of Suzie Wong, from the book and the film of the same name.
Of the work you've written, does one title in particular have a special place in your heart? Douglas Adams once said that his book "Last Chance to See" was the one book he'd hope that people read if they only read one of his books. Is there one book of yours you'd like people to have read?
Similarly, if I were to introduce someone to your books, which one would you suggest I give him first?
What is your view of ametuer rocketry and the teams going for the X-Prize?
(Note: All of this is preliminary, I haven't done all the calculations yet. By coincidence, I actually started this project two days ago, so take what I say with a grain of salt.) We all know the story of the ringworld's instability, but it seems to me you may have been too hasty in introducing a plot device to fix the problem. It is possible that a material (no more magical than scrith) that selectively absorbs neutrinos could passively stablize a ringworld structure, as recent experiments have suggested that the flux of specific types of neutrinos is not a simple inverse square law. How do you feel about the necessity of defending your artistic works about scientific attack (even if the defense is another, quite successful book), and does the possibility that the physics of the attack were incomplete change your view at all?
I've had this sig for three days.
In "Ringworld" you placed an emphasis on the Luck of Teela Brown. Would you like to take a stab at what percentage of acts, actions and outcomes occur principally based on luck?
I'm not really a web designer, I just play one on the Internet.
I came up with an interesting (and, dare I say, slightly original) concept for an alien world. I'm toying with different ideas for short stories within it. So far, my two biggest problems are
1) Finding a good enough story, and
2) Worldbuilding.
The latter problem is the one I actually care the most - I don't want all of my aliens to be "disguised humans", so I've done big efforts into figuring out how do they behave, what their culture is like, how their physical differences affect their way of thinking AND language, and all that. However, I can't shake the feeling I am missing aspects I shouldn't. This process is tedious and takes long, but I consider it very important.
Are there any guidelines you'd suggest to do it properly?
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
I'm a big fan and have read most of your works. I (and I'm sure many of your other fans) think that some of your best books are the result of collaboration with others, particularly Jerry Pournelle. When working with Jerry and others, how is the work divided? Are there particular aspects of the story that each author contributes? What do you think are your strongest contributions to such a partnership?
So, there's this rumour that you and Jerry Pournelle used the 'Star Wars' SDI to bankrupt the USSR. Specifically, given that the USSR had to maintain equality in military hardware with the USA, you, and several other advisors who had the ears of infulential people in Government, proposed a hugely expensive series of projects which, if the USSR was to match, would break their economy and cause a collapse of their economy.
Is this true? Is it classified?
dave "and did Bjo Trimble take the minutes?"
Larry,
In Ringworld Engineers, you spend an great deal of time surrounding the concept of inter-species sex and copulation. Luis Wu engages in it frequently, it's even mentioned that it has evolved into a means to seal a bargain.
Why the fascination?
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Mr. Niven,
As a young adult, I was a huge fan of science fiction. As an adult, and a scientist, these days I find I can no longer read much of it, because of the ignorance many authors display towards our current scientific understanding of the physical universe.
You at one point in your past went to Cal Tech, and also have a degree in math, so you are clearly technically minded. So I am very curious about your opinion on the science in science fiction. What do you do these days to keep abreast of current science or is that important to you now? Also, what do you think of science fiction such as Star Trek that uses crutches like Warp Drives and Transporters that ignore science as we know it?
Download my free songs!
Hey Larry,
I've been a fan since, well, I was knee high to a grasshopper. _The Mote In God's Eye_ was my first introduction to you, and JP, via my father when I was 11. Some of your earlier work has been amazing and fun, re _Ringworld_, _the Magic Goes Away_, etc. So please don't take this wrong.
I have been seeing something that has been, well, frankly, disturbing as of late in some of the books that have been coming out with you in colloration. While the first Renner and Bury chunk of _The Gripping Hand_ was quite good, the rest felt, uh, unworthy of the original. There were a lot of inconsistancies with the previous book. Ditto for _Beowulf's Children_ vs _Legacy of Heorot_.
What's the reason for this, if I may ask? Is this a side effect of just working up a sequel (already difficult) compounded with the added difficulty of working in collaboration? Or is that the collective you felt pressured into writing the books and just wanted to get them over with? Or was it due to the fact that they didn't get the scrutiny of previous works before going out the door (re Heinlein's famous critique of _The Mote in God's Eye_)?
You did note in one of your delightful mental dumps (_Playgrounds of the Mind or _N Space_, more please! Perhaps call it the _N Body Problem_? ;)) that inconsistancies do tend to pile up (re Known Space). However, in both the cases I'm noting above, it's just single stories and their sequels (discounting JP's shared _War World_ books for the moment...)
So is this the case of an overly zealous fan (re trek[ies/ers] ;))?
Thanx and have fun playing! The rest of us thoroughly enjoy it when you do!
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
I've recently read and enjoyed Ganthet's Tale, your collaboration with John Byrne about the origins of the Green Lantern Corps as well as the DC Universe. With all the attention comic books have been getting in Hollywood lately, with movies from Road to Perdition to Daredevil being produced from comic stories, and screenwriters such as Kevin Smith writing comics, do you have any plans to return to this media?
Yes, Virginia, there really is a CowboyNeal.
We've been hearing rumors about various stories of yours, particularly "Ringworld" being given the Hollywood treatment for ages.
Have you gotten proposals to do any stories for good animated science fiction?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think this is a good question - does Larry Niven feel ripped off or flattered that the game designers used this idea? And has he played the game or seen the graphics? They're quite good, BTW. Without going into much detail (spill mountains, etc.) they sort of "capture" the mental image I first had when I read the RW books.
Did you enjoy writing Oath of Fealty and Dreampark? Any chance either of those will become films? I enjoyed both and have reread them a number of times. Very believable characters and good storyline in both! PS - I really wasn't the *least* disappointed to meet in Boulder, CO with Steve Barnes!! Hoping to meet you again!
You've built worlds with uncommonly dystopian elements, such as Plateau's long tyranny over a disarmed populace, organlegging, all-out war with ruthless aliens, and suppression of dangerous technology. Have you intended any of these to be cautions about likely (or even inevitable) events, or just interesting to think about?
First, Mr. Niven, I owe you a heartfelt thanks for the many years of wonderful reading you've provided. As a long time fan, I've seen the style and subject matter of your work evolve over the years. I've appreciated some of the changes, been disappointed by others, but in the end my eyes still light up whenever I see your name on a new publication. So, thanks. My question(s) ...
How have you seen yourself grow as an author through the years and what have been the major influences that brought about these changes?
Oh, and I have to ask ... first, the Ringworld, then the Smoke Ring, what's the next "Big Thing" you think you'll write about?
Thanks!
I seem to recall some years ago reading that Dream Park had been optioned for the big screen.
a) Was this true, and if so, what is the status of this project?
b) Do you feel that the current level of technology in todays world would allow an accurate portrayal of the computers/holographs in the book on the big screen?
R
(thanks for introducing me to Kuru!)
As a long time reader of your work,(I first read Ringworld in the 6th grade) I would love to see your known space series brought to the Big Screen. Would you be involved in such a project? I would also like to see Lucifers Hammer as a movie, and the only way do do it right is to involve the authors in the project to make sure the original story is kept intact.
Stupid Humans.....
With all of your imaginative ideas, do you find it hard to focus on the one story you are currently writing? (Or do you work on multiple stories at once?) What if you are 200 pages into writing a book and a much better idea comes into your head? Do you finish writing the first book, or do you start on the new one? And do you have lots of unfinished books sitting around waiting to get finished? And finally, however you do it seems to work for you, but would you suggest to other people that they do the same thing?
With all the possiblities for Known Space movies and television programs, especially the Man/Kzin Wars, why have none been made?
The only show episode to incorporate your vision I know of was The Slaver Weapon in the Star Trek Animated Series. It was based on your short story, The Soft Weapon.
Have stories been optioned and live in development limbo?
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Mr. Niven, How do you respond to writers such as Greg Bear and Gregory Binford who complain that there is no "hard" science fiction today of the sort that Asmov wrote? Do you explain to them that Asmimov wrote pulp fiction, even if it was pretty good pulp fiction; or do you point out that stories without character development but lots of whiz-bang tech were part of the era they were written in and fans have moved on?
What do you think of video games as a future outlet for original SciFi universes? Do you think that the interactive environments games provide will appeal to writers who would otherwise create movies or shorts?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
given the current state of high tech movie design, and the very visual nature of the ringworld, do we foresee a chance at a movie? certainly, there are many financial questions involved, but it seems a likely artistic candidate, from the unitiated viewer's view.
I own many of your books and I greatly enjoyed at least 90% of them, but the most recent books seem thrown together. I'm just wondering if you got bored or had other things going on?
The price we pay for immortality... is death. Narnia The Great Fall
Mr Niven,
First, thanks for the playground and the many happy hours I've spent there.
Can you tell me how you perceive the maturation of your writings ?
Your more recent books seem to have less of the idea-a-second, dare-devil excitement I enjoyed so much.
Thanks for everything,
Philip
Follow up question: if you were to write a similar article based on one of the recent or upcoming movie superheroes (Hulk, Daredevil, Spiderman, X-Men, etc.), who would it be?
Corporate Jenga: You take a blockhead from the bottom and you put him on top...
Mr. Niven,
Your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
//If you read science fiction at all, you're familiar with Larry Niven. (If you don't, his work is a great place to start.)//
/. should have given Larry Niven a better intro, if he is "all that".
Shouldn't this read (if you don't his seminal work $blah is a great place to start) ? Where $blah is the name of some piece of his work ?
I just don't get all of these inside slashdot references but IANAL and YMMV. IMHO
I never said that there was religion in the known space books, what I was countering was your arguement that: "I know most SF writers aren't big on religion" and I countered with the arguement that all sf writers worth reading wrote about religion, as well as many other things "bigger" than science speculation.
click me
And from other authors?
dude, its fiction. so like, relax.
I found my inner child, then I got caught abusing it...
As a sci-fi fan and (hopefully) a future author, I am very interested in knowing how you got your first published work through the "slush pile" that every editor keeps on their desk. Is it true that the only way you'll get your work noticed is by knowing someone who knows someone who knows and editor somewhere, or is it just chance?
The Dopester
"Yes, I'm a Karma Whore, but I'm doing it to pay my way through school."
In a few years his books will be seen as outdated because of the science speculation. Sceince changes at a rapid pace, while on the other hand, ideas such as religion, the concept of what is humanity/or reality, never changes....these are what is known as "big themes" in literature, and all great books contain them. I never said belief in religion, but discussion of religion and it's many facets is a big theme. Much bigger than silly speculation of what new toys we will have in 100 years or so.
click me
1. I have read in some of your bios that you spent/spend a lot of time speaking at and even participating in SciFi Cons. How has this comparatively large amount of fan interaction influenced the ideas you play with, and ultimately your work? Do you feel that contact with a "community" of fans gives you access to new ideas and/or concepts that were inspired by or fit into your universes? In other words, besides good Irish Coffee, what do you get out of SciFi Cons?
2. Your longer books are usually cowritten with Jerry Pournelle and/or Steven Barnes. How has the collaboration with these authors influenced your solo work?
P.S. Your work is the only SciFi I can get my girlfriend to read.
http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/SW.htm l
Niven also wrote the episode.
Steve -- If you have to call it a system, you don't know what it is.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Actually, in World of Ptaavs, IIRC, Larry Greenberg's Jewish ancestry was referred to -- as was the discontinuation of kosher practice due to prohibitive cost.
Something I'm puzzled by is the SF genre's increasingly bizarre take on the subject of sex. Sex seems to be more and more gratuitous and graphic in a number of the works I've read by various authors. In the so-called "Golden Age" of science fiction sex was not commonly dealt with, probably as a result of the mores and values during that time. Now the discussion of sex is no longer taboo.
What is your take on this trend? Are authors simply trying to tittilate their audience(s) or are they really attempting to explore the implications of sex in the futures (or pasts, or parallel universes) that they're predicting?
-----------------------
To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
Really now, what were you thinking.
My favorite novels of yours were The Integral Trees. Any plans to make a new one from this setting? And also, how in the world did you come up with the idea?
I greatly enjoyed Inferno. It caused me to later go and read (a translation of) the original by Dante.
I must have missed something, however... What was "the secret" that Mussolini (and later Carpentier) knew that allowed them to move freely about Hell?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Since we're only allowed one question per post...
One of the things I have greatly admired about some of your works, and especially your info dumps (_N Space_ & _Playgrounds of the Mind_) is the raw creativity that comes through, especially in describing your sessions like at Contact where you pull out some really weird and fascinating ideas for aliens.
Have you ever considered, whether here on slashdot as a guest writer, or in your own web page (like what Jerry Pournelle does) or through UseNet (like Steve Stirling does), putting together an online presence/participation that would allow you to periodically spin out, with your fans, worlds and ideas?
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
What is Louis Wu up to?
Do you think there will be a movie of The Mote in God's Eye any time soon?
10+ years ago someone from Pixar told me it was one of his favorite books, but that the technology for making a movie of it wasn't there yet.
I'm hoping that has changed, as Mote is my favoite SF novel.
Has someone purchased movie rights, and if so are they doing anything about it?
Do you have any strong views or insight on the state of space exploration today and in the near future? If you were appointed NASA administrator and given a free hand to set its direction along with a healthy budget and no political interference what would you do? In particular, what are your views on manned missions to and colonization of Mars.
@de_machina
In the original Star Trek series the Klingons can be seen as stand-ins for the Russians or any generic enemy. They are warlike and aggressive but this is not really elaborated on.
In the newer Star Trek movies and series they have been fleshed out and given codes of honor, culture and history. These new Klingons seem to me to be very similiar to the Kzin. The Kzin are more alien and more fun but I guess Paramount didn't want to spring for Cat suits for everyoine. Do you see any relationship between the new Klingons and the Kzin? If so are you pleased or not?
Howdy Mr Niven,
I am a daily reader of Dr Pournelle's Chaos Manor & have read quite a number of your joint projects not to mention quite a few of each of your individual books. What is it like working with Jerry days on end & how do you manage to blend your writing styles so well? I often wonder, while reading one of your books, who did which chapter. I've read that you alternate writing chapters. How does that work so that the book flows so well? Do you two have compatible writing styles or has it come from years of working together?
CyberRanger cyberranger@gmail.com
Power once seated is hard to overthrow. This is why computers will be controlled, as are all other means of electronic publication, unless we defeat things like "Trusted computing", carinvore, and licenses to code.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Mr Niven,
I and some collaborators are designing a three-armed robot, inspired by the moties in "The Mote in God's Eye". It looks like the extra arm could greatly simplify many operations. When you and Jerry Pournelle were writing this book, did you have ideas about the specific advantages a third arm would confer?
I liked it. Is there going to be a sequel?
Although I agree that there were times I wondered if it was a sequel and I missed something.
Hello Mr Niven.
I have been a reader of yours for about 15 years now, and have enjoyed reading and rereading your many works.
I have two questions I would like to ask
First is where did you get the idea for "The Integral Trees"? It is the most amazing "planet" that I have ever heard of.
How Important is Classical Mythology in your writing? I know that many of your books are based on it , Legacy of Heorot, Beowulf's Children & Inferno come to mind, but are all your books influenced by mythology or just certain ones?
Thank you for your time
Lord Of the Beer
D.A.K.D.A.E.---- Deny all Knowledge, Destroy All Evidence
I think this was the worst book I read in 2002 and I
read a lot of books. It sucks so badly, it is unbelievable. It felt unfinished and unedited.
It was also the last book I bought from you.
[Note this is not a troll: The book got less than 3 stars on amazon!]
Most of your later books are below the standards you set earlier.
Did you run out of ideas?
What happened to the sense of wonder in the early Known Space series?
Moritz
Greetings!
Will you be opening the rest of the Known Space Universe to people like Don Kingsbury or Steve Stirling, rather than jus the Man-Kzin war periods?
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
I guess the human-derived protectors were more creative.
Ok, the book only implies that the human protectors from Home destroy the Pak protector fleet. But for whatever reason, the fleet never shows up at Earth.
Still it'd be an epic story to tell.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Lets see Spielberg do the Mote homeworld. Think about it. A civilization that repeats it's past everytime the population gets too large or too hungry. Or too smart....
Reading any of your works that involve the kzinti, and then reading the Man-Kzin Wars stories, I was struck by the difference in in behavior of the alien characters between your own work and that of others. (For example, Speaker-to-Animals takes the variable sword back from Louis at a time when Louis expected curiosity to distract him - I don't think any other author would have thought of that.) How do you get inside the minds of aliens in order to understand what their reactions to a given situation will be? You seem to be considerably better at this than most other SF authors out there.
Also, you mention - I believe in the introduction to a section of Ringworld in either N-Space or Playgrounds of the Mind - that a student had written a paper based on the thesis that the novel Ringworld was a sci-fi rehash of the plot of the The Wizard of Oz. You denied having done this intentionally, but have you ever "borrowed" a plot from a work in another genre and attempted to adapt it to a sci-fi setting? If so, what work did you borrow the plot from, and how do you feel the story turned out?
-Ender
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
I never could see a mechanism for how Pak protectors could have evolved in symbiosis with Tree-of-life virus (or vice versa). It always seemed to me that tree of life virus would have to have been designed. Perhaps the pair were the follow-on tnuctip weapon after Jinxian Bandersnatch against the Thrint, since humans have latent resistance to Thrints (World of Ptavvs).
Much to my chagrin, since then it has occurred to me that this is similar to the argument that many Creationists use to push so-called "intelligent design" theories.
So, 3rd-stage Pak - evolved or designed? If evolved, what mechanism would you propose since the effects of tree-of life virus happen after the Pak breeder phase and have no foreseeable effect on the ability of ToL virus to reproduce.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
I give you From Crossbows to Cryptography. (And more corn.) Any physical possession requires not only the wherewithal to obtain it, but the knowledge and will to use it. The level of suffering required to provide sufficient motiviation in these areas varies in every individual.
Fuck Slashdot
Could you *Please* let us in on all of the puns and injokes and cameos in these books!!!
I know about "As a shade of Purple Grey = Asimov", and the Roddenbery Bush in Flying Sorcerors, what are the many others?
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Mr. Niven, in many of your books, space travel plays a much more prominent role than does the contemporary computer network. The network is usually there, and its presence is implicit in the story, but it's not really important to the story. Here on earth in the present day, the computer network is much more important than space travel, except on the rare occasions when space travel goes wrong. Even space travel seems to be mostly for further propagation of the computer/communications network.
As I was growing up, reading science fiction of all varieties, I had dreams of one day flying in spaceships, living on the moon, etc. It just didn't seem that far away. Now, however, the dream of space seems further and further away -- it feels as though my generation (I'm near the end of Generation X, though I despise the term) has traded the difficult goal of space for the easy goal of computers.
How do you feel about this apparent trend in modern history as compared to the predicted space-based future of many older SF stories? Would you have steered humanity's course differently if you had the chance?
I seem to remember some hassle that Bungie received after releasing the "Halo" game on the XBox. The idea was that the Halo was a knockoff of the Ringworld. It got to the point that Bungie's co-founder made a public statement about it at the time, decrying the Halo/Ringworld connection. I think your opinion was that you can't patent nor copyright a ring.
Mr Niven: what do you think?
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What, in your opinion, would be the most useful sort of structure to have in LEO? Is the ISS useful, or would something more utilitarian have been a better choice? I ask, keeping in mind that many of your books showed a thriving asteroid mining industry, which depended on bases out of gravity wells.
What was it like working on 'The Guns of Navarone'?
Q...
The idea of a ringworld is not unique, and I doubt it was be "ripped off" from Niven. It's merely a logical reduced version of a Dyson sphere.
(Although I have to note I don't know the Halo story, so perhaps if it has more similarities...)
But seeing as how it apparently circles a "gas planet" rather than a star... it's more similar to Arthur C. Clarke building upon the possibilities of space-elevators. I believe that as early as in The Fountains of Paradise (definitely not sure about this one) the idea was already to connect several of these space elevators in space, thus creating one huge band around the entire planet. (And if it wasn't in Fountains of Paradise, then at the very least there have been dozens of books since in which this idea was used.)
It seems to me, in looking from the outside, that a large majority of successful SF writers have degrees in the sciences, but not in the writing. In college, I bailed from the hard sciences and majored in English (creative writing concentration). Some might argue that this gives me a leg up, but I don't really see it. Generally speaking, the writing in SF, which I read extensively, seems to be more prosaic/utilitarian than "literary" fiction, and I guess I can see the need for that, given the materials covered. I guess my question is this: do I rely on my not-as-vast scientific knowledge that I maintain by reading the science journals and rely on the strength of my writing to carry me through to publication? Or do I focus away from writing science fiction?
(A subset question of this is: is it easy to get pigeonholed in a particular genre? I am putting the finishing touches on a pair of SF short stories that I am going to be sending out, but I'm writing "literary"/mainstream fiction novels that I'd like to see in print. Am I going to face discrimination working in two blatantly different genres if I try and publish in both under the same name?)
blog |
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As a youth I was quite neurotic and obsessed with my imminent death. I had this nicely bound family medical guide. I used to dutifully read each section and work myself into a hypochondriac lather. I still remember going to family doctor convinced I had terminal cancer of the pancreas. He laughed at me like Dr. Hibbard between puffs of his cigarette.
Then your Pierson's Puppeteers introduced me to whole new level of dread and paranoia. As a youth, I dreamed mankind would have already permanently occupied the moon, started terraforming Mars, and be well on our way to mapping all those nasties that might want to impact our little backwater. And yet, as of 2003, we barely seem able get our sorry asses past low earth orbit.
We've got this nasty solar system, twitchy sun, wacky galactic core, and an uncaring universe and the wackjobs that are running the show here on the surface do nothing inspire confidence in our long-term survivability. We've got no fallback options. No Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis with their gattling guns in space. Not even a droud to deliver the sweet bliss of the wire!
How are you sleeping these days?
Some trends you anticipated seem to be coming about to greater or lesser degrees. Increasingly, governments track their own citizens. Some are pushing for mandatory ID's at birth. In the U.S., activities that would have caused outrage 50 years ago are becoming commonplace. Activities like warrant-less searches, random highway stops based on 'racial profiling', surveillance cameras that see through walls, etc. Other countries like the U.K. and Australia have (attempted) to ban all firearms. Gene sequences are being patented and cloning is a reality. In your Known Space timeline, these were generally good things. The U.N. ran an effective world government. Surveillance tech let planetary police get crime under control. Organ theft was only existed until lab growing techniques were perfected, and mass disarmament put an end to intra-species conflicts. Given that context, where do you see these trends ending up? What do you see at the history of the next X number of years?
Do you have any technology described in any of your books that has not yet been developed (or proven impossible) which you would like to see more research on?
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
What do you think the chances are that there is life of some kind in our solar system besides on planet Earth?
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
It seems that the gale-force winds at the tufts integral trees would cause torque that would rotate the trees to be aligned along the direction of travel. In the Smoke Ring books, integral trees remain radially oriented. What force prevents them from rotating?
-Graham
What is your opinion of "A Darker Geometry" by Benford & Martin? Was this book written with your permission, considering it explains a number of Known-Space mysteries?
Personally, it's one of the few books in my collection that I'm sorry I bought and read (I keep it only for completeness).
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
I have read several of your books, including the Ringworld series. I thought the first Ringworld was awesome! However, as you progressed through the other two, the plots seemed to center more and more around having sex with aliens.
It seemed to me that you were using "rish" way past the point of being an interesting plot twist, or a literary device to illustrate how different people are all the same inside, and even too far to set up the evil power of vampires.
It seemed to me like you needed to get out and find yourself a girlfriend!
Can you explain why you were so obsessed with inter-planetary inter-species lust?
Disclaimer: I am generally in favour of sex -- I like pictures of sex, reading about sex, having sex, etc... but just not with aliens.
I don't want to be here.
I am a fan of the Star Fleet Battles (Starfleet Command on the computer) game based on the Star Trek universe. In this board game version of Star Trek there is a race called the Kzinti (based on a race in the cartoon version of Star Trek). Now some have accused them of blatant theft from Man-Kzin Wars. However, I have also heard that you were in fact involved in writing the cartoon episode featuring the Kzin. I am very curious, were you involved in it or was the concept flat out stolen?
the guy was insisting that sci-fi writers rarely deal with religion in context of their writing. Which is where he is wrong. And Dune, as well as many, many, many, other scifi classics all deal with religion somehow.
click me
It has been a recurring theme that the "science fiction" genre has always been about speculating future technology and then writing about its plausible effects on mankind (and the lead character).
My question is this: Now that the scientific society today has pretty much figured that the majority of scientific problems have been solved (its only working out the details), how is the science fiction genre going to change? I mean, are all the topics/plotlines already written about and will all the new works just be re-hashes of older ideas?
L7
See also Inferno. It's set in the Christian hell -- you don't get much more explicitly religious than that.
-- Support Ometz le-Serev.
A common thread that runs through your
fiction, from Gil and the ARM stories to
the very refreshing Destiny's Road, is
that of an all encompassing State which
controls society by absolutely controlling
technology and science. This contrasts with the notion
found in other SF, notably Vinge and
arguably even Heinlein, that technological
progress propels individual freedom. Do
you believe that there is still a need for unfettered growth of
revolutionary technology with all its
inherent dangers or are the needs of
human society such that we are better off
with deep controls over science, knowledge and technology?
How is "Phssthpok" pronounced?
What the hell is up with Known Space? Why stop writing in that universe? C'mon, we all know that the different universes are just vehicles for storytelling. We love the details and realism about Known Space...why don't you?
And how about a new Smoke Ring book?
Do you name your computers also? What are they called?
What kind of IT are you using to write nowadays? I remember you were using a 8080 CP/M box like Pournelle's back in the 80's, with Electric Pencil...any advances?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
While the universes of Known Space and the Draco Tavern and even magical prehistory (The Magic Goes Away, etc.) have been wellsprings of inspiration for you, the universe of The State seems to be a second-class citizen. I've greatly enjoyed all three novels, and I've been hoping for an expansion of their universe for some time, especially some greater exploration of living in such a society on Earth itself. I'd also like to read the story of the dispute between Earth and its colonies. Have you lost interest in the world of The State?
What's your opinion on eBooks, today and in the near future?
You released one eBook for free (Fallen Angels) at Baen's free library. Fallen Angels was very amusing at points, but far below the quality of your other work, or Jerry's for that matter (I don't know much about Flynn). Did you guys choose to release that novel after it was written or before? Would you release another novel, either for free or for pay?
One of my favourite books is "The Mote in God's Eye" (written by you and Jerry Pournelle). . I'm very interested in knowing how do you and Pournelle split the work (no only in this book but in general). Is anybody in charge of the dialogs ? Do you have a preference to create certain situations that he doesn't like (or viceversa) ? How do you decide the course of a story, etc.
I've read rumors that you would be writing another ringworld book in the future? Is the 'luck of Tela Brown' with us?
and co-written with Jerry Pournelle, kind of spoiling your point...
Science Fiction as a genre driven by extrapolation of technology seems to be running out of wiggle room. The stories of Vernes and Wells are so technologically backwards now they are more quaint fantastic literature than "science" fiction. Heinlein's (I can never spell that right) and Asimov's space exploration driven narratives with otherwise 1950's era technology: large expensive computing facilities requiring extremely heirarchic societies and little in the way of personal technology than the occasional ray gun also seems to have fallen out of favor. Now it seems stories based on ubiquitous cheap personal technology a la Gibson's cyberpunk dystopias and Cory Doctorow's work seems to be the predominant model in sci fi by number of critical reviews if not by sales anyway. This too shall probably change as small scale build to order manufacturing and personally customized medicine becomes a reality and is integrated into society without (hopefully) a dystopic effect. This seems to leave room only for Star Wars and Star Trek type fantasies which almost explicitly ignore facts that make much of their universe physically impossible in the same way old Warner Brothers cartoons ignore Newtonian physics. I have a hard time considering these stories science fiction however because science seems to have little to do with the story, to me at least they seem to be fantastic morality tales of which other examples would be Kafka's The Metamorphosis or a Brother's Grimm fairy tale. While worthwile these stories don't seem to be extrapolations of the effects of science on society perhaps a little narrow but that's generally what I consider science fiction. So now to my question, as technological development accelerates and visions of a space travel oriented society or future dystopia dim in the rear view mirror of history do stories driven by extreme extrapolation of science have a future or will sci fi become indistinguishable from fantasy with laser guns?
Or should that be too leading a question, what purpose is there for science fiction these days (aside from storylines that gross $100 million at the local multiplex)?
Do you really believe what seems to be implied at the end or your Uplift series, that *aliens* have influenced our development?
Larry,
On one of your panels at ConJose, you started to comment on the flow of folks northward into the US from Mexico. I got the impression you thought we should do something about it. Would you care to finish that thought?
Did you know that the Slashdot website is responsible for the cyberspace (ugh) equivalent of the phenomenon you described in "Flash Crowds" ?
Interestingly it came true, except instead of teleporting in to geographical places on hearing of the latest tragedy people point their web browsers at CNN or the BBC instead.
OK, so if it were an exact comparison you would have written originally about people teleporting into people's houses to check out their latest computer case mod with built-in aquarium and neon lights, or the scale model of the Tokyo Tower made out of lego, but you get the idea.
And just in case you thought that this whole post was just a statement rather than a question, I'm asking: Did golden-age SF under or over-estimate today's society ? I mean, we don't have like "Venus Base 1", "Moon Colony Alpha", matter transportation or FTL drive, but we do have communications equipment and infrastructure that goes WAY beyond the comms they were using even in these planetary bases, and it has revolutionized our lives...
graspee
My older sister gave me copies of _Ringworld_ and the then just-published _Ringworld Engineers_ for my 14th birthday, and I was *hooked*. The book in your extensive repertoire that impressed me the most was _Inferno_.
What led you and Jerry to re-write such a classic piece of literature?
Who are some of your favorite Science Fiction authors?
Education is the silver bullet.
I take it the mods either have not read any of Niven's work or just don't like me.
1: Organ Banks are the subject of many of Niven's works. The concept that we might become nothing but raw material for organ harvesting is the central theme to some of his best work.
2: Halo takes place on a ring world (a small one, but one just the same) and Jerry Pournell has talked about Mr. Niven and Halo several times in his "Chaos Mannor" collumn.
Don't mod someone down because you don't know what the hell they are talking about.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Wrong author, binkie; the Uplift books are by David Brin. Niven's 'universe' is Known Space (Ringworld, Gift from Earth, Protector, Gil Hamilton).
25DEC == Christmas, 1JAN == New Years. Not to mention Columbus Day is only the 2nd Monday in Oct, not set as the 21st.
:)
It was good for a laugh though
This has been a test. Had this been a real emergency, we would have fled in terror and you would not have been informed.
Mr. Niven,
In "A gift from Earth", you make the point that technological changes precipitate changes in popular mainstream ethics. What technological changes do you see having the most impact on ethics over the next thirty years and what are the changes you see them causing?
How do you go about coceptualizing an alien race?
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
I would like to humbly ask if you would consider collaborating on a trilogy or two with David Brin? (My mind boggles at the possibilites.)
Because the Ringworld is aligned with the plane of the galaxy, and the Ringworld's construction stops most radiation, could the Ringworld be used as a lifeboat to ride out the explosion wave from the detonation of the galaxy's core?
It always struck me that there was some implied relationship between the Slaver war, the Ringworld, and the core explosion.
How's this for a theory:
The Slavers used their galaxy-spanning "kill yourselves now" telepathic doomsday weapon, but enough Tnuciptin survived (stasis boxes, travelling via hyperspace, etc.) to take revenge by using their own doomsday weapon to detonate the galaxy's core, ensuring that the Slavers couldn't win the war either.
Assuming that a galaxy-wide civilization was destroyed by the conflict, the Ringworld looks like a localized "last, best effort" solution to survive the core explosion built by someone with extraordinarily good tech, but not a lot of resources, with a crumbling infrastructure. The brute force approaches (bussard ramjets for attitude control, etc.) are at odds with the super-science of scrith and the material used to link the shadow squares.
If you looked at a lifeboat from a modern ocean liner, you'd see some amazing plastics, maybe some electronic wizardry (GPS, radio, etc.) but you'd find basic stuff like oars, life jackets, etc. as well - a mix of high and not-so-high tech to deal with the transition from civilization to an uncivilized environment.
Very much like the Ringworld.
Thanks for your time,
Sincerely,
Ryan S. Dancey
I've been a fan since I was 10... and it took me years to realize one of your major contributions: returning real science to science fiction, which had gone down a less rigorous path when you came on the scene and was slowly turning into fantasy.
Where would you say that science fiction as a genre is going? In the direction of more science, or less? More galactic epics, or more personal stories? And, of course, more mainstream acceptance?
Are there any plans for a Ringworld movie? Or movies of any of your other novels(or collaberations)??
I would love to see them on film!! "Mote in God's Eye" or "Ringworld" would rock!!! "Legacy of Hereot" would be a GREAT action/scifi flick!
You are by far my favorite author, even though I can't remember how to spell hereot....
Programming is simply the application of logic to creativity
Larry, special effects and CGI have progressed to the point where Ringworld could finally be credibly realized on the big screen. Is there any possiblity of rescuing it from the rights limbo it has wandered into?
A CGI rendition of Nessus could make Gollum look as ordinary as Sean Astin was in Rudy. Speaker would be a kick to realize on CGI as well.
So what's the story, is there any hope of a Ringworld movie?
Edith Keeler Must Die
The "Ringworld" in Halo is much much smaller than The Ringworld, and the details actually seem to come from another source. In Ian M. Bank's Culture series, there are structures called habitats which are like ringworld, except much smaller. Since they are smaller they can be put into real orbits, and don't have to worry about falling into the sun. Also, one habitat rotation producing about 1 G takes 24 hours, eliminating the need for shades like The Ringworld had.
There is another Banks reference in Halo too. When ship is attacked the Captain refers to downloading information into his "neural lace." That is a term Banks used for a computer in someone's head, htough other people have used it too.
This sig wasn't worth reading, was it.
-- Support Ometz le-Serev.
Meaning: Is it more difficult to be scientifically convincing, or to create futuristic scenarios that are plausible?
How are your ideas on writing and publishing changing,
as our many technologies are advancing so quickly?
This is open-ended because I'm interested
in your broad vision, your creative response.
And thank you for so many wonderful stories...
Cheers, Joel
Okay, Convergent Series then. The lead character summons a traditional demon -- pentacle and the whole deal.
-- Support Ometz le-Serev.
I've been waiting for a Mote movie ever since reading that book 20+ years ago. Now that the technology exists to do it well, any chance of it happening?
Unless it got really, really, really good after the first 50 pages.
I just could not get into it, and figured my time was better spend rereading Vinge.
Which way *does* the Earth rotate, anyway?
I decided that behaving ethically was the most nihilistic thing I could do. - Paul Pavel
David Brin has been forthright concerning his jealousy over bad SF being made into movies while his work is not. With the exception of 'Forbidden Planet' I have yet to see a science fiction movie that draws me in the way a good Sci-Fi book does.
I also think that your works would make excellent movies. Brin's work would probably play well in Europe, where people seem to prefer a little more ambiguity in their movies. It probably wouldn't do well here. Now, I'm not saying your writing isn't of the same caliber as Brin's work, but it is a little more accesible to the common man, and therefore seems well suited to be made into a blockbuster that would do well in the states. My questions: 1.) Are you at all jealous that lesser talents get to have their work seen by millions on the silver screen? 2.) Have you been approached by any producers regarding screenplays of your work? 3.) Would you even want to have your works made into movies?
That said, I just have to say thank you for providing me with so much quality entertainment! I grew up reading your stories from the time I was ten. In my esteem, you are one of the best well rounded Sci Fi authors out there. Your work has great characters, fantastic settings, believable science, and lots of action. Thanks again.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Let's say someone from Hollywood would give you some money and the choice of director.
;-)
Which one would you allow to rip off your Ringworld?
(Please DON'T say Spielberg or I'll burn all your books
I have a secret fantasy: and no this is not a trollI want to
be a Pak, I know it sounds strange but it is true.
Protector was the first book I read, and I read itas a
early teen in the 70s.
Question is, did the Pak start as a Frankenstein or just a cool
idea for you?
And where in the hell did you get the idea that we where the Pak?
Did you know the Pak made Ringword _before_ you started Ringworld?
"think of it as evolution in action"
Some authors write books that are obviously self-contained and when reading these works it is intuitively obvious that there were no sequels planned by the author. Yet, a few years later, you find that the author has succumbed to sequel-mania. More often than not, these sequels detract from the original work. A disastrous (set of) sequel(s) that comes to mind are the sequels to "Rendezvous with Rama". While your Ringworld sequels arent as bad those, nevertheless, those works prod me to ask "Why?". Couldnt you leave that story line alone and let your masterpiece be a monument by itself? Sometimes, the Washington monument is what one needs rather than a Stonehenge.
Note that I am not against sequels per se. It is possible to plan sequels ahead of time when authoring the first book, and sometimes, the effect is well done. Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead", and "Xenocide" comes to mind as examples of the good variety of sequels. But a lot of sequels to bestsellers were written because the first book was a bestseller, and those are the variety that more often than not make readers cringe.
There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
For a while I was reading the Man-Kzin Wars books, for which Mr. Niven is the series editor. Authors must be invited to write, IIRC. So anything from that series is, I believe, supposed to be taken as canonical.
One of the more interesting stories was expanded into a full-length novel concerning the Outsiders, published as A Darker Geometry. (Unfortunately, the short story ended right where it should have; the additional material in the book is pretty cliche IMHO. But I digress.)
This book does tell large parts of the story from the first-person viewpoint of a Pierson's Puppeteer, and we get some interesting "secrets" of both Outsiders and Puppeteers exposed. One of them is, if memory serves, a passing reference to "the large ring structure that the Outsiders were building."
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
In the Draco tavern tale "Ssoroghod's People", you tell a cautionary tale about experimenting in your only living space. What do you feel is the greatest danger from biotechnology? What do you feel is the most promising application for it?
("Ssoroghod's People" can be found in the collection Redshift, ed. Sarrantonio)
How would you describe the relationship between sexuality as presented in your work and your own personal views on the subject? (What does your wife think about it?
P.S. Great fan, so is my girlfriend - question not meant to offend.
I never have frustrations, the reason is, to wit:
If at first I don't succeed, I quit!
Mr. Niven,
How does it feel to have a card, and a fairly powerful one to boot, from the CCG Magic:The Gathering named after you, and did it gain you any audience among the younger magic players who may not have known who you were before their exposure to Nevinyrral's Disk?
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
What did you think about Snow Crash.
/.ers can't seem to shut up about it.
I think I am obligated to ask because
A two-parter, you can answer either or even both: "A world out of time" and "The Integral Trees" both have the distinction of having "The State" world/trans-solar government in their respective histories. Do both of these stories in fact take place in the same universe separated by vast amounts of time? Along those same lines, can we ever expect a return to this universe say with a third novel in the "Trees" series? I know that at one time you were working on another sequel.. Finally I'll say that anything that includes Bussard Ramships is a good thing. Many Regards.
*Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
In Niven's Laws, you discuss how we could have seriously changed the world by now if we launched solar-collecting power satellites 20 years ago. Do you still think these satellites are a good idea? Is it (ever) too late?
-Joe
Lose = not win
Do you advocate Rishathra and if so, could you recommend a species that is particularly good at it?
My, uh, friend wants to know...
Show me an effect without cause and then I'll believe in chaos.
What kind of IT are you using to write nowadays?
He's Larry friggin' Niven, ferchrissakes!! FORGET you're a nerd for one lousy minute and DON'T ask him questions about what Word Processor he uses!!
ye gods...
Doubtless there were felinoid aliens before the Kzin.
Cmon. You're ridiculous. There is no idea stealing there. This is all a way to damage the good name of Wing Commander.
The kzinti are ratcats. The Wing Commander Kilrathi have no rat like ears. They have fur on their tails. Kzinti do not. SEE THE DIFFERENCE? I think your mind is wandering too much. Stay off the drugs.
Please, do not pursue this line of thinking again, or you will be sued.
There is no copyright infringement.
Love-
Paramount Studios
"Do you regret Lucifer's Hammer et al?"
Is that the only Niven/Pournelle collaboration you're aware of? Some of Nivens best books were collaborations with Pournelle. That fact, in itself, answers your question quite well.
The Mote in God's Eye
Lucifers Hammer
Footfall
to name my three favorites.
Show me an effect without cause and then I'll believe in chaos.
Do you have an more details on this episode, I'd love to see it. Original series or current?
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
Well? Who would win?
All it takes is nukes and nerves.
Not written anywhere. I'm just curious what state of mind leads someone to contemplate Superman's sex life...
Corporate Jenga: You take a blockhead from the bottom and you put him on top...
In brief: What science fiction do you recommend to people who hate science fiction?
The origin of Sturgeon's Law, widely quoted as "Ninety percent of everything is crap.", is related in the following anecdote:
-- James Gunn, The New York Review of Science Fiction #85, September 1995
I have never read much science fiction, I as cannot bear bad science fiction. But, if I were given a reading list of very good science fiction, I think I would enjoy it greatly.
As such, can you give me a science fiction reading list that contains unassailable writing? What science fiction is both highly "literary" and just plain good? What science fiction will satisfy even the most "high-brow"/pretentious tastes?
A lot of your early work was based on astronomy. More recently, you've written a number of things about slower-than-light colonization. (Incidentally - this is not my question - am I correct that with Destiny's Road your intent was to tie it, Grendel, and the Smoke Ring all into A World Out of Time?) Do you believe there's anything further to be said about STL colonies? If not, where are you looking for ideas now?
Lots of folks love SF: Today there's a cable network and a nauseating volume of Star Trek reruns. Computer graphics makes it feasible to put a movie into any imaginable setting. Technology is being deployed so quickly that Vernor Vinge's singularity comes to mind. Technological progress is moving so fast it is hard to anticipate it.
NASA is dinking around in LEO: Boldly going where John Glenn has gone four decades before. I don't know who said it: The future just ain't what it used to be.
The Sputnik generation is graying: When I was a lad, I watched moon shots. It captured my imagination. I read any book that had a rocket on its cover. I'm late forties and will be dead of cancer soon.
Writers are moving out of SF: William Gibson's latest novel has high geek content, but none of the science isn't already deployed. Same for Neal Stephenson's _Cryptonomicon_: good story with high geek content, but nothing beyond the current state of the art. And I've seen guys who once wrote Hard Science Fiction branching out to Fantasy.
Publishing is corporatized: The huge bookstores I haunt have SF sections that are overcrowded with Fantasy and StarTrek, StarWars, Babylon5 & <insert corporate franchise here> serials.
It looks to me as if Science Fiction is in trouble, or it may be sick, or it may be dead and doesn't know it yet.
What is your assessment of SF's health and which of these considerations do you think most significant?
Via dictionary.com:
et al.
abbr. Latin
et alii (and others).
Looks like he was aware that there are others.
big on Enthusiastic about; partial to
Just because SF writers deal with religion in their stories doesn't mean that the like it. Quite a few of the greats, such as Asimov, Clarke, Sagan, and Adams, are well-known atheists and agnostics.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Hi Larry,
Can you tell us what you're currently working on and do you have any plans to collaborate with Jerry Pournelle? Also, are any of your books planned for big or small screen translation? I'd love to see a movie based on Ringworld, Legacy of Heorot or A Mote in God's Eye. Fallen Angels would make a good serial on the SciFi channel (something similar to Steven Spielburgs 'Taken').
Finally, thanks for the great books.
Or a half second to hit F12 in opera and select "refuse popups". I honestly didn't know that imdb had popups because of that.
Carpe Deez
Just that they dealt with it.
click me
Footfall is good...
No, Footfall and every other abomination that bears the name of Jerry Pournelle should never be mentioned in polite company. Larry == Good. Jerry == Bad.:)
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Yeah, I saw that Outer Limits episode when it first aired. I was pretty pleased with it, although the very end of the episode made some changes that weren't in the original story and seemed gratuitous and somewhat implausible. (For those that aren't familiar, at the end of the episode, the main character is pretty severely injured for no particular reason -- particularly considering the new world he's going to be living in, it seems pretty highly likely that the injury will be life-threatening; the original story does not have the character receiving any serious injuries at all.)
I'd be curious if Niven was aware of and authorized this change.
What comes first, the science or the fiction? Did you imagine a ring shaped world and then build the physics model afterward, or start with a Dyson Sphere and end up with a ring? Are your creatures created and then put into an ecology, or do you think of an ecology and evolve a creature out of it? Did the Kzinti exist before the Kzinti homeworld?
Carpe Deez
As a fellow science fiction writer, what is your take on Dianetics and the Church of Scientology? Is the plot even that good?
Part of the background of your Known Space novels was the ARM governmental organization on Earth. You described ARM as a paternalistic, totalitarian world government that existed for the most part to protect humankind from the consequences of unrestrained technological development (widely available fusion bombs, exotic weapons, etc.) and to control population growth (which could be seen as another outcome of improved technology). In contrast. the Belt civilization seemed to be a much freer society, perhaps because of its different situation (more distributed == less vulnerable, more room == less worry about population pressure).
With that as a background, both of these societies sacrificed different levels of freedom for different amounts of security, certainly a relevant issue in todays post-9/11 environment where there is an increased awareness that technology (secure communications for terrorists, increased travel, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, etc.) have made society more vulnerable. What do you think of the United State's steps towards increasing safety (perhaps at the expense of freedom)? Do you feel that as Earth becomes more technologically advanced and more densely populated and interconnected that some movement towards an ARM level of social control is inevitable?
PS: Just wanted to thank you for your many stellar (pun!) novels. Your books never cease to provoke new ideas and questions and were/are a tremendous influence on a developing young technie. Keep it up!
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
What is the status of Ringworld Child, the third sequel to your sublime Ringworld? If it hasn't been abandoned, could you give us a few hints about its plot?
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
While a few classic science fiction books have been adapted into movies, usually poorly - Dune and Starship Troopers are prime examples - few short stories seem to make the jump to film, unless they are PK Dick's.
Why do we not see more adaptations of short stories which seem to me to be far more suitable? I've always thought it was easier to add to a short story than to subtract from a novel.
Eric
Eric Aitala
www.f1m.com
Rainbow Mars is, IMHO, Larry's second best novel after Ringworld. It is based on a brilliant and whimsical concept. Yes, the amazing parts are after the first fifty pages.
If you are really having problems getting into it, try reading the short stories at the end of the book first.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Larry, you introduced a bright 3rd grader to science-fiction with your "World Out of Time". Your vivid imaginations of a lone traveler crossing the yawning gapes of the interstellar void in a ramjet starship were consciousness-expanding to that little kid. And--scarcely 8 years old--gifted him with an intuitive grasp of relativistic physics.
My question is: do you think those interstellar dreams are still attainable? In other words: will our space technology beat the race against population growth, warfare, disease, poverty, et cetera? At present it seems WAY behind.
The child is now a man, and longs to escape The State for a simpler life among the branches of an Integral Tree.
Larry, thank you for your visions.
If I ran the zoo, they'd be making a Protector movie first, and THEN a Ringworld movie. Especially with all the CG stuff they can do these days -- Pstthpok would be a MUCH better use of that stuff than Jar-Jar Binks.
More a rant than a question I guess. Anyway I'll join the hundreds of people here in thanking you for many pleasant thought-filled hours in my childhood.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
Oh, Ye of little brain! If you had the brain the size of a mustard seed, you'd know that Larry Niven has invented or co-invented or examined thoughtfully many amazing ideas:
The organ banks and organ leggers. See what China is doing now--selling organs taken from "criminals."
The Integral Trees: Life in a huge gas torus in orbit around a star.
Free Parks (with & without CopsEyes): The fragility of society to anarchy.
The Kzinti: Am I the only one who sees how much of the "new" Klingons was lifted from the Kzin?
The UN ARM: One world govt. suppressing anything dangerous. WE ARE ON THIS PATH!
Etcetera, Etcetera, Et-bloody-cetera! Niven has seen the future. What he wrote about in the 70's & 80's we are living to see.
Larry, where do these ideas all come from?! And what trend do you see coming next to the fore?
READ the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments! http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/const.html
You stated in Ringworld Engineers that Louis Wu was incorrect in assuming Ringworld was build by the Pac. My theory is that it was built by the tnuctipun, who also created the Pac. Am I correct?
Here's my reasoning:
The Tree Of Live virus is just too convenient to have evolved naturally. Somebody made it - who? The tnuctipun. They wanted a race of warriors smart enough to use Soft Weapon level tech, but fanatical enough to resist the Thrint Power.
Now, being nicely paranoid the tnuctip would be unlikely to make a warrior race without some form of control. What better control than making them pathetically stupid and weak until a trigger event you can control, and after triggering them keeping them addicted to something you control, like Tree Of Life root. So the tnuctip could have worlds full of stupid monkeys, and when needed dust the worlds with Tree Of Life virus and BANG - instant army.
I'd also bet that ANY tnuctip "smells right" to any Pac.
Now, where did the tnuctip survive The Great Suicide command? In statis, of course. However, once out of statis they would need a safe place to be - a place shielded from the Pac, hard to get to, defensible from long range. I'll bet scrith blocks The Power. And by the time a Thrint could get over the edge of the Ringworld and start ordering folks around, "Hey, what's that violet glow around everythZZZZAP".
So the Pac probably found monkeys on Earth when they got here, but just "displaced" them.
Am I even remotely correct?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Particularly the more obscure relationships between characters in your know-space series?
One that springs to mind this the question of just who is Louis Wu's father.
The question came up as an impromptu trivia question somewhere on Compuserve once. Thinking about it, I realised that it's likely that Louis Wu's biological father and the husband of his mother are likely to be two completely different people.
I don't think it's entirely stated anywhere but it's likely that his father was Carlos Wu (registered genius with an unlimited fatherhood license) - while his mother was Sharrol Shaeffer (husband to Beowulf Shaeffer - the pilot who attempted to travel to the core).
In discussion with the guy who prompted this trivia question, he mentioned that you had confirmed this to him personally a convention - and had referred to other obscure relationship between the characters.
Which leads back to the original question - would you care to elaborate on any of these relationships.
Cheers.
IANLN, but...
I guess my question is this: do I rely on my not-as-vast scientific knowledge that I maintain by reading the science journals and rely on the strength of my writing to carry me through to publication? Or do I focus away from writing science fiction?
Kim Stanley Robinson comes from an English background rather than a science background (he wrote his thesis on P.K. Dick), but seems to write convincing SF simply by doing a lot of research (several years for the Mars trilogy). I've spotted a lot of things he used in my own pop science reading about Mars, so I don't think he delved overly far into the technical during his research. I'm sure this approach would work as well for you.
A subset question of this is: is it easy to get pigeonholed in a particular genre? I am putting the finishing touches on a pair of SF short stories that I am going to be sending out, but I'm writing "literary"/mainstream fiction novels that I'd like to see in print. Am I going to face discrimination working in two blatantly different genres if I try and publish in both under the same name?
There are a lot of SF/lit fic writers who have published in both genres and done well. Some of the more obvious ones include:
I think -- looking at the list above -- chances for success writing both styles under the same name are increased if you're writing intellectual / new wave SF rather than space opera stuff. That way your literary cred is not reduced by writing genre guff.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Ever been ignored or dismissed not because you were a writer, but because you were a science fiction writer?
I too consider the Dream Park books to be some of my favorites, most notably because they explore the interesection of reality and fantasy in yet another new way.
My question is this: in one of the books, you note that Dream Park has never quite gotten over the hump and been picked up by Hollywood. Can you update us if there's been any progress made?
In addition, would you say that the premise of Dream Park (where actors act out a virtual game on what is essentially a sound stage) has been made irrelevant by scifi "advances" like the Star Trek holodeck and by Jurassic Park? My analogy is the sort of disdain that people had for DareDevil whenn it first came out: that his special power was that he could see--something that had essentially been "done" on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I've often wondered why you only wrote one sequal to The Integral Trees. It seems that the world of the Smoke Ring calls for at least a 3 part series. I've always found the basic world more enthralling and magestic than Ringworld.
So why did you leave Kendy waiting, and never come back to it? I've read about how Known Space was getting full of too many special cases (statis fields, general produces hulls, Sinclair string, stepping plates, etc, etc) to make it much fun to try to write stories set in that universe, but the Smoke Ring is on the periphery of Known Space, it doesn't seem this should be a problem. And all those poor folks in the smoke ring are just gonna fry when the core explosion hits.
see shy jo
You've explained the various properties of 'scrith' in the Ringworld novels. Have you or has anyone else ever devised a hypothesis on how such a material could be made? I realize that there are quite a few technologies in your works which are beyond today's science and engineering (General Products hulls, hyperdrive, autodocs, etc.), but for some reason scrith seems to me to be the most fascinating. Also, does the building of the unstable and ostentatious Ringworld betray a flaw in Pak Protector intelligence?
since you are the authorithy on the science fiction subject, i wolud like to know: which one of the two common assumptions of the scinece fiction writers is true; the positive or the negative one
Mr Niven,
Why did you totally destroy the emotional power of the ending of "The Ringworld Engineers", the decision Louis Wu had to take to save the Ringworld by retconning it in the next book?
schmooze.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
1) I would like to know what was the most interesting question someone ever asked you and why did you found it so interesting?
2) What do you dream about?
Thank you for your books and the new worlds you brought in to my dreams.
Mr. Niven,
I'm a big fan, not so much of the writing (which is great, don't get me wrong), but more so of the width and breadth of your ideas (Ringworld, Integral Trees, etc.).
I loved the beowolf books, are there more planned?
In general, what books (or series, or collaborations) are you currently working on?
Hi Larry,
I've always thought The Integral Trees and the Smoke Ring were the best visual imagery ever featured in a book, hard core sci-fi or otherwise.
Have you ever approached any moviemakers with the idea of making a feature-length film that takes place in a 0-G environment society such as the one in The Integral Trees? In a related note, do you think the special effects are up to par yet for this?
I, for one, would pay cold, hard cash to see the trilaterally symmetric fish, "ponds," foilage, and of course the trees themselves...
Dear Mr. Niven, I ask this respectfully. With the exception of yours (which I have enjoyed very much)and a very few other author's works, why is so much SF so badly written? Does the focus on unusual ideas mean that the quality of the literature must suffer, do we readers have low expectations,did the evolution from Pulp culturally imbue trashiness, or what? It seems that so many readers who love this genre feel "I can write SF too", and I've always felt we really mean "I can write better stuff than this", but I'd rather that other writers do it so I can continue to enjoy reading it. In any event, thank you for yours.
A tiny aside, but I've been wondering for a decade now...
In 1992, Tanya Donelly from the Throwing Muses formed her own band, Belly. In 1993, they released an album, Star, the first single from which was "Feed the Tree", a great, catchy song which made the UK Top 40.
Now, that's a line straight from your novels The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring.
I'm merely curious, but I'd like to know: is there any connection? Did you know about this, or did they ask you? Indeed, have you heard the record?
Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
Larry,
I am a big fan of all your work but especially your "one man against the universe" type of stories, for example: A World Out Of Time, in which the hero finds a way to escape the grasp of a super-government called The State.
How do you think computer technology will affect the nature of government? Is The State inevitable, or will our decendants with Protector-level intellects someday shrug off any government "babysitting"?
Thanks!
-- laws are the opinions of politicians --
Hi Larry,
Your future history of "Known Space" seems very thoroughly thought out, from the massive laser installations on mercury for pushing solar-sail ships around to the inevitable madness that makes machine intelligence a dead end. That being said, technology today is not what it was when some of these issues were first dealt with in your writings; so, what I would like to know is:
How has your vision of the future of humaniti changed? Not necessarily the vision presented in your works, but your own personal vision?
Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the body of great hard Spec-Fic!
I have no Sig.
We had a planet full of them at the end of Protector, what happened to them, surely some of them had something else to do after defeting the Core Pak second wave?
Drunkeness is an electron free version of virtual reality.
Are you aware of the excellent game "Halo" for the X-Box? And of the large number of similarities it displays to your Ringworld? I realize the plotline of the game is different, but it's almost as if somebody said "Let's take Ringworld and change the story into a fairly mindless shooter." Yes, there are many differences, but my main question is - Do you keep an eye out for ripoffs? Do you care about them?
Austin is more fun than Dallas.
...which was used to prove a mathematical point and not a religious/sociological one.
If not all sentients are human, couldn't it be possible that not all humans are sentient either?
Also, the Outsiders are much much faster than the protectors, so the Pak can't steal anyting they have. The Pak are smart enough to know that if they tried, the Outsiders would run away and never come back.
I can supply a partial answer, but I still hope the parent makes the final cut, as I think it's an interesting question with a potentially very interesting answer.
Anyway, in either N-Space or Playgrounds of the Mind, Niven describes Gene Wolfe as an "author's author," one who lacks mass appeal, but who he personally finds very inspiring. And in Rainbow Mars, he describes how he wanted to meet Pratchett because he'd already decided to buy anything the man wrote.
I agree about both: Gene can be a little too obscure for the mainstream at times, but I nearly fell off my chair when he coined the term "logophage" in Shadow of the Torturer. His writing is full of wonderful subtleties and understated humor -- unfortunately, too subtle for many (and he does border on the opaque at times). And as for Pratchett, what can be said that hasn't been said dozens of times in hundreds of venues? The man is in a class of his own.
Campbell and some of his authors often played a game of "get something past the censor". One item I recall was a reference to a "ball bearing rat trap" (which, it develops a couple pages later, is a tomcat). She completely missed it.
:)
Another example is Larry's own "Tnuctip".
I really enjoy all your known-space books and especially the ringworld books. It's been a while since I've read them but there is one thing I kept wondering for a long time:
The concept of rishatra (or rishing) was very original and resfreshing in the first installement of the ringworld books.
Rishatra, for those of you who don't know it, is sexual intercourse between alien (sub)races. It is a worldwide known and practised form of entertainment/negotiation on the ringworld.
I do wonder though if it was really nescessery to use rishatra so often in the later books. Every meeting, every encounter seems to end in a rishatra party
In what way was this needed to develop the storyline?
"The majority is always sane, Louis." -- Nessus
http://slashdot.jp
It's obvious in a lot of science fiction that the central SF supposition (i.e. "FTL is possible") is tailored around the story, rather than the author making a major supposition and letting the story fly where it may.
This reaches a painful level in some Star Trek episodes - that dratted transporter AGAIN on the fritz because the use of it would remove the whole reason for the landing party's distress.
There was a frank discussion of this, I believe from Dr. Pournelle(?) about "The Mote in God's Eye". To the effect that you wanted a spaceship similar in personal dynamics and crew composition to a Hornblower-era naval vessel; so the particular FTL drive required long travels through normal space before it could be used, and the properties of the Langston Field meant slow, harrowing, battles of attrition, partial damage to each ship so that redundant crew were required to replace casualties, etc.
Have you ever had an SF supposition that really intrigued you as an idea worth pursuing, but couldn't think of a story to wrap around it? (At least, not unless you imposed quirks and limits on the idea that made it uninteresting to you?)
Maybe it's the 12-hour days I've been working this week, but I found this hilarious. Ah, the days when "The Simpsons" were well-written ....
Science fiction or otherwise.
What a time to be without mod points!
A sci-fi author is the perfect person (maybe other than a materials engineer) to ask about the space elevator and the future of space exploration.
Mr. Niven:
You will be amused to find out that we studied Ringworld in college as part of a course on gender relations in modern mass-market fiction. We found some quite pervasive themes about traditional gender roles in you novel. Were these intentional, or just a side effect of the story you wanted to tell?
-Josh
The tasp was something that I found to be as amazing as Ring World. The theme is common, Moorcocks vibragun, or even WAllans orgasmAtron. Transcience(sic)through electronics. Unabashed wiredup drugs,,, are they acceptable to the human psyche or is an electric man-made God too obvious?
Question: What do you get when you start a business renting rooms to people on New Scotland?
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
which of your female lead characters would you MOST want to have sex with and why??
Among most of the SF fans I know you're most well known for realistic aliens and their bizarre but strangely logical societies and cultures. The Moties are a prime example. Do you have any background in biology and/or anthropology? Do you confer with professionals in these fields to help develop your alien races? Where did you get the inspiration for the truly original puppeteers, kzin, and moties?
Thanks for the fantastic novels!
Vilk, from the ranks of the freaks
Larry,
:) )
What do you think of David Brin? Who are your favorite hard-core sci-fi authors (besides yourself, of course?
It's been years (>20) since I read the RingWorld novels so it's interesting what things stick in my head (and now I've got to go back and read them again). Many sci-fi books discuss lifespans extended by technology but either ignore or or skim past its psychological and societal impact. I found Louis Wu's habit of going on sabatical's particularly interesting and possibly appealing. When you imagine "conquering" life - having raised a family, become financially independent, enjoyed a long retirement but still not even having reached middle-age, its not hard to imagine needing something to shake you up and revive your taste for life. Of course some just go on the "wire" and eventually waste away in bliss - Wu having nearly done so himself. It's obvious that you've given the impact of serious life extension a lot of thought. Now that bio technology seems to be giving such life extension a palpable credibility - what other impacts do you anticipate when we finally reach common, healthy lifespans of two or more centuries?
I remember some very vivid descriptions in the Gil Hamilton stories about organ bootleggers, a.k.a. organleggers. Now we seem close to a point where if we need a new organ we can grow a clone to provide it instead of kidnapping someone and stealing their organs, providing someone more enlightened than the U.S. House of Representatives has some say in the matter. What do you think about the current debate over the ethics and morality of cloning?
TLR
A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
Are you still considering writing a Halo-based novel, Larry?
Dear Larry,
I am a fan of "hard" scifi, and have read most of your books (especially the earlier ones), and enjoyed them very much. I confess I have something of a fetish concerning hard science, i.e. I want all the science I read about in stories to be correct, or at least be plausible and not in contradiction with known science. I appreciate your efforts in putting the "hard" back into scifi, but I do have some (hopefully constructive) criticism, and it would be great to hear your answers to this.
While all the physics and cosmology in your stories seem largely unassailable, I find that your grasp of biology is more lacking.
Firstly, my pet bugbear is about plausible, or at least imaginatively realistic, aliens. While I think your puppeteers are great, I find the Kzin, and especially the Fithp, disappointing. It seems that one formula you use to design aliens is "take another animal on Earth, and suppose it evolves intelligence instead of the primates", thus giving you the Kzin (felines) and Fithp (elephants). I'm sorry, but I find this rather lame. Have you ever looked into a rock-pool at the sea? There you can see some truly bizarre creatures, which are nevertheless *much* more closely related to us than any real aliens that might be out there. And the argument of convergent evolution - that similar niches call for similar bodyplans, even in (relatively) unrelated species - only applies when the species are not too unrelated. For example, both mice and shrews look similar, although they are only distantly related (compare their teeth), because they live in very similar niches. However, the last common ancestor of mice and shrews was still a mammal. Now think of the niche "swimming in large schools in the open ocean". Most fish in this niche (tunas, mackerel) have similar builds. But squids also live in this niche, and their body plan is only as fish-like as their mollusc ancestry will allow. In short, the more unrelated the species, the less convergent evolution will be. For TOTAL unrelatedness (humans vs aliens) we should not expect much, if any, convergence.
Another problem I have is with the Pak protectors. The current (vast) scientific evidence shows that humans are related to ALL other life on Earth, not just other primates. So we have the same ancestry as primates, frogs, oak trees and bacteria. Your Pak stories contradict this, hence fail my (very stringent) definition of hard scifi. Of course, as literary, or "not so hard scifi" works, they are still very good books.
I also have my own bigoted views about ESP and such like, but I will not say more about that, as here I may very well be wrong. (But a gene for "luck" is going too far).
Lastly, after all this cricism, some compliments. I loved Lucifer's Hammer! What I like in particular is the insightful description of social developement after the impact, which makes it so much more interesting than this "Deep Impact" or "Armageddon" junk. I also loved the Moties. They are some of the best aliens I've ever seen in a novel. Not their anatomy, which I still find banal (they are still bipeds, damn it, despite being slightly asymmetrical, and so what if they don't have a human spine) - but their sociology is brilliant. I think that a good alien psychology and sociology is actually more important than an original anatomy, and that really made the book worth reading.
Thank you for your time.
"...Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Come to think of it, if the outsiders built the ring world, how did it get populated with hominids? Even if the PAK came later, what are the chances that they'd ever inhabit such a structure without knowing who built it, and destroying that entity first?
"Sanity is not statistical", George Orwell, "1984"
In 'Ringworld Engineers' you say that it would have taken the energy from 12 gas giants to spin the Ringworld up to speed. In one of your Known Space stories (I forget which)you say that teleported objects in Known Space retain their momentum. You also say there is no distance limit on teleporting. Isn't it therefore possible that the Engineers could have teleported matter from a system with a relative velocity differential approaching c. Wouldn't such a setup give them all the energy they could ever possibly want?
The fact is that the talentless hack has overshadowed Niven himself, and I don't doubt that anything remotely good about those books came from Niven, not Pournelle, which means that Pournelle's leeching from Niven's skills, wit, and insight.
If I were Niven, I'd be pissed, especially reading half these questions.
(To the mod who moderated my original as a troll, have you even ever read any Pournelle? Do you have any idea how absolutely atrocious this wannabee Heinlein without the insight, originality, imagination, and writing skills of the latter is? And yet half these bloody questions to Niven are about how great Pournelle is. Could we insult the guy more?)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Howdy Larry,
First I want to thank your Parents for gifting you with your particular genetic consituency (i.e. your intelligence and cognitive skills as well as your impressive language ability.) Then, I want to thank you for contributing the fruit of those gifts to the world at large and me in particular. I've enjoyed your work for a long time, and my life would certainly have been a paler thing for the lack of your wit and insite.
Now on to the questions. Rather than hashing and rehashing plots and the meaning from your books, I am much more interested in the man and his vision. I am curious. What do you see as the purpose of humanity? What is the highest goal that an individual might aspire to inside the greater context of fulfilling the purpose of humanity? Do you see humanity as long lived or do you think that we're more likely to be a flash in the pan? If we indeed are a short lived experiment, will we give birth to our successors? Will they in fact be us in some way transformed? How frightened are you by potential atronomical catastrophes? As a man of vision, and somebody that's seen the full gamut of human expression (the good, the bad, and the Osbornes), what is the most logical place to put our energy? What should we be trying to accomplish? Where is our immediate future, and where should it be if we got our collective feces together and actually took on building a world that worked?
Should we be spending out time building better robots to go into space, or better machines to take people, or both? What part of our budget would you spend on Warring, and what part on space exploration?
If we could come up with a vaccine for stupidity, who would you innoculate first?
Marie Tobias
"Up in the intergal tree... just my baby and me..."
or that they bleived in god, but that they TACKLED the theme of religion, and in the most cases (well, other than PK Dick) showed it's negative side effects. That's the whole point of a theme in literature, you can tackle it without saying it's a good thing. For example, Brave New World tackled the idea of Utopia, but did Huxley agree with Utopian societies? No. It's obv from reading the book that he did not.
click me
You wrote a story recently about a very long lived species observing another tidal-pool based species. I wish I could remember the name. In any case, are you really that worried about genetic engineering? Or is it intended just to be a cautionary tale?
------- MacOS X, WebObjects, Apple (G5) hardware triply tied
Hello,
After reading Ringworld when I was young, and discovering there was a PC game out, I rushed to the store with parents in tow to pick it up. I have to say I was horribly disappointed; good adventure games were hard to find, but this one really didn't do either the genre or your books justice. Why, do you think, a universe as rich as what you've created has been so hard pressed to produce a truly good game? What did you think of the Ringworld PC game after its release?
- Cloud
A short story of your's dealing with organ transplants and crime affected me deeply years ago. Recently I have heard that China re-uses the organs of convicted criminals in a suspiciously similar way. Do you fear that your warning(s) is insufficient? Are other predictions in danger of eventuating?
Thanks for the stories and ideas, in particular the Protectors.
Hi Larry,
When will the final part to "The Integral Trees" trilogy be out?
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Hi Larry,
I've been a fan for a long time (I have a first printing of "Ringworld" that I'd like you to sign some day).
While being a fan, I don't consider myself a rabid fan (ie I don't dress up as a Kzinti or make scale models of Dream Park out of Lego and I have never considered a career as an organlegger), but over the years I've been amazed at the lengths fans will go to emulate and understand the characters and locations in your books. One of the classic examples this is the efforts to understand how strong scrith would have to be. It seems like your fan base, while somewhat smaller, is at least as hardcore as the "Trekkie" (or "Trekker", for purist) culture and has been so for thirty years or more.
I'm curious to find out if you think your fan base has changed over the years because of the Internet (ie getting larger, smaller, more or less extreme). Do you find that personal information (address, phone number, email) has become more difficult to keep private from (cyber) stalkers and other people that have a need to tell you how great your work is?
A loyal, but not weird, fan,
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
A number of the major species in the Known Space
stories have only male sentients; Kzin, Slavers,
arguably Puppeteers. Is there some hidden message
here?
What advice would you give to an aspiring science fiction writer who has already read Jerry Pournelle's How to Get My Job and Cory Doctorow & Karl Schroeder's Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction?
"Display some adaptability" -- Doug Shaftoe, _Cryptonomicon_
Which of all the predictions of the future in your books do you most wish would come true?
www.sjbaker.org
Any chance MIGE will be made into a movie?
You are a novelist whose writing crosses the boundary between science fiction and science fact. In Footfall, you talk about a spacecraft whose "engine" is the apex of nuclear explosions. Where did you think up this method of transit and is there a basis in fact for this?
Any plans for a new novel including Beowulf Schaeffer?
Don't forget, Larry already wrote a space elevator story: Rainbow Mars.
It seems many of the best writers of SF aren't writing much anymore and they aren't being replaced.
Do you agree with this? What do you think about it?
Larry,
Now that mass-produced carbon nanotubes ) are about to make their debut (supposeldy close to the strongest theoretical limit that a material can be made), any thoughts on how this material could be used to construct a real ring world? I would imagine because of this limitation, albeit great, constructing a ring world in one piece is out of the question.
Planet P Blog
www.enthea.org