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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.
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?
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?
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!
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!
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!"
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
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?
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?
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?
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!
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.
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?
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?
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?
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To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
If so, over time we will not be able to avod distruction
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
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
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?
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!
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?