So what do you folk think about Niven's "Ringworld"? How long would it take to walk all the way around? 12,000 years? What an adventure that would be.....
Well, I read it when I was eleven or twelve years old, so it made a huge impression on me. I still think the Ringworld itself is an amazing creation. The square footage of that sucker is mind-boggling. And, of course, I loved the futuristic society that formed the background of the novel, because I was into that sort of thing pretty much since the moment I first drew breath. The only thing I ever thought was out of place was the idea of people who are bred for luck. Although I think it's a brilliant (and hilarious) concept for fiction, it seemed too metaphysical for the hard science fictional Universe of the Ringworld.
Hahaha! Oh man, that gave me a good laugh. I miss the 70's... Yeah it's weird, an award winning book, lots of accolades, but just seems to come across as hohum. Great concept, not an amazing book. Same with Mote in God's Eye. Great concept, the story-telling though... eek...
If we live in a multiverse where everything that can possibly happen does happen, it's plausible that some people appear to be extraordinarily lucky. However, I doubt you can link this to a phenotype unless the brain really does use quantum effects in its operation (as suggested by Penrose) and certain configurations of microtubule organisation can skew the "throw of the dice".
Maybe this is more a retcon from the later novels, but my impression was that the Puppeteers believed they were breeding for luck but Louis Wu remained skeptical. I don't think Niven ever definitively established Teela's "psychic luck" as a fact rather than just a belief.
Yes, and "To Serve Man"....it's a cookbook! But seriously, though, after "1984" Ringworld's my all-time favorite SF novel. I've thought for years that it would make an excellent movie, too, but it suffers from "The Incredibles" Syndrome (TM). If a Ringworld movie came out today, youngsters would say, "That's just a rip-off of Halo!". I'd just sigh and say, "The book was on the racks in 1970, people.......and the Fantastic Four pre-dates the frickin' Incredibles by decades!!!".
Within the Known Space universe, telepathy is an established reality. The Puppeteers' belief was that luck was a psychic ability to affect probability to one's advantage.
That never occurred to me, but, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. "Oh, and by the way, it has attitude jets." Yeah, but even then an impersonal Universe would somehow have to know what is best for someone-- sometimes over the very long run. Actually, he started out thinking it was just a statistical fluke, but came to be a believer because his kid with Teela inherited the "luck" gene.
Exactly the same way you breed for noses - pick two people with the luck characteristic, breed them, and get a lucky child. Breed that child with the child of another lucky couple...
btw, why has Ringworld not been made into a film yet? We finally have the CG tech to render believable Kzin and Puppeteers, and nothing!
Does anyone even have it optioned at the moment? I found this link to an article on IGN, but it's nine years old. If the plot's a little dull, that shouldn't matter. Avatar proved awesome visuals can more than make up for that. Transparent spaceships, flying cities, Puppeteers, Kzin, and the Ringworld itself provide those in spades.
If it gives the people carrying the luck gene a better chance to breed and pass on their genes, the Universe doesn't have to "know" anything. Teela ended up not being that lucky herself but her gene got passed on. No need for teleology to explain Teela. Of course, this is all probably hogwash, but then so is Scrith.