To add on to my last post, if a species has the ability to turn iron into scrith on a global scale, (which is beyond anything seen in any Known Space species), wouldn’t they also have reactionless drive? Using Bussard ram jets for stability seems so crude. Other than the unobtanium they are using for the structure, the ring is “analog” tech. Brute force. Giant bulldozers moving mud. Stepping discs would work infinitely better than giant pipes dumping mud in the mountains.
Solar flares for defense is right up there with throwing rocks at invaders. The system cannot respond quickly. It would take hours if not days to force solar flares using magical superconducting coils in the ring. Good for rogue asteroids, useless against invading ships.
Plus it appears to not care if it shoots the ring itself! A serious design flaw.
Niven should have had the ring made out of paper stabilized with a stasis field. That would have solved almost every problem (except Fist of god, so he’d have to come up with another solution.).
BTW, I really enjoyed the recent Ringworld prequel pentology, if any of you aren’t familiar with it. (I also enjoyed it if you are familiar with it–it isn’t a quantum cat thing.)
There was some real inconsistency in how he wrote the Pak over all the books. In some, they’re absolutely unstoppable physically, technologically, and mentally, and always come up with the most efficient solution in the least amount of time. In others, they grab the Idiot Ball and practically sprint with it.
I liked all of the stories, and even Ringworld’s Children, even as the physics got even sillier. More Known Space stories are usually better than fewer. The glimpses at Puppeteer society were pretty neat too.
Meh. I read the first of the prequels and gave it up. I really hate it when an author is so out of ideas that he/she stripmines previous works looking for some overlooked piece of sellable dross. You’re rich, Larry! Give it up and just relax, why don’t you?
Speaking of Known Space stories, some of the Man Kzin War books are OK.
Related to this thread, there is one story where the protagonist finds himself dumped in some giant structure like an alien menagerie, with several species of large furry animals trapped together (but not grooving, at least at first. ) It’s another impossible structure, like Ringworld, with no indication of who built it, or why, and no answers forthcoming.
Mysteries are OK, if they at least give some indication that they can be solved. But this structure would have required yet another super-powerful yet vanished species in known space.
Like Beowulff (hmm, I suspect a knowledgable Know Space expert…) anyone would suspect the Outsiders. I would expect an author to actually *answer *the question. Otherwise it’s just mental masturbation.
Not only is the Ringworld unstable, but it took less than a year from the publication of the novel to discover this. It was at the 1971 Worldcon that the students chanting “The Ringworld is unstable” happened. The instability would cause it to drift away fairly quickly. If it was one meter away from the correct position, in 55 days it would be two meters off, in another 55 days it would be four meters off, etc. This is a paper showing this instability using not terribly difficult math:
) It’s another impossible structure, like Ringworld, with no indication of who built it, or why, and no answers forthcoming.