History Fridge / KnownSpace

** Let's explore this one step farther: Suppose that groups of Pak protectors *succeeded* in doing this. What would happen next? Pak protectors clearly have some sense of how closely related any given breeder (or protector) is. They prioritize their own direct descendants, but will presumably also be trying to protect their nieces, nephews, second cousins once removed, and so on. However, they won't protect just anyone.

** The issue is a numbers game. If Bloodlines A and B have 500 breeders at a given time and their Protectors have an arranged marriage of sorts (putting two of their breeders in an enclosure to mate) that produces a child, it does not mean that the protectors of Bloodlines A and B have one individual that they also have the 500 others. If push comes to shove they will sacrifice one child to save hundreds. On the same note said alliances can't be exclusive, or you run into the inbreeding problem down the line. Bloodline A could negotiate an breeding arrangement with Bloodline C, which is hostile to Bloodline B. If the Bloodline A and B alliance gets too strong, it would similarly invite negative attention of groups C, D, E, F and G. Pak Politics would probably involve mating deals as a component to solidify them for a period of time and to get fresh DNA, but while this serves to moderate conflict somewhat it would not eliminate it.

* In "The Warriors", the kzinti are baffled that a human ship has no weapons. The telepath reports "Not even knives," then immediately corrects himself: the humans have ''cooking'' knives, but that's all they're used for. That should have tipped off Captain that when the telepath scanned for "weapons", he was searching for things that the human crew ''thought of'' as weapons (and getting nothing)--but if he scanned for particular dangerous items that could be ''repurposed'' as weapons (like cooking knives, or humans' primitive [[WeaponizedExhaust reaction drive]]), he might find something worth knowing about.

*** [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Yes.]]

** None of this is possible, because Protectors, while vastly intelligent and nearly perfectly adaptable and creative, entirely lack free will and are bound by the demands of simple, dumb biology. Building ringworlds out of near-magical materials to give themselves living space and reduce the level of warfare is easy. Short-circuiting their biological drives or thinking outside the box to create solutions that negate the need for living space are no-go.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with [[Literature/{{Protector}} Protectors]] is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with each other, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross periodically to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant. No need to wipe out each others' young, just make sure their next generation of protect-ees are ''your'' young also.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with Protectors is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with each other, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross periodically to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant. No need to wipe out each others' young, just make sure their next generation of protect-ees are ''your'' young also.

*** Except that we know from Rishathra that Pak descended species ''will'' choose to interbreed if left alone.

*** [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Yes.]]

** It's more of an examination of HumansAreBastards / DemocracyIsBad; no different from taxation. Lots of people complain about taxes but few want to do without welfare, subsidies, public utilities... Is there really any difference between, "The three of us are poor and Jack is rich: Let's divvy up Jack's wallet" and "The three of us are sick and Jack's healthy: Let's divvy up Jack's organs"? Especially since in Niven's universe, laser-eye surgery was never invented because of ''eye'' transplants. On Plateau, where the ruling Crew class ''lets'' a certain number of Colonist class rebels survive to continuously recruit others, Crew regularly get ''scalp'' and ''teeth'' transplants!

** This is addressed in passing in one of the Fleet of Worlds books: Even in the Pak breeder stage, the sense of smell connection is strong enough to be able to tell family from not. It seems unlikely that the breeders could be MADE to interbreed, even if the Protectors tried.

** It's more of an examination of HumansAreBastards / DemocracyIsBad; no different from taxation. Lots of people complain about taxes but few want to do without welfare, subsidies, public utilities... Is there really any difference between, "The three of us are poor and Jack is rich: Let's divvy up Jack's wallet" and "The three of us are sick and Jack's healthy: Let's divvy up Jack's organs"?

*** "[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Yes.]"

* In "The Warriors", the kzinti are baffled that a human ship has no weapons. The telepath reports "Not even knives," then immediately corrects himself: the humans have ''cooking'' knives, but that's all they're used for. That should have tipped off Captain that when the telepath scanned for "weapons", he was finding things that the crew ''thought of'' as weapons--but if he scanned for particular dangerous items that could be repurposed (like cooking knives, or humans' primitive [[WeaponizedExhaust reaction drive]]), they might find something worth knowing about.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with Protectors is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with each other, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross periodically to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant. No need to wipe out each others' young, just make sure their next generation of protect-ees are ''your'' young also.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with Protectors is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with each other, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross periodically to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with Protectors is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with each other, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant.

* Setting aside all the ArtMajorBiology behind the Pak life cycle, one ''huge'' problem with Protectors is that Pak of different bloodlines seem completely oblivious to the possibility that they could form permanent, stable, treachery-free alliances with one another, simply by ''letting their descendants mate with one another''. Pak breeders aren't asexual, and their bloodlines would need to cross to avert inbreeding depletion anyway, so simply interbreeding two rival Protectors' bloodlines could convert them from archenemies to unshakable allies the instant they got a whiff of their first out-crossed infant.

** It's more of an examination of HumansAreBastards / DemocracyIsBad; no different from taxation. Lots of people complain about taxes but few want to do without welfare, subsidies, public utilities... Is there really any difference between, "The three of us are poor and Jack is rich: Let's divvy up Jack's wallet" and "The three of us are sick and Jack's healthy: Let's divvy up Jack's organs"?

* FridgeBrilliance: The Puppeteers' intelligence seems like an evolutionary implausibility, as they're derived from herbivores which are generally not very smart (because it's easy to out-think a lettuce). Then we find out that they breed by injecting gametes [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong into the body of another species]], and their sapience makes more sense: they don't need to outsmart prey to eat, but they ''do'' need to outsmart a host "female" in order to breed.
* FridgeLogic: The notion that all the world's nations would pass laws mandating that criminals, even petty ones, be broken down for spare parts. Not only does this presuppose that humans have perfect faith that their legal system doesn't make mistakes, but it assumes ''everyone'' who voted in support of such a policy considers it more likely that they, ''personally'', will one day require a judicially-obtained organ transplant -- a hypothetical scenario that most wouldn't expect to arise for decades, if ever -- than that they'll ever get busted for traffic violations: something they've probably committed, and been ticketed for, themselves.

* FridgeLogic: The notion that all the world's nations would pass laws mandating that criminals, even petty ones, be broken down for spare parts. Not only does this presuppose that humans have perfect faith that their legal system doesn't make mistakes, but it assumes ''everyone'' who voted in support of such a policy considers it more likely that they, ''personally'', will one day require a judicially-obtained organ transplant -- a hypothetical scenario that most wouldn't expect to arise for decades, if ever -- than that they'll ever get busted for traffic violations: something they've probably committed, and been ticketed for, themselves.

* FridgeLogic: The notion that all the world's nations would pass laws mandating that criminals, even petty ones, be broken down for spare parts. Not only does this presuppose that humans have perfect faith that their legal system doesn't make mistakes, but it assumes ''everyone'' who voted in support of such a policy considers it more likely that they, ''personally'', will one day require a judicially-obtained organ transplant -- a hypothetical scenario that most wouldn't expect to arise for decades, if ever -- than that they'll ever get busted for jaywalking: something they've probably done every week or so.

* FridgeLogic: The notion that all the world's nations would pass laws mandating that criminals, even petty ones, be broken down for spare parts. Not only does this presuppose that humans have perfect faith that their legal system doesn't make mistakes, but it assumes ''everyone'' who voted in support of such a policy considers it more likely that they, ''personally'', will one day require a judicially-obtained organ transplant, than that they'll ever get busted for jaywalking.

* FridgeBrilliance: The Puppeteers' intelligence seems like an evolutionary implausibility, as they're derived from herbivores which are generally not very smart (because it's easy to out-think a lettuce). Then we find out that they breed by injecting gametes [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong into the body of another species]], and their sapience makes more sense: they don't need to outsmart prey to eat, but they ''do'' need to outsmart a host "female" in order to breed.