Winning War Through Artificial Selection

"The project was cancelled," said Nessus. "We found that the Man-Kzin wars put sufficient restriction on kzinti expansion, made you less dangerous. We continued to watch.

"Six times over several centuries, you attacked the worlds of men. Six times you were defeated, having lost approximately two-thirds of your male population in each war. Need I comment on the level of intelligence displayed? No? In any case, you were never in real danger of extermination. Your nonsentient females were largely untouched by war, so that the next generation helped to replace the numbers lost. Still, you steadily lost an empire you had built up over thousands of years.

"It became apparent to us that the kzinti were evolving at a furious rate."

"Evolving?"

Nessus snarled a word in the Hero's Tongue. Louis jumped. He had not suspected that the puppeteer's throats could do that.

"Yes," said Speaker-To-Animals, "I thought that was what you said. But I do not understand the application."

"Evolution depends on the survival of the fittest. For several hundred kzin years, the fittest of your species were those members with the wit or the forebearance to avoid fighting human beings. The results are apparent. For nearly two hundred kzin years there has been peace between man and kzin."

"But there would be no point! We could not win a war!"

"That did not stop your ancestors."

Speaker-To-Animals gulped at his hot bourbon. His tail, naked and pink and ratlike, lashed in turmoil.

"Your species has been decimated," said the puppeteer. "All kzinti alive today are descended from those who avoided death in the Man-Kzin wars. Some among us speculate that the kzinti now have the intelligence or the empathy or the self-restraint necessary to deal with races alien to them."

Notes:

Folksonomies: evolution natural selection science fiction war selection

Taxonomies:
/society/unrest and war (0.554441)
/science/biology/zoology/endangered species (0.320369)
/law, govt and politics/government (0.317636)

Keywords:
Man-Kzin wars (0.926923 (negative:-0.525490)), kzinti expansion (0.764341 (neutral:0.000000)), sufficient restriction (0.541113 (neutral:0.000000)), approximately two-thirds (0.510555 (negative:-0.569759)), Artificial Selection (0.504376 (neutral:0.000000)), furious rate (0.478631 (negative:-0.738928)), real danger (0.477740 (negative:-0.544536)), nonsentient females (0.472912 (neutral:0.000000)), male population (0.468183 (negative:-0.569759)), hot bourbon (0.445822 (negative:-0.680080)), human beings (0.442863 (negative:-0.280844)), Nessus (0.339302 (neutral:0.000000)), puppeteer (0.298858 (neutral:0.000000)), times (0.241306 (negative:-0.301352)), intelligence (0.232770 (positive:0.030906)), Speaker-To-Animals (0.231677 (negative:-0.680080)), species (0.216029 (negative:-0.312107)), throats (0.206583 (neutral:0.000000))

Entities:
Speaker-To-Animals:Person (0.767703 (negative:-0.680080)), Louis:Person (0.724218 (negative:-0.353637))

Concepts:
Ringworld (0.988440): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Known Space (0.809285): website | dbpedia | freebase | yago
Larry Niven (0.802985): website | dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
Kzin (0.647756): website | dbpedia | freebase | yago
Evolution (0.575562): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Natural selection (0.546681): dbpedia | freebase
Man-Kzin Wars (0.534000): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Human (0.532637): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc

 Ringworld
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Niven , Larry (1985-09-11), Ringworld, Simon and Schuster, Retrieved on 2014-10-05
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: speculation science fiction