Re: Lucky society

From: Craig Presson (c_presson@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 03 1999 - 16:23:52 MDT


--- delriviere christophe <mich@thehzone.tzo.org> wrote:
[...]
> >There's no evidence for "luck" as an attribute of individuals, and I don't
> >see any plausible way to posit a mechanism for it. Sounds a lot like "Psi."
> >If either were proved to exist, that would be a huge scientific revolution,
> >completely aside from possibilities of natural or sexual selection being
> used
> >to enhance any such abilities.
> >
>
> of course ;) I was just kidding, I've read Ringworld some little time ago,
> and one of the person in the book is choosen for a quest just because of her
> extreme luck.
>
> delriviere
> christophe

I knew I had seen that theme in a SF book at some point. There is also The
Duck in
Spider Robinson's Callahan's stories, same deal -- improbable stuff happens
around him
constantly. I think it's pretty craven of an author to use
something that remarkable and not take a good shot at explaining it.
Robinson can be
excused because no one would mistake his stuff for hard SF, but Niven ...
sheesh.

I stopped reading SF for a long time because of stuff like this.

FCP

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