niven

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle has a pretty good take on the post-apocalyptic chaos & breakdown in society that will likely ensue.

For Ringworld, Niven invented several coherent non-human intelligences that set titanic forces in motion, and explored what the results would be like to live in.

Larry Niven used a solar sail in several stories, e.g.

Clarke of course, but also Larry Niven comes to mind.

They may also turn out a little like what Larry Niven makes of the Puppeteer race: powerful, cowardly creatures, highly ritualistic, paternalistic and soft-totalitarian.

Larry Niven had them in his novel A World Out of Time (1976) and I think Heinlein had them in some of his novels from the 1960s.

I like niven's known space series for that - not post-scarcity, but there is the feeling that life is a playground filled with fun toys and adventures.

> I came into contact with a version of this philosophy even earlier, in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

To quote Larry Niven, "Anarchy is the least stable of social structures.

Ever read Larry Niven's short story "Cautionary Tales"?

Bnum=443 is attributed to Niven's 'The Mote in God's Eye' (1974), but it exists in Heinlein's "Methuselah's Children" (1958); on p83 of my copy: > Ford struggled heavily out of the acceleration couch he was in.

When I read "The Magic Goes Away" by Niven I felt it was an interesting take on 'magic as alternate scientific thing' and Zelazny's unfinished "Changling" trilogy about magic in an alternate world an interesting 'magic is where you find it' sort of system.

Niven and Egan would be classic examples from different decades (Niven's post-1977 work, and his collaborations, not so much).

Asimov's Foundation series, Larry Niven's Known Space series, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Arthur C.

I don't think it's fair to include wheel-shaped space habitats (like the one from Elysium) with Niven-style ringworlds.