Ringworld Read Online Free PDF Page B

desirable or undesirable genes.
    "Incredible," said the kzin.
    "Why? Things were getting pretty tanj crowded, with eighteen billion people trapped in a primitive technology."
    "If the Patriarchy tried to force such a law on kzinti, we would exterminate the Patriarchy for its insolence."
    But men were not kzinti. For half a thousand years the laws had held good. Then, two hundred years ago, had come rumors of chicanery in the Fertility Board. The scandal had ultimately resulted in drastic changes in the birth control laws:
    Every human being now had the right to be a parent once, regardless of the state of his genes. In addition, the Birthrights Second and Third could come automatically: for a high tested IQ, or for proven, useful psychic powers, such as Plateau eyes or absolute direction, or for survival genes, like telepathy or natural longevity or perfect teeth.
    One could buy the birthrights at a million stars a shot. Why not? The knack for making money was a tested, proven survival factor. Besides, it cut down on bribery attempts.
    One could fight for the Birthrights in the arena, if one had not yet used up his Birthright First. Winner to earn his Birthrights Second and Third; loser to lose his Birthright First and his life. It evened out.
    "I have seen such battles on your entertainment shows," said Speaker. "I thought they were fighting for fun."
    "Nope, they're serious," said Louis. Teela giggled.
    "And the lotteries?"
    "It comes out short," said Nessus. "Even with boosterspice to prevent aging in humans, more die on Earth than are born in any given year ... "
    And so each year the Fertility Board totaled up the year's deaths and emigrations, subtracted the year's births and immigrations, and put the resulting number of Birthrights into the New Year's Day lottery.
    Anyone could enter. With luck you could have ten or twenty children -- if that was luck. Even convicted criminals could not be excluded from the Birthright Lotteries.
    "I've had four children myself," said Louis Wu. "One by lottery. You'd have met three of them if you'd come twelve hours earlier."
    "It sounds very strange and complex. When the population of Kzin grows too great, we --"
    "Attack the nearest human world."
    "Not at all, Louis. We fight each other. The more crowded we grow, the more opportunity exists for one kzin to take offense at another. Our population problem adjusts itself. We have never been within an order of magnitude of your two times eight to the tenth humans on a single planet!"
    "I think I begin to get it," said Teela Brown. "My parents were both lottery winners." She laughed somewhat nervously. "Otherwise I wouldn't even have been born. Come to think of it, my grandfather --"
    "All of your ancestors for five generations were born by reason of winning lottery tickets."
    "Really! I never knew that!"
    "The records are quite clear," Nessus assured her.
    "The question remains," said Louis Wu. "So what?"
    "Those-who-rule in the puppeteer fleet have speculated that the people of Earth are breeding for luck."
    "Huh!"
    Teela Brown leaned forward in her chair, intensely curious. Doubtless she had never before seen a mad puppeteer.
    "Think of the lotteries, Louis. Think of evolution. For seven hundred years your people bred by the numbers: two birthrights per person, two children per couple. Here and there one might win a third birthright, or be refused his first on adequate grounds: diabetic genes or the like. But most of humanity had two children.
    "Then the law was changed. For the past two centuries, between ten and thirteen percent of each human generation has been born by right of a winning lottery ticket. What determines who will survive and breed? On Earth, luck.
    "And Teela Brown is the daughter of six generations of winning gamblers ..."

CHAPTER 3 -- Teela Brown
    Teela was giggling helplessly.
    "Come off it," said Louis Wu. "You can't breed for luck the way you breed for shaggy eyebrows!"
    "Yet you breed for telepathy."
    "That's not