Re-read that page. It specifically states that it's about ship drives. The episode that it derives from is the short story "The Warriors," published in 1966, which was the first appearance of the Kzinti. The story doesn't use that term, but it pre-dates everything else involving the Kzinti and is the first use of an Earth laser as a space weapon. Niven said that was the origin of the term, and it's the only thing that makes sense both in the internal chronology of the Known Space series and the history of science fiction fandom.
> On Jul 24, 2015, at 9:24 AM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 10:15 AM, Ethan McKinney
> <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> It was a laser drive, not fusion. Cut the Kzinti ship in half.
>
> I am kinda thinking it was the big Bussard ram jet that powered Human
> sublight ships before the humans acquired the standard hyperdrive from
> the Outsiders.
The Kzinti Lesson was derived from the initial defense of the solar system against the Kzin war fleet. The early human interstellar ships used asteroid-mounted laser launchers to push the ships up to speeds where the Bussard Ramjets worked. These ginormous lasers also served quite well as weapons.
<http://www.larryniven.net/kzin/worlds.shtml>
That said, I vaguely recall the “Kzinti Lesson” being described differently in “Ringworld”, which, iirc, is the first canonical mention of the thing. Louis has a discussion with Speaker about it.
Been a very long time since I re-read Ringworld.
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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