Pak Protector
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Image:Protector-Niven.jpg Pak Breeders and Pak Protectors are two generic forms of fictional life in Larry Niven's Known Space universe. The protector form of the species is the result of a transformation brought about in a breeder by the plant known as Tree-of-Life.
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The Pak species
Pak evolved on a planet near the core of the galaxy. Increased radiation levels at the core cause severe mutations that can destabilize the evolution process. As a result, the Pak evolved a mechanism to eliminate dangerous mutations from the population. That mechanism is the protector stage.
Pak go through three stages of development: Child, Breeder and Protector.
Child Pak are sexually immature and are primarily cared for by their Breeder parents.
Breeder Pak are sexually mature, unintelligent and sub-sentient primates essentially identical to Homo habilis. Towards the end of their life, Pak Breeders acquire a taste for a root containing a symbiotic virus that triggers the transformation to the Protector stage.
Protector Pak are highly sensitive to the smell of their close relatives and 'weed out' those that smell wrong, which may indicate a potentially dangerous mutation. Protectors are fully sentient, and in fact have far superior intellects compared to humans.
Tree Of Life
Tree-of-Life is a bush whose smell is unnoticeable to breeders until they reach about 25 Pak years (or 42 human years); after that, the smell suddenly becomes irresistible. The breeder eats the root, infecting himself with a symbiotic virus in the root and triggering the transition.
After consuming Tree-of-Life, Pak breeder forms (such as humans) turn into the Pak Protector form, which involves reconfiguration of the anatomy, including the acquisition of a leathery armor or exoskeleton, strong enough to turn a copper knife. Joints swell until the creature becomes "a parody of the human form done in cantaloupes and coconuts". This expands the leverage available to muscles by increasing the moment arm: the protector can lift 10 times his own weight. Genitalia vanish, and a second heart forms in the groin. Teeth fall out, and lips fuse; the resulting structure is a sort of bony beak. The brain grows to an enormous size; the resulting mind, even starting from something as dumb as a chimp, becomes far more intelligent than a human. Humans who convert into protectors have intellects that are beyond human comprehension (Louis Wu described the mind of a Protecter as having "diamond" precision, insight, and clarity - breeder level thinking is "fuzzy" in comparison). All the breeder's hair falls out and the head acquires a bony ridge to protect the newly-expanded cranium. Pak Protectors also acquire an extended lifespan, and can live tens of thousands of earth years. However, most protectors die as the direct or indirect result of conflict with other protectors, so death from old age is almost unknown in the Pak culture.
Protector behaviour
Pak Protectors have an in-built need to look after (or protect, hence the name) their "parent" breeder species. Protectors recognize their own breeder family line by scent, and are instinctively compelled to act in the best interests of breeder relatives. Pak Protectors will fight among themselves to procure land and resources for their respective breeder populations, often leading to the violent deaths of entire Pak family lines. A Pak Protector with no breeders to protect will generally stop eating and quickly starve, although some breederless protectors have avoided this fate by adopting the entire Pak race, and devoting themselves to activities that benefit the species as a whole.
Pak Protectors are by nature racist, xenophobic and warlike, inherently incapable of holding abstract moral principles and are ruthless beyond measure towards all Paks who are not their own descendants or - in the case of the most "broadminded" Protectors, i.e. those who adopted the entire Pak species - to members of all other species. For example, Protector Jack Brennan, a human turned Protector, commits cold-blooded genocide and exterminates all Martians as a completely disproportionate retaliation to a minor, long-forgotten incident in which Martians killed a handful of humans. To Brennan as a Protector, it is self-evident that the Martians' continued existence is a threat to be eliminated.
The Pak and Humanity
Humans are descended from Pak breeders that were stranded on Earth 2.5 million years ago. The protectors that built the colony ship died out from lack of food.
The reason why humans evolved beyond the original Pak breeder form (Homo habilis) is that the Tree-of-Life virus requires thallium in the soil to survive and Earth is not adequately thallious; all our Pak Protectors died out millennia ago and humans evolved into Homo sapiens.
The Ringworld was built by Pak Protectors and populated by Pak breeders. The Pak Protectors dwindled in numbers until they were no longer able to maintain the genetic purity of the breeder forms and the breeders eventually evolved into all the other hominids of the Ringworld that one sees in Larry Niven's novels.
Narrative purpose
It appears that Larry Niven created the Pak Protectors partly to show that high intelligence is simply an evolutionary tool. There have been some movements in SF that equate high intelligence with selflessness, civilization and altruism. Pak protectors are slaves to their instincts, which hard-wire their goals and priorities. Their intelligence serves evolutionary goals in order to preserve their species in a hostile environment.
Niven has stated in other writings that he invented the Protectors as a thought experiment to explain the common effects of aging on humans, and to create a fictional evolutionary explanation for human's long lives after females have passed reproductive age. Accordingly, most of the positive attributes of Protectors are based on negative human aging effects: sore joints, poor circulation, wrinkled skin, lack of sex drive, and rotting teeth are all turned to advantage during the shift from Breeder to Protector.