More Words, Deeper Hole

Oh, I see. Thanks! I didn't recall that the adults had a gender disparity. It has been a long time since I've read the book, so I just picked it up and leafed through it. Although perhaps I missed it in my once over, it looks to me like Niven doesn't explain the source of the gender disparity in the adult "dicta" other than to say that it will end when the dicta escape being controlled by Boys. So perhaps you're quite right that the lack of adult males is due to their selection as Boys, but perhaps the Boys are arranging the gender ratio in some other way ( a way which could be quite malevolent or relatively benign). It certainly seems like a hole in the story at best, and an unnecessary detail. Given the treatment of sex in the book, I suppose Niven wanted to create an erotic scenario, and the gender ratio among the adults was just one otherwise unexamined aspect of that.

The scheme to move the Earth was the most memorable aspect of Niven's story, and I'm looking forward to reading your take on how to do it.