Expanding Shields

Aarons thoughts on the expanding shield were similar to my own.
  It does remind me of the Langston field or the Black Globe Generator
 Traveller ripped off from Niven and partner.  That field absorbed
energy
 and then attempted to disapate it over time.  If it got overheated you
 could get localized overheating where the radiant energy would damage
 the hull of the ship underneath, or general overheating where the
 entire field would collapse and vaporize the whole ship...
  By the way, the Langston field was discovered in the First Empire of
Man 
after the CoDominium collapsed.  Mote In God's Eye takes place in the
Second
 Empire of Man.
  That is where the Moties created the expanding shields...