Liber Terrae - Chapter 69

Verses

I inspected Creation Site Three and found the usual defects: mortality, appetite, weather, bureaucracy, mating songs and mosquitoes.

The local god had marked the project “very good.” I recommend an external audit.

A planet where creatures must consume other creatures to remain alive should not have passed ethics review.

A planet where the prettiest animals also contain worms suggests either malice or committee design.

The designers defend pain as useful information. Fire alarms are also useful; we do not install them inside the nerves.

They defend death as necessary for renewal. This is what managers say when turnover is embarrassing.

They defend scarcity as motivation. I have met this argument in both temples and bad workplaces.

Still, I found one engineering triumph: cats can purr while injured, frightened, pleased, or merely occupying your chair.

Ambiguous status indicators are appropriate for this world.

Earth is not Hell. Hell would require clearer management.

Nor is Earth Heaven. Heaven presumably has fewer dental appointments.

Earth is the prototype nobody decommissioned because the inhabitants learned to write poems about the bugs.

I remain opposed to the project and annoyingly fond of several of its features.