Wow! The Moat In God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle...I read that many, many decades ago and loved it. Larry Niven, in particular, was one of my favorite SF writers.

That quote is wonderful and I love it...especially in the context of this thread.

And with that quote, IMHO, you very nicely, interestingly and possibly tied together Limbic~Region's thread with one that ELISHEVA started recently regarding "Best Practices." Very nice!