All rested, eventually. Their technology climbed to some
complacent asymptote, and stopped—and so they do not stand
before you now. Now even my creators grow fat and slow. Their
environment mastered, their enemies broken, they can afford more
pacifist luxuries. Their machines softened the universe for them,
their own contentment robs them of incentive. They forget that
hostility and technology climb the cultural ladder together, they
forget that it’s not enough to be smart.
You also have to be mean.
-- Peter Watts, ‘Ambassador’