In the Nature of Artifice

Every problem with the rules
Remains a problem of rules.
The cost-benefit tradeoffs of rules

Involve vaguely prosocial
Cooperative leanings
Becoming more efficient

And well-coordinated
At the cost of many acts
Of spontaneous kindness.

Cooperation becomes
Cooperating with rules,
Which safeguards against the mess

Of embodied emotions,
Manipulable feelings,
And fuzzy-edged biases.

Rules grow exoskeletal,
Chitinous suits of armor
From extended phenotypes

That can sometimes entangle
And suffocate the social
Imperatives they harness,

But that’s the nature of rules.
Every problem with the rules
Lies in that nature of rules.