Guess what I picked up this weekend?
"Didn't I say I'd tell you what cities are? Listen, then, for I'll not tell it a second time. Here it is as I was told it once, old but new-minted with each fresh telling. Our world is sick, boy. Very sick. A virus got in a long time ago and we've got so used to its effects, we've forgotten what it was before we became ill. I'm talking about cities, see? Human cultures were originally homeostattic, they existed in a self sustaining equilibrium, with no notions of time and progress, like we got. Then the city-virus got in. No one's really sure where it came from or who brought it to us, but like all viral orgamisms, its one directive is to use up all available resources in produdcing copies of itself. More and more copies until there's no raw material left and the host bodym overwhelmed, can only die. The cities want us to become good builders. Eventually, we'll build rockets and carry the virus to other worlds."
Tom O'Bedlam