The Useless Bugbreeders

When humanity spreads across the solar system, we discover we're not alone. But the galaxy's ancient civilizations have a brutal question for the Bugbreeders: what are you good for? In this wry 1960s gem, interplanetary lawyers argue that an entire alien species deserves extinction because they contribute nothing to galactic progress. The Bugbreeders breed bugs. That's it. That's their economy, their culture, their entire existence. And in a universe that measures worth in productivity, that seems like enough reason to erase them. Stamers builds a mischievous courtroom drama where the real trial isn't about the Bugbreeders at all, but about humanity's arrogance in assuming utility is the same as value. The premise is absurd. The questions it raises are not. This is the kind of science fiction that uses silly aliens to ask uncomfortable questions about what we owe to beings different from ourselves, and whether survival should ever be earned.