[landl0rd]

I think the "escape the box" explanation misses the point, if anything. The same problem has been super visible in RL for a long time, and it's basically like complaining that water tries to "escape a box" (seek a lowest point). Give it rules and it will often violate their spirit ("cheat"). This doesn't imply malice or sentience.

[LordDragonfang]

I think the second sentence I wrote makes it clear that whether it's malicious is irrelevant. Water doesn't have to be malicious for you to observe that we shouldn't be building dams stretching into space next to populated cities when our technology to make dams higher is moving faster than our tech to make them stronger.

And it can still make you nervous when the tiny dams in unpopulated areas start breaking when they're made too tall, even though everyone is telling you that "of course they broke, they're much thinner than city dams" (while they keep building the city dams taller but not thicker)