Look to Windward (Culture, #7)

by Iain M. Banks

“Still, it does seem a shame to let it all fall into such disrepair,” Kabe said. The avatar looked up at him. “You really think so? I thought there was something rather romantic about it crumbling slowly away. For a work of such self-referential artifice to be attritionally sculpted by what passes for the forces of nature around here seemed appropriate to me.”

“That’s just it. It is so easy, and it would mean so little, really. That is why the not-doing of it is probably the most profound manner in which we honor our biological progenitors. This prohibition is a mark of our respect. And so I cannot do it.”