Short prayers before meals encourage humility and in-group bonding. Eliezer's version is an assertion of his own cleverness which mocks the Other. Nobody actually feels gratitude towards things like "economies of scale" and "comparative advantage", so the only purpose of Eliezer's remark is to demonstrate his superiority over theists.
In other words, Eliezer's quip is just like saying grace, only the exact opposite. I think this what happens when clever people try to imitate something which they don't understand.
Short prayers before meals encourage humility and in-group bonding. Eliezer's version is an assertion of his own cleverness which mocks the Other. Nobody actually feels gratitude towards things like "economies of scale" and "comparative advantage", so the only purpose of Eliezer's remark is to demonstrate his superiority over theists.
In other words, Eliezer's quip is just like saying grace, only the exact opposite. I think this what happens when clever people try to imitate something which they don't understand.