> This is what cancer cells do: Proliferate without limit, avoid cell death, monopolize resources, co-opt the labor of other cells, and destroy the surrounding environment.
Rings a bell
Rings a bell
Thinking beyond the snark for a bit, though, locusts might be an example of a species-level cancer cheating the “rules” of a habitat.
Humans? We just throw the rules away altogether and have historically written new ones that only apply to us. The difference between us and locusts, though, is that many of us fight back against our own short term interests and argue “hey, we’re a tumor right now. We should consider not being one of those.”
Alas, we're the only sentient beings in this comparison, which makes tumors bad and universe a resource, by our standards - i.e. the only ones that matter.