Indeed, if there really is some day discovered a formula for all our desires and caprices - that is, an explanation of what they depend on, by what laws they arise, how they develop, what they are aiming at in one case and in another and so on, that is, a real mathematical formula - then, most likely, man will at once cease to feel desire, indeed, he will be certain to. For who would want to choose by rule? Besides, he will at once be transformed from an human being into a organ-stop or something of the sort; for what is a man without desires, without free will and without choice, if not a stop in an organ?

Fiodor Dostoievski, in 'Notes from Underground'

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