“They based their extrapolations on numbers. That worked as long as money, which is easily measured numerically, was the principle motivating force in human affairs. But as time progressed, human actions became responsive instead to a multitude of incommensurable vectors.”

"The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton", Universe 7 (1977), ed. Terry Carr, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
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Gene Wolfe 102
American science fiction and fantasy writer 1931–2019

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