I’ve used the fictional metaphor of the story of Dr. Johann Faust before, a folkloric German astrologer. According to the classic German legend, Faust made a deal with the devil. The deal was this. “I’ll give you my soul,” he said to Mephistopheles, “in exchange for all knowledge and worldly pleasures.” It’s a throughline for many subsequent stories about morality, values, and ethical lapses, endemic to strains of humanity, searching to satisfy personal ambitions, whether material or to ambitions of power.