Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) was the author of the dystopian novel 'We'.
His book pictures the One State, a see-through prison-society where citizens are just 'numbers' (like the character D-503) and human emotion is stamped out in favor of perfect mathematical order.
In the story the messy 'wild curve' of feeling is eliminated so everything can run on the exact straight line of a system that claims to be flawless.
The engine uses this novel as a lens for thinking about total-surveillance, machine-run control (the panopticon and the Technate) — one way to read the top of the pyramid, not a claim about who actually sits there.