Eventually science will help explain the reasons for every action one makes, so that people will only act according to mathematical tables of actions. The Underground Man argues that human beings will never agree to act according to tables and that they will destroy this utopia. Even if every action could be accounted for by reason, human beings would go insane just to escape their reason. The Underground Man agrees that human beings are looking for the utopia, but this is only because they love to create. He says, however, that human beings are equally fond of destruction because they do not want to inhabit the structures that they build.
Life consists of creating, striving, and searching.
Once one reaches the end of this process and there is nothing left to do, this is no longer life but death. Thus, while human beings always search for something greater, they are afraid to actually find it. The Underground Man then questions the utopian claim that well-being is always to one's best advantage, suggesting instead that suffering is the cause of consciousness and that human beings will never renounce it. The narrator explains that he opposes the utopian crystal palace because it satisfies only material needs. That in itself, however, does not make it desirable.