>If scientific knowledge were hidden in ancient vaults (rather than hidden in inconvenient pay-for-access journals), at least then people would try to get into

>If scientific knowledge were hidden in ancient vaults (rather than hidden in inconvenient pay-for-access journals), at least then people would try to get into the vaults. They'd be desperate to learn science. Especially when they saw the power that Eighth Level Physicists could wield, and were told that they weren't allowed to know the explanation. > [...] >If the Great Secret of Natural Selection, passed down from Darwin Who Is Not Forgotten, was only ever imparted to you after you paid $2000 and went through a ceremony involving torches and robes and masks and sacrificing an ox, then when you were shown the fossils, and shown the optic cable going through the retina under a microscope, and finally told the Truth, you would say "That's the most brilliant thing ever!" and be satisfied. After that, if some other cult tried to tell you it was actually a bearded man in the sky 6000 years ago, you'd laugh like hell. >And you know, it might actually be more fun to do things that way. Especially if the initiation required you to put together some of the evidence for yourself—together, or with classmates—before you could tell your Science Sensei you were ready to advance to the next level. It wouldn't be efficient, sure, but it would be fun. >[...] >And no, I'm not seriously proposing that we try to reverse the last five hundred years of openness and classify all the science secret. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky, https://www.lesswrong.com/s/6BFkmEgre7uwhDxDR/p/3diLhMELXxM8rFHJj https://www.lesswrong.com/s/6BFkmEgre7uwhDxDR/p/3diLhMELXxM8... That's really all there is to Yudkowsky's persona of occultism at the end of the day. It's an intentional affectation.