This is the limit of Eld science, and hence, the limit of public knowledge.
Wait, so these people are doing this only for recreation?
No—this is Eliezer’s alternate universe storyline in which the science-equivalent is treated as a secret the same way the Pythagoreans did. The initiates—the people with access to the secret knowledge—use it for technology, just as we do, except because the general public doesn’t know the science, the tech looks amazing.
The idea, I believe, is to reduce the attraction of bogus secret societies. In Brennan’s world, anyone who made one would be challenged to accomplish as great or greater feats than the Bayesians—a task that a mere mystery cult would fail at.
There are actually multiple reasons, some stories stress different ones. The one I like is that by keeping the results secret, they can train students in discovery by encouraging/forcing them to rediscover the laws as part of their training.
The societies I have been told about are limited in scope. Only a rationalistic conspiracy would be in direct competition with the Bayesians. The Cooperative Conspiracy and Bayesian Conspiracy apparently allow open membership in both, while the Cooperative Conspiracy would probably be in competition with an Individualist Conspiracy or Competitive Conspiracy.
Of course, even the Model Airplane Conspiracy could restrict members to only their conspiracy, preventing them from being Bayesian Conspirators despite the conspiracies’ dissimilar subjects, particularly if the Bayesians forbade hiding one’s identity.
Insofar as one ought to speak and think cleanly, secret societies would not be challenged to show results—this is to talk as if under the sway of their mystery. They would be assumed to be worse than useless until they demonstrated results—useless at first thought because mystery has no value, less than that at second thought because not showing value is evidence of not being able to show it, which is evidence of not having it.
No—this is Eliezer’s
alternate universestoryline in which the science-equivalent is treated as a secret the same way the Pythagoreans did. The initiates—the people with access to the secret knowledge—use it for technology, just as we do, except because the general public doesn’t know the science, the tech looks amazing.The idea, I believe, is to reduce the attraction of bogus secret societies. In Brennan’s world, anyone who made one would be challenged to accomplish as great or greater feats than the Bayesians—a task that a mere mystery cult would fail at.
There are actually multiple reasons, some stories stress different ones. The one I like is that by keeping the results secret, they can train students in discovery by encouraging/forcing them to rediscover the laws as part of their training.
The societies I have been told about are limited in scope. Only a rationalistic conspiracy would be in direct competition with the Bayesians. The Cooperative Conspiracy and Bayesian Conspiracy apparently allow open membership in both, while the Cooperative Conspiracy would probably be in competition with an Individualist Conspiracy or Competitive Conspiracy.
Of course, even the Model Airplane Conspiracy could restrict members to only their conspiracy, preventing them from being Bayesian Conspirators despite the conspiracies’ dissimilar subjects, particularly if the Bayesians forbade hiding one’s identity.
Insofar as one ought to speak and think cleanly, secret societies would not be challenged to show results—this is to talk as if under the sway of their mystery. They would be assumed to be worse than useless until they demonstrated results—useless at first thought because mystery has no value, less than that at second thought because not showing value is evidence of not being able to show it, which is evidence of not having it.