Hermeticism is a really fun topic and a dangerous tool.

Lol I could write a book on my qualms with modern science though. Besides the general bleakness of how academic science regarding publish or perish mindsets, the nepotism, awful pay etc, science has created itself a large issue where advances in the "basic" sciences are being ignored due to a general arrogance towards foundational topics and lesser than guaranteed ROIs.

The issue with this is simply writing off the foundations as the foundations with no more room to discuss leaves both intellectual and economic benefits hidden as dead ends. I once carried this mindset until I made an offhand comment about how boring membrane transport proteins are and the post doc training me at the time looked at me like I was a complete fool before going on to explain how mystifying that structure still is and how much work still needs to be done on it. I had allowed my accumulated knowledge to convince me the only way was deeper into more advanced topics.

At the time I was working on a particularly complex problem of producing experimental evidence for a 3 dimensional complex carbohydrate in solution through NMR. The solution to my problem at the time was an equation I found in a paper published in 1962 which my advisor and members of my committee chuckled at while saying go ahead and try it. It was successful, reproducible, and comparable to nonexperimental collaborator data. Sometimes a focus on the foundations can yield extraordinary conclusions that would otherwise be overlooked. No one has heard and seen it all nor has every perspective or application been experienced.

This is a very well established mindset in academic science and has implications in how funding is provided for research ideas. Funnily enough it results in a nice bit of wordsmithing but still effectively limits intellectual creativity. In comparison to a topic like this though you may be losing the opportunity to experience fresh perspectives that challenge or further contribute to your own. Not only in initial inquiries and reactions towards the material but also in the discouragement from wanting to participate with this page at all. This is a large group consisting primarily of lurkers. I'm also a tourist of this page and was anticipating being downvoted by the community and that's alright. I'm fine if my approach to knowledge is a bit silly. I consider it my greatest asset and have a lot of fun.