[parodysbird]

The thing with alchemy was not that their hypotheses were wrong (they eventually created chemistry), but that their method of secret esoteric mysticism over open inquiry was wrong.

Newton is the great example of this: he led a dual life, where in one he did science openly to a community to scrutinize, in the other he did secret alchemy in search of the philosopher's stone. History has empirically shown us which of his lives actually led to the discovery and accumulation of knowledge, and which did not.

[iamcurious]

Newton was a smart guy and he devoted a lot of time to his occult research. I bet that a lot of that occult research inspired the physics. The fact that his occult research remains, occult from the public, well that is natural aint it?

[parodysbird]

You can be inspired by anything, that's fine. Gell-mann was amusing himself and getting inspiration from Buddhism for quantum physics. It's the process of the inquiry that generates the knowledge as a discipline, rather than the personal spark for discovery.

[elcritch]

That’s what the Illuminati wants you to think. Jk ;)

Gotta admit the occult side does make for much more enjoyable movie and book plot lines though.