Back in the old days, they didn't have science, they had alchemy.
Alchemy was a lot like science, except that every alchemist kept what he
learned to himself... Until, one day, everything changed. Some alchemist
decided that rather than keeping his results secret, he'd publish them
and let his peers review his results. We have a word for that kind of
publication: we call it 'science.' And we have a name for the time that
followed from this innovation: we call it 'the Enlightenment.' ... And
wouldn't you know it, some people are so bloody stupid and greedy and
blinkered and ignorant that they think that this is a bad thing.... They
think that the Internet's power to make sharing easy is a bug--and
they've set out to 'fix' it, no matter how many lives and futures they
ruin on this stupid mission.
-- Cory Doctorow "Pirate Cinema"