Hi Petra:

Interesting post. It looks like you've done alot of foot work.

I do see what you are saying: (ref:Is knowing more better? It makes me wonder. If you get to close to the subject at hand, does it leave any room for conjecture? What happens to left field inspiration? Is it being killed just by so much information? Frankly, in my most humble opinion, yes, indeed, knowing to much, especially to much theory is killing off the parts of the brain that stretch out and make the leap of inspiration to new theories).

IMO, knowing more is better. I'd like to qualify that by saying that the knowledge base should be "wide" rather than "deep" while keeping an open mind for gathering it. I think socio/political/peer pressures can cause a narrowing and distortion as to how the knowledge is viewed initially benefit-wise and whether or not it is pursued / followed up further.

IMO, a cold calculating "science robot" which is immune from socio/political/peer pressures and assigned to solve the prediction problem would have "excavated" in numerous areas which are far off the beaten path but which would logically demand attention.

It may turn out that maybe the "scent of the solution" has leaked out onto the internet ... and the solution is closer at hand than expected ....

Time will tell.

Just my .02 worth