The Gentleman Scientist: A Selection from Neal Stephenson’s Fall (2019)

“‘Academic science advances in many micro-steps, one paper at a time. Peer-reviewed papers are the way we keep score. The more papers, the better. If you can take a project and slice it fine, like prosciutto, you publish more papers, and your score goes up. But you were behaving like someone who didn’t know or care about that.’ Sophia blushed. ‘Maybe I’m naive. Okay.’

‘You’re rich,’ Enoch announced. ‘I beg your pardon?’ ‘You’re rich,’ he repeated. ‘There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not a criticism.’ ‘How does that enter into it?’ ‘Two ways. First, you simply don’t care about playing the game—publishing as many papers as possible,’ Enoch explained, with a nod at Solly. ‘Second, you had access to the resources needed.’

There was a long silence, during which it seemed entirely possible that Sophia might start crying. ‘Listen,’ Enoch said, ‘there is a long and honorable history, dating back to the Royal Society, of the gentleman scientist. And now the lady scientist. We don’t like to acknowledge it because we wish to maintain a polite facade of egalitarianism. But there’s a reason why so many important theorems are named after members of the titled nobility of Europe.’”—Neal Stephenson, Fall: or, Dodge in Hell (2019)