"Well, if you were ten years old, and your parents weren't very wealthy and indulgent, and your theory wasn't so persuasive that you could convince other 'venture scientists' to go in with you on it, then you are not in fact going to be able to pull this off."

"That's considered a 'feature' of Civilization, not a 'bug'.  You can be poor and persuasive and still get an expensive experiment performed, or rich and unpersuasive, but you've got to be at least one of rich and persuasive."

"That said, let's say that the prestigious replicators earn four times what you do per workday, and it'll take five of them working for ten days to replicate your experiment, plus some relatively lower costs to rent equipment.  Then their cost is on the order of two hundred days of your salary.  If you save a third of what you earn for five years, you can pay for one experiment like that and still have some savings left over."

"Well, if you were ten years old, and your parents weren't very wealthy and indulgent, and your theory wasn't so persuasive that you could convince other 'venture scientists' to go in with you on it, then you are not in fact going to be able to pull this off."

"That's considered a 'feature' of Civilization, not a 'bug'.  You can be poor and persuasive and still get an expensive experiment performed, or rich and unpersuasive, but you've got to be at least one of rich and persuasive."

"That said, let's say that the prestigious replicators earn four times what you do per workday, and it'll take five of them working for ten days to replicate your experiment, plus some relatively lower costs to rent equipment.  Then their cost is on the order of two hundred days of your salary.  If you save a third of what you earn for five years, you can pay for one experiment like that and still have two-thirds of your savings left over."

"Well, if you are ten years old, and your parents aren't very wealthy and indulgent, and your theory isn't so persuasive that you could convince other 'venture scientists' to go in with you on it, then you are not in fact going to pull this off."

"That's considered a 'feature' of Civilization, not a 'bug'.  It prevents Civilization from being snowed under with futile replication attempts for silly ideas.  You can be poor and persuasive and still get an expensive experiment performed, or rich and unpersuasive, but you've got to be at least one of rich and persuasive."

"That said, let's say that the prestigious replicators earn four times what you do per workday, and it'll take five of them working for ten days to replicate your experiment, plus some relatively lower costs to rent equipment.  Then their cost is on the order of two hundred days of your salary.  If you save a third of what you earn for five years, you can pay for one experiment like that and still have two-thirds of your savings left over."