It’s called epistemology. The study of knowledge and how it’s acquired and more.

Ah yes… the ol’ Wittgenstein approach!
The bastard rolled up his sleeves, said “hold this” laterally handing someone his mug of Weiss Hefeweizen, and proceeded to forge a theoretical analysis of theory itself! To boil his work into just one VERY lo-res sentence.

… Any Grand Strategy / 4X type game where you can research a tech, where the main result is that it grants a permanent buff to the rate at which you conduct research.

Also, this reminds me of the Civ 4 quote, read by Leonard Nimoy, for researching Bureaucracy:

“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”

Ah yes, Academic Ethnography.

Have begun.