Some themes you can explore in your novel:

- how the scientifc method itself develops, or whether it develops at all

- how the tool affects the power structure of society. Would its use be banned for the lesser classes? Would literacy itself be banned or discouraged?

- Would religions, art, or culture evolve differently? Would the biodiversity of ideas actually reduce?

Perhaps the most compelling angle would be the one where the tool doesn't work according to our modern technocratic expectations.