True. But he it was quoted in press:
Found it:
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/201...id-braben-on-his-favourite-titles/#sf79162914
DB: "On that note, though, we have numbered stations in Elite: Dangerous! You might want to write those numbers down.”
A simple miscommunication by DB. FD later responded to this incident confirming DB meant to say 'number' not 'numbered'.
My point is we cant base an assumption of either a misheard statement nor a miscommunication.
He may have alluded to 'secret societies' but what does that mean. Not a great deal, I was simply proposing its as likely he was gilding the lilly a little regards to 'permits'.
Side note:
Always thought it amusing that on the
original BBC interview, RE the Raspberry Pie DB used the word "obfusticated".
Hmm, my understanding of it is that DB actually said ‘number stations’ and that it was simply transcribed incorrectly.
It’d be easily done - if you didn’t know what number stations are, then the phrase itself wouldn’t make sense, whereas ‘numbered stations’ would. So transcribing the interview it’d be pretty natural to take what DB said as ‘numbered stations’.
I’m not saying DB is infallible here btw, just that the transcription part is highly likely to have been the cause of that particular error for very natural reasons, whereas from the context of the interview, DB certainly meant number stations, and there’s a high chance it’s what he actually said. Balance of probabilities basically.

(I could of sworn the audio’s available somewhere, but I might just be imagining that!

)
Anyway, not taking away from your general point with any of that.
The secret society thing might be something we can take as a general clue, it might not. Much like many many other things in that regard!
There’s other things like the Elite Federation of Pilots, which exists within the Pilot’s Federation, so it could be a hint at something like that. Tbh, the general setting for ED is kind of rife with secretive stuff, so secret societies of various kinds are likely to abound in the galaxy. TDW, EFP, CIEP, Black Flight, The Club, INRA remnants, plus the ECOPTMWCTPaB (or whatever the acronym was that some of us came up with a while back for the hypothesised folks who are already on Raxxla!

).
