what I find so shocking is that had these kings and leaders known, they could have employed thousands of experimenters to drive innovation so much faster... it feels like things progressed almost randomly during this millennia until really the 1800s when businesses realized the advantage of spending explicitly on R&D.

I should not be shocked... it would be hard from the mindset of a king in that era to have this thought.. but it was soooo close at hand!

anyway. super fascinating reading, so much to think about!