There's a plausible version where no matter what weird detours and dead-ends a human society takes on the tech tree, as long as there continue to be wars every few generations, the needed progress keeps getting made and the dead-ends or even just over-reaches get pruned afterward.
You can go down the wrong rabbit holes for a long while in peace-time (e.g. string theory), but war-time is a crucible for correct ideas.
You can go down the wrong rabbit holes for a long while in peace-time (e.g. string theory), but war-time is a crucible for correct ideas.