AI skipping necessary technologies

[nitemanrdv]

This has already happened to me twice during the space race. The AI opponents would be building space componenets and had never discovered Flight. I have also began to notice this during regular gameplay, for example, AI was building rifleman, but they never acquired Education which is necessary to gain Gunpowder. This appears to be happening with Technolgies that require two prerequiste sciences. What gives, has anyone else noticed these anomalies.

 

[MrCynical]

You're misunderstanding the tech tree. You only have to have one of the techs whose arrows lead to a tech to research it, not all of them. This makes most techs essentially optional. I have once launched a spaceship without inventing flight, which while it seems curious is perfectly possible with the game rules. The same goes for education and gunpowder. They simply had the other possible prerequisite.