...your post wasn't speaking to the point, which was that I don't think the tech tree works very well as it is. All you did was reiterate how the extant tech tree idea works. I know how the tech tree works. I was positing an alternative way of thinking about it.
First paragraph talked quickly about the development of technology in real life, the second was the criticism of your idea, and was further added too by other people here
And as much as my response was ad hominem, your post was simply begging the question: does the tech tree have to work this way?
It's not ideal, but it's tolerable. Some of the techs don't appear to fit in with the development of Satellites, say agriculture or what not, but people have pointed out that it would be strange of a society not to have such early techs, not to mention the cultural and technological progress derived from agriculture, progress that leads to definite requirements for satellites.
Some of the decisions Firaxis made for the tree seem odd, fair enough. Chivalry is not a necessary condition for banking, banking could have come about from other means, but its easy to see the cultural links between the two, and they don't need to be made explicit if these links don't actually add anything to the game. I'd like a more diverse and complicated tech tree, which is why I like the Civ 4 mods more than vanilla BTS, but I can understand their reasoning for shortening it, if that is their reason.
Granted, some techs might not need to be researched. A civilization could theoretically exist without any conventional monetary economy, negating the needs of feudalism, banking etc. No idea if one could have developed and survived, but yes it could lead to a different path to satellites and robotics. I'd love to see such ideas implemented , convergent evolution tech paths but there's no room in such a simple game as CiV
Fall from Heaven had a different tree, where you could research high level techs of one branch without having to develop early techs from another, which is fantastic because it potentially opens up a lot of strategy. Fall from Heaven's tree though works in a shorter time frame, and doesn't need to mimic the real life evolution of technology
So I didn't see the point in responding to your specifically at the time, because nothing I could say specifically to you would push the discussion past the starting line anymore than my prior posts
It wasn't the lack of response, it's just soul crushing to be told that it was dismissed through choice of words. Like I said, the criticism was there. It's functionally the same as setting a goal in the cilivilapedia, which you'll reach without having to manually pick the techs. To research satellites directly would mean you'd have to research the component techs, even if they're not made explicit in the game - what would you need to get a satellite into orbit?