The benefit of "massive AI tech trading" for the human player.

[Quentin]

Recently I found a method to use massive AI tech trading(hereafter refered to as MAITT) very well to my advantage. To me this has been the greatest thing since tech brokering and you will understand why after you have finished reading.
Basically MAITT refers to the way an AI civ trades almost all techs it has discovered to any friendly civ other then the human player, thus causing discontent among many civ players because they find it very much harder to catch up with the AI in terms of technology.
Here lies the benefit:
When AIs trade techs with one another, the techs lose value. In this way, if you research techs that the AI do not research very early on(eg. literature, polytheism in Ancient Times, astronomy, gunpowder, banking in Medieval Period, scientific method, medicine, atomic theory in Industrial Age, ?????? for Modern Times), and then trade them just one of these (techs) to all the AI civs, you can get them to trade you two, or maybe three, techs for your one tech because to them, the techs that only you know are much more valuable than the techs that they have which have been greatly devalued by MAITT. Think about it, this is much greater than tech brokering because you can get THREE TECHS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! Firaxis is their attempt to not us give us the ability to tech broker have given us something much greater.
This ability ,however, may not be feasible if:
1. you are a warmonger which everyone does not like,
2. you are researching at a rate much slower than the AI,
3. you are researching much much faster than the AI in which case there is not need to do this and the AI have no techs to trade you

I did this on Regent which I think is good in-between so I believe this should work to some extent on all difficulty levels.

 

[God]

Its a good idea. I have done this before in regent, early in the game, because by Middle Ages i had caught up and surpassed the AI. It does work on monarch too to a certain degree. Usually i just end up saving alot of money and buying the techs rather than trading one of my own for theirs.

 

[Anarch]

I often avoid trading techs with other civs, especially later in the game. Somehow I don't like idea of giving Synthetic Fibers or some other weapon-building tech to, let say, Japanese or Aztecs because next turn I might see admiral Hirohito waging blitzkrieg and firing at my scientific bottom. I usually give some minor tech like Ecology or Miniaturization and then I charge about 160 or so per turn + some luxuries and trade embargo against my enemy.

 

[Quentin]

Sorry for the extremely long winded post. I get all long-winded and confused when I am excited.
About saving money and buying techs, I find buying techs with cash very expensive and so do not usually do it.
I really liked this idea because this is a bit like the way written in the "Rich Dad" series: it is important not to work for money but let money work for you. In using this method, you use your money to research techs, which in turn get you more techs which in turn get you more money... I myself find it really nice.

 

[Quentin]

Okay, here's a summary.
To benefit from MAITT, you research techs that the AI players are not researching. Then, take this(or these) tech(s) and trade it to the AI players. Preferably you trade in the order of their wealth so that you can get more money from the rich civs when the techs are still of high value since the more these techs are known, the less their value. In this way you can get them to trade you a number of techs for just your tech thus very often get three or maybe even four techs for the price of one. Also, beginning from the late middle ages, the AI will probably start giving you gold per turn for your tech.
The benefits are:
-devaluation of AI techs due to MAITT
-multiple techs traded for just one single tech
-luxuries traded for tech
-easy way to get ahead technologically(it's easy but not very easy and not all that tough as well)
-good reputation

 

[alexander dumas]

If they whore, I will too.
Sell it for a lot to the first couple of AIs, then give it away for reputation to the rest.

 

[skaternate]

I find if you are large enough to make at least 500+ per turn then why learn? let the AI do it for you, then steal it. Yes it's expansive, but you can also steal more than one tech sometimes, when I play a diety game this is the only way I can find to stay tech equal. I find I have very good luck with it too.