I can see how attractive it is to some people to want a game to do all of the work for them, but I, like many, am a control freak, so I would find a game that did all of this for me without my being able to tell it I didn't want it to do this would not be fun for me. I enjoy trying to outwit a game.

Missed that. Sorry.

Dido, but I guess it doesn't matter if it is an option. I would never use this myself.

Can you be more specific of how this is a problem? My suggestion does not let the Computer pick a Tech to Research that you wouldn't be able to select manually.

You're asking what he is talking about. Well this is my understanding of what he is talking about from my perspective versus your perspective. When you play a game you actually need techs from most areas. I guess you can play a game without touching influence, logistic, planetary defense, and fleet enfancement techs, but most of the areas are usually touched. The post is probably not talking of having any of the other techs, but covering the minimum of techs required in different areas. Specialization doesn't mean that they wouldn't include the need for other techs.  This would pretty much garantee that the non warlike factions could not fight. Why am I playing this kind of game if not to pick my techs anyways.

1. The need for different techs usually change between games minus things like planetary improvements and economics.

This is why I could not play under that option. This would change my gameplay style from being an economic giant into forcing me to be warlike. Later on I wouldn't be able to change my research stradegy to being warlike. If we pick a path to research I couldn't imagine that changing paths later on would work. Playing like world war 2 United states would not work in this kind of game. If this is an option it wouldn't matter, but if this wasn't an option, but how the game was run then I wouldn't play the game over this. 

I really, really, really hate surprises. For me this would be no fun at all. I am really glad you are proposing this as optional.

In a Scored game, where players are playing for the score, your idea would just mean they would have a printed off Tech tree next to them instead and thus gain a higher score for using such an option(if it exists) without earning it. With the Blind Tech Advancement though, you can give the players a higher score for using it, and they would have really earned it.