In some ways this reminds me of Joseph Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies. It's been a while since I've read it, but I recall he correlated increasing soci

In some ways this reminds me of Joseph Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies. It's been a while since I've read it, but I recall he correlated increasing social complexity with a decrease in innovation. Although, I think he measured "innovation" as patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property which I think is a poor measure of ingenuity or innovation. Still, interesting hypothesis...