It's definitely the case that well funded science proceeds faster, but science being funded in the name of strategic necessity is ancient. And it has tended to

It's definitely the case that well funded science proceeds faster, but science being funded in the name of strategic necessity is ancient. And it has tended to be the case that when funding has been focused on applied topics like engineering, then knowledge advances more slowly. When scientists are allowed to pursue more pure subjects, that tends to be the right climate for germinating new ideas. Compare, for example, the engineering-focused Roman empire with the idea-focused Greeks. > governments recognized that technology was a strategic necessity, bam, within a century or two we went from playing with primitive batteries, to nuclear fission, the internet, and now AI. Governments have recognized this since at least the time of Archimedes, though. A lot of well-known mathematicians worked on things like canons, mines, railroad networks etc. So I think something else is needed to explain the explosion you're talking about other than governments recognizing the strategic importance of technology. Probably computers (and networks of computers) together with the figuring out of quantum mechanics played major roles.