We can invent but we cannot un-invent

We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

The Call of Cthulhu

One way of looking at human creativity is as a process of pulling balls out of a giant urn. The balls represent possible ideas, discoveries, technological inventions. Over the course of history, we have extracted a great many balls – mostly white (beneficial) but also various shades of gray (moderately harmful ones and mixed blessings). [...] What we haven’t extracted, so far, is a black ball: a technology that invariably or by default destroys the civilization that invents it. The reason is not that we have been particularly careful or wise in our technology policy. We have just been lucky.

The Vulnerable World Hypothesis

Tamett the scrivener returns shortly with a few stacked books. From the handwriting in common, he maintains all the documentation at present, and it is well-organized. There are comprehensive notes on both Vero's erratic procedures and also Serna's much more methodical progression through all the wire alloys available to measure their resistance as a function of radius and voltage matches the suppliers' specifications.

"I worked for a citizen-scientist in my hometown, sir, before it changed hands," he explains.

For most cities in Ctarria, there's little point investing in scientific equipment not directly applicable to a trade, because the wrong clan of nomads taking power could mean that equipment gets appropriated or taxed or burned. The citizen-scientists make do with what little they can afford and write letters to each other constantly so that their discoveries won't be so easily lost. They've been eager adopters of the telegraphs the partnership has established over there.