[jc173]

Well the concern I have for researching filler techs for 500 turns is that unless the AI is getting really hammered or has very few research facilities by about 10-15 years (yes I play some really long games) they'll be pumping out enough research that using to slots each turn for the filler techs means that they'll losing several thousands if not tens of thousands of research points. Maybe it's not as big a concern for most people as I think it is since I tend to play in large galaxy where each system has more planet and larger planets than in the standard Version of the game.