This may be partly because technologies that were used are more conspicuous. We would know if Napier designed a better cannon, but we don’t know how much he delayed the development of artillery by concealing his results.
Right, there’s a survivorship bias. You’re not going to hear about scientists who successfully prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries (because to be really successful they’d also need to prevent anyone from learning that they’d prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries).
This may be partly because technologies that were used are more conspicuous. We would know if Napier designed a better cannon, but we don’t know how much he delayed the development of artillery by concealing his results.
Right, there’s a survivorship bias. You’re not going to hear about scientists who successfully prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries (because to be really successful they’d also need to prevent anyone from learning that they’d prevented anyone from learning about their terrible discoveries).