It wouldn't even need to totally clean up the game's trademark ambiguous tone. Anything that waggles the primitivism and scientific advancement graphs could also be wiggling the scientific distinction pie chart.
Example technology segments:
- Remedial childcare, aka rehabilitative science. Nations which are very dedicated to the principles of rehabilitation can have their scientific distinction pie chart filling with "remedial childcare" as they pour money into their prison systems. This would also explain what some of the psychology research gains are (while ambiguously insulting and/or praising them), and why nations gain science when they better fund their orphanages.
- Omniscience, aka surveillance. Investments in scientific law enforcement would obviously be this, but so would a number of other technologies that tend to accumulate surveillance abilities, even some unexpected ones like the nuclear and WMD sciences. Extremely hazardous materials simply MUST be policed. I think calling this science omniscience conveys the inherent trust issue in surveillance pretty well.
- Monstrosity, aka genetics, cybernetics, and other heavily biotransformative researches. The implications of eugenic contemplation are famously horrific. So could be the repercussions of actual scientific success. Biotechnology distorts the world around us.
- Hedonics, aka scientific control of pleasure. Entertainment, culture, and drug research gains produce hedonics, though it's also found as a side effect from some other kinds of research (space research) that produce much-loved artistic and cultural byproducts. A desirable objective to some people, an evil side effect to others.
- Eustress, aka scientific control of discomfort. The sister discipline of hedonics, generally produced as a side effect of other research rather than a main target. Pressurizes society, but in ways that the nation's scientific corpus suggests are 'correct', or at least stable and predictable. Evil nations can hunt for eustress to prove their scientific evil; produced in large amounts whenever scientific advancement increases at the expense of cheerfulness.
- Physics, aka physics. Also increased by space science and gains in mathematics.
- Exodus Imperative, aka space sciences. TBH I'm not sure I thought of a clever name for this one, but calling it something cool is probably appropriate.
- Delectables, aka nutrition. It could just be called nutrition or food science, but I think taunting at erudition is sensible. A more real kind of advance than people quite realize.
- Fast Death, aka weapons. Since everyone does it, everyone needs it. Should also amuse people who play evil nations to dominate their chart with fast death, too.
- Slow Death, aka medicine. Inevitably overlaps with Monstrosity, sometimes overlaps with Delectables, and rarely with anything. Even with Fast Death; what's the science gain from karate, if not the point where slow death and fast death find something they can agree on?
How primitivism would affect these, I leave to the reader, though primitive technologies might still be considered technologies of a sort.
I know that I'm proposing a whole new subsystem, so I wouldn't expect to see it implemented this year, but I felt it could do no harm to put the idea out there.
