[announcerman]

I wonder if there's anything better than some good old fashioned war and murder to bring humans together to solve hard problems in a coordinated fashion, the Manhattan project springs to mind. Maybe military AI will be the next Manhattan project.

[Iv]

The search for profit comes to mind as well.

The ego of leaders, who built things like pyramids too.

Concentrations of capital have a lot of nefarious effects on the well-being of population but make some grand projects possible that would not be otherwise possible.

I mean, the Saudi crown prince does have a 500 billion (not a typo) plan to create a fully automated city from scratch (project NEOM).

Wars help states concentrate capital quickly, but other motives have advanced technology in history.

[vlehto]

There was a moment in history where clocks were so advanced that they copied needlessly complicated clock mechanisms into pistol firing mechanisms.

But that's the only situation I can come up with. Instinct for survival is pretty good motivator. Now if you have the issue of collective survival at hand, suddenly there is lot of money, effort and creativity around.