Your comment "Or most research and technological development requires years or generations ..." has an implicit but important missing qualifier.

"Or most SUCCCESSFUL research and technological development requires years or generations of experimentation and failure before success."

Most research and technological development fail, which is why creators and innovators may be told they are wasting their time by looking at well-traversed, almost certain dead ends in hopes of finding a new, long-overlooked path, rather than putting their efforts into R&D more likely to succeed.

We can absolutely predict that some R&D will fail to be useful - I mentioned a few. Here's another - a radium-powered reading lamp.