Abstract:Australian policy on technology in the second half of the twentieth century is examined in the light of the contest between wisdom and folly in government. The cyclic nature of the relation between industrial evolution and technological development is traced back to the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the importance of leading technologies in those cycles is outlined. It is shown that the high technologies play the role of these leading technologies in modern industrial economies, and that governments play a dominant and fundamental role in their development. Australian governments have avoided this role, leading to relative decline in the high technology industries and consequent suppression of the normal cycle of industrial development in this country. By comparison with past follies of other governments in history, it is seen that this may be regarded as folly.