Problem with having Great Leader research a technology

[stormwriter]

I had a city that was pouring out Great Prophets. That's great and everything, but i chose to neglect researching some technologies, like Communism, or ones that lead to the founding of a religion (if the computer has already founded that religion before me... So i usually skip that technology..)

Well, i get a Great Prophet, and the only thing to have him do sometimes is join a city as a great specialist, or have him discover a new technology for me. The problem is, you CAN'T choose the technology you'd like them to discover, so the cheapest one always seems to be the only option! What a waste! So i just make him a great specialist.
Any way around this, other than researching technologies i don't really need?

[Proteus_MST]

AFAIK nope.

They research the next technology available in their field of specialisation (for Great Prophets for example religious technologies).

Dunno if there is a special internal list for each kind of leader from which the Great Leader picks the next not researched technology, but I suspect so.

[Quillan]

I haven't gone digging through the XML files to look, but I suspect there is a list of techs, in order, for each category of great person. Then, when you use that ability, it will just pick the next one on the list, and either give you that tech outright, or grant you a chunk of research points towards it.

[Arkalius]

Yeah it seems they pick the cheapest technology in their field to research. If that means you're all the way up to researching things like steel and gunpowder, but left something like monotheism behind, that's what he'll research.

[Ansaga]

There is a specific order. I can feel your pain, I ignore meditation even all the way to the industrial age and every time I get a great prophet it always want me to get it >.>

[Tennyson]

Yeah, BUT, if you go ahead and spend 3 or 4 turns to research the cheap tech, the prophet's chosen tech would change, wouldn't it?

So the price of researching a cheap tech could be the granting of a much more expensive tech.

[Solver]

The specialists give you a tech in their own field, yes. If you have been skipping, for example, Theology, you can probably anyway research it in 2-3 turns. Do it, and use the Prophet for a better tech.