Some great discussions on having a "domintion" victory to shorten influence/conquest games, but until that arrives, is tech victory a bit too easy?  At some point with your military, you can just go on the defensive, and ramp to a tech victory before the AI knows what the heck is going on.  Looking back at all of my influence wins (I dont think I've ever had a conquest, as influence vicotry always pops first), it would have been far faster to have gone to a tech victory once I had achieved dominance.