Kyle Castil
AB – Political Science 3rd Year
Technology
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This article is about the use and knowledge of techniques and processes for producing goods
and services. For other uses, see Technology (disambiguation).
A steam turbine with the case opened. Such turbines produce most of the electricity used today. Electricity
consumption and living standards are highly correlated.[1] Electrification is believed to be the most important
engineering achievement of the 20th century.
Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand";
and -λογία, -logia[2]) is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the
production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such
as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes,
and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed
knowledge of their workings. Systems (e.g. machines) applying technology by taking
an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are
referred to as technology systems or technological systems.
The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools.
The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire and the later Neolithic
Revolution increased the available sources of food, and the invention of
the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. Developments in
historic times, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have
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AB – Political Science 3rd Year
lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a
global scale.
Technology has many effects. It has helped develop more
advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of
a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known
as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment.
Innovations have always influenced the values of a society and raised new questions in
the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of
human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over
whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-
Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar reactionary movements criticize the
pervasiveness of technology, arguing that it harms the environment and alienates
people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-
progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and
the human condition.
Contents
1Definition and usage
2Science, engineering, and technology
3History
o 3.1Paleolithic (2.5 Ma – 10 ka)
3.1.1Stone tools
3.1.2Fire
3.1.3Clothing and shelter
o 3.2Neolithic through classical antiquity (10 ka – 300 CE)
3.2.1Metal tools
3.2.2Energy and transport
3.2.3Plumbing
o 3.3Medieval and modern history (300 CE – present)
4Philosophy
o 4.1Technicism
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AB – Political Science 3rd Year
o 4.2Optimism
o 4.3Skepticism and critics
o 4.4Appropriate technology
o 4.5Optimism and skepticism in the 21st century
o 4.6Complex technological systems
5Other animal species
6Future technology
7See also
8References
9Further reading
Definition and usage
The spread of paper and printing to the West, as in this printing press,
helped scientists and politicians communicate their ideas easily, leading to the Age of Enlightenment; an
example of technology as cultural force.
The use of the term "technology" has changed significantly over the last 200 years.
Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, and it was used either to
refer to the description or study of the useful arts[3] or to allude to technical education, as
in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861).[4]
The term "technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with
the Second Industrial Revolution. The term's meanings changed in the early 20th
century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated
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AB – Political Science 3rd Year
ideas from the German concept of Technik into "technology." In German and other
European languages, a distinction exists between technik and technologie that is absent
in English, which usually translates both terms as "technology." By the 1930s,
"technology" referred not only to the study of the industrial arts but to the industrial arts
themselves.[5]
In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools,
machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and
transporting devices and the skills by which we produce and use them." [6] Bain's
definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists.
Scientists and engineers usually prefer to define technology as applied science, rather
than as the things that people make and use. [7] More recently, scholars have borrowed
from European philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to
various forms of instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on technologies of the
self (techniques de soi).
Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The Merriam-Webster
Learner's Dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the use of science in industry,
engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems" and "a machine, piece of
equipment, method, etc., that is created by technology." [8] Ursula Franklin, in her 1989
"Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is
"practice, the way we do things around here." [9] The term is often used to imply a specific
field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather
than technology as a whole.[10] Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines
technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life," and as
"organized inorganic matter."[11]
Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial,
created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value.
In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-
world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as
a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space
station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual
technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this definition
of technology.[12] W. Brian Arthur defines technology in a similarly broad way as "a
means to fulfill a human purpose."[13]
The invention of integrated circuits and the microprocessor (here, an Intel 4004 chip from 1971) led to the
modern computer revolution.
The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this
context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to
produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes
technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When
Kyle Castil
AB – Political Science 3rd Year
combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology," it
refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-
art technology" refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field.
Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture. [14] Additionally,
technology is the application of mathematics, science, and the arts for the benefit of life
as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has
lessened barriers to human interaction and as a result has helped spawn new
subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has at its basis the development of the Internet and
the computer.[15] As a cultural activity, technology predates
both science and engineering, each of which formalize some aspects of technological
endeavor.
Science, engineering, and technology
Antoine Lavoisier experimenting with combustion generated by amplified sun light
The distinction between science, engineering, and technology is not always
clear. Science is systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through
observation and experimentation.[16] Technologies are not usually exclusively products of
science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as utility, usability, and safety.
[17]
Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to
exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using
results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon
many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic,
and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.
Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering, although technology as
a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow
of electrons in electrical conductors by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This
new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and
machines such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced
technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered
technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research
and reference.[18]
The exact relations between science and technology, in particular, have been debated
by scientists, historians, and policymakers in the late 20th century, in part because the
Kyle Castil
AB – Political Science 3rd Year
debate can inform the funding of basic and applied science. In the immediate wake
of World War II, for example, it was widely considered in the United States that
technology was simply "applied science" and that to fund basic science was to reap
technological results in due time. An articulation of this philosophy could be found
explicitly in Vannevar Bush's treatise on postwar science policy, Science – The Endless
Frontier: "New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous additions to
knowledge of the laws of nature ... This essential new knowledge can be obtained only
through basic scientific research."[19] In the late-1960s, however, this view came under
direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives
resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentious, though most
analysts resist the model that technology is a result of scientific research. [20][21]
