SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY

LESSON 2: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

WORLD HISTORY

1st Semester
A.Y. 2023-2024
Course Code: SCITECH
Outline:
▪ Science and Technology in different Periods

▪ Ancient Period

▪ Medieval Period

▪ Renaissance Period

▪ Industrial Revolution

▪ In the 19th Century

▪ In 20th Century
Learning Outcomes:
● Explain the historical timeline of science and technology;

● Analyze the difference between the different periods involved in the development of
Science and Technology; and
● Synthesize and create their own definition of Science and Technology based on the
discussion on this unit.

Content

To know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true
Knowledge.
 -Nicolaus Copernicus

Science and technology is evident since the beginning of time. New knowledge
made it possible to create new things that would help people improve their everyday living.
Development in the field of science has helped humans to have a better life while
advancement in technology made the lives of the people much easier by developing new
machines that helped their way of living effortless.
In combination, science and technology transforms the lives of humans. It helps
provide growth in the field of medicine, transportation, engineering and even
entertainment that until today people are benefiting from.
The development of science and technology has gone so far, tracing how it all
began would give us a better idea on how it has developed since then and what are the
significant changes that has happened throughout time. By looking back at the history of
science and technology, we will be able to determine its progression.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN DIFFERENT PERIODS

Ancient Period (ca. 3,500 B.C. - 500 A D.)

Accumulation of knowledge and passing it
from generation to generation has begun
when the modern humans evolved from
their hominid ancestors. They used stones
as tools, and then learned how to shape
stones co make more efficient tools. As the
tools improved, so people were able to use
them to fashion weapons and other
artifacts from bone, antler, and wood. They
also learned how to capture fire from
natural sources such as wild fires, and later
to make fire for themselves by using the
heat generated by friction or sparks from
stones, or by concentrating the sun's heat.
Here are some of the developments in science and technology during the ancient period
(Goddard, 2010):
Ancient Three-Age System - a system of classifying ancient ages into groups based on
tools developmental stages.
a. Stone Age
• Weapons made of stone, wood, bone or some other materials for hunting.

a.1. Paleolithic Period – Old Stone Age (2.5 MYA to 10,000 B.C.)
• People are mainly hunters and gatherers of food
• Living nomadically in caves
• Used basic stone tools for hunting
• Controlled fire

a.2. Mesolithic Period – Middle Stone Age (10,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.)
• People are still hunters and gatherers of food
• Living as permanent settlers in villages (near rivers)
• Used small stone tools for hunting
• polished, pointed spears/arrows
• Learned fishing and introduced agriculture

a.3. Neolithic Period – New Stone Age (8,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.)
• People are using agriculture and domesticate animals for food
• Living as permanent settlers in villages (near rivers)
• Used stone tools in agriculture
• Polished hand axes
• Advanced farming, home construction, and art

b. Bronze Age (3,000 B.C. to 1,300 B.C.)

• Tools and weapons were widely made with copper and bronze.
• Smelting is a process of extracting metal from involving heating and melting.
• Sumerians discovered that a harder and stronger metal could be made by
blending copper and tin.
• Different human societies entered the Bronze Age at different times.
• Rise of states or kingdoms—large-scale societies joined under a central government
by a powerful ruler.
o Sumer and Babylonia in Mesopotamia
o Athens in Ancient Greece
• The Bronze Age ended around 1200 B.C. when humans began to forge an
even stronger metal: iron.

c. Iron Age
• Between 1200 to 600 B.C. depending on the region
• Hittites (Turkey) firstly made steel, a much harder metal, by heating iron with
carbon.
 • Launched the beginning of mass production and created major advancements
in warfare.
• Persians, first civilization to develop an armored cavalry completely covered in
steel armor.

d. Antiquity (600 BCE to 529 CE)

• Rise of Greek civilization

• Natural philosophers – first scientists

• Pre-Socratic Philosophers
o Thales - Assumed Earth to be floating in water
o Democritus - thought that atoms are solid, indestructible particles that
are separated by empty space
o Hippocrates - Recognized as Father of Medicine
§ Hippocratic Oath - encourages separation of medicine from
Religion
• Socratic Philosophers
o Socrates - Contribute knowledge through dialogues using the Socratic
Method
o Plato - Coined the term element and established the Academy
o Aristotle - Elements undergo changes when they combine and have
qualities that are based on observations using our senses.

Medieval Period (ca. 500-1500)

The Medieval Period also known as

"Dark Ages" is considered to be one of the
creative periods in the history of humans
and said to be the start of the first industrial
revolution. The term "Dark Ages" came up
because there are few written records
remained from the said era. There are very
little evidence that will support that there
was progress in the society during the
periods 500 to 1500.

In the years immediately after the fall of Rome, there was a period of readjustment, where
medieval society was more concerned with keeping peace and empire building than nurturing
centers of learning. Despite this Charlemagne (742-814) a medieval emperor who ruled
Western Europe in 800-814, tried to establish a scholastic tradition. The later Middle Ages
(around 1250-1500 A.D.) saw advancements in the philosophy of science and the refinement of
the scientific method. Far from being a backwards-medieval society, overshadowed by Islam
and Byzantium, scholasticism acted as a nucleus for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

One of the greatest inventions during, the Middle Ages the printing press of Johannes
Gutenberg (ca. 1395-1468) in the 15th century. It was Gutenberg who made printing
mechanized. The invention of the printing press itself obviously owed much to the medieval
paper press, in turn modeled after the ancient wine-and-olive Press of the Mediterranean area.
A long handle was used to turn heavy wooden screw, exerting downward pressure against the
paper, which was laid over the type mounted on a wooden platen. In its essentials, the wooden
press reigned supreme for more than 300 years, with a hardly varying rate of 250 sheets per
hour printed on one side.

Renaissance Period (14th-17th Century)

The term Renaissance is used to refer to the
period of rebirth as age of preparation for
the 17th century scientific development and
achievements. One of the greatest
achievements in Western Europe during
this period was the technology of printing
books and other documents which

helped the rapid spread of knowledge and information as well as the preservation of culture.
The technology of the Chinese in preparing printed materials was followed and used by the
Muslims and later introduced in Europe.
Renaissance connects the period of Middle Ages to modern history. It is closely
connected with Italy, where it began in the 14th century, although some European countries
also went into the same cultural changes and phenomena.
Many historians prefer to think of the Renaissance as primarily an intellectual and
cultural movement rather than a historical period. Robert Wilde, U.K. based historian born April
30, 1977 said that interpreting the Renaissance as a time period, though convenient for
historians, "masks the long roots of the Renaissance (para. 2)."
According to Wilde in his interview with livescience.com, the demand for perfect
reproductions of texts and the renewed focus on studying them helped trigger one of the
biggest discoveries in the whole of human history: printing with movable type. It allowed Bibles,
secular books, printed music and more to be made in larger amounts and reach more people.
On the other hand, people and a lot of steps were involved. Wood printing first came to the
West from China in 1350, papermaking originated from China has reached 12th century Spain'
and the new printers' ink originated from Flemish oil painting. In Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg
made final steps in a wooden press by casting a metal type and locking into it. The invention
spread fast, reaching European countries from 1467-1483. By 1500, Europe had already
produced SIX million copies of books. Without the printing press, communications revolution
would not happen and it would not transform the condition of life. The communications
revolution greatly made an impact in human opportunities for enlightenment and pleasure and
created unimaginable possibilities tor manipulation and control on the other. The consideration
of these contradictory effects may shield us against a ready acceptance of triumphalist
conceptions of the Renaissance or historical change in general.

Also, Polish mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) made one of
science's greatest achievement. He presented the theory of heliocentric where he said that the
sun is the center of the solar system instead of the earth. It was a major breakthrough in the
history of science, though the Catholic Church banned Copernicus' book.

Galileo Galilei (1664-1642) was also a major Renaissance scientist persecuted for his
scientific experiments. Galileo improved the telescope, discovered new celestial bodies, and
found support for a heliocentric solar system. He conducted motion experiments on pendulums
and falling objects that paved the way for Isaac Newton's (1643-1727) discoveries about gravity.

Industrial Revolution (18th Century)

People rely on their hands in doing labor works even before the machines have emerged
after a century that significantly increases of production output. The phenomenal process in the
transfer of doing work by human hands and feet to the use of machines was called The
Industrial Revolution.
 It began in Great Britain and spread across Europe, America, and even Asia from 1760 to
1840. It was a fundamental change in the way goods were produced and altered the way
people lived. The Industrial Revolution was a time of scientific and technological advancement
which spanned the period during late 18th century to early 19th century. Partly through good
fortune and partly through conscious effort.

Britain by the early 18th century came to possess the combination of social needs and social
resources that provided the necessary preconditions for a commercially successful innovation
and a social system capable of sustaining a rid institutionalizing the processes of rapid
technological change.

One of the major setbacks of the Industrial Revolution was skilled workers were set aside
because new machines were used. The companies also hired women and children increasingly
which cost lower than of the skilled workers. Manual/physical labor was changed into machine-
operated devices, even trades person replaced the craftsmen and the applied scientists
replaced the amateur inventors.

Aside from these, three important technologies formed the foundations of the first
Industrial revolution, namely, iron production, steam engine, and textiles.

The steam engine has been around but on improved by Scottish James watt (1736-1819)
and other investors after 1778. It was used to run machines and made a major contribution to
the first Industrial Revolution. The steam-powered machine was improved gradually and was
adapted for many uses and the use of more complex machinery was made possible.

Some of the greatest inventions were introduced by American scientist, such as during
this period was Robert Fulton's (1765-1815) steamboat that used one of Watt's engines.
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) who invented the light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
who invented the telephone. English engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848) developed the
first steam-powered locomotive.

In the 19th Century

 In the 19th century, witnessed the rise of
modern industry, from agriculture to
industrial manufacturing and technology-
intensive services. An unending stream of
new products turned out by factories
employing radically new technologies, skills,
and organization drove this emerging
modern world.

Based on the Gregorian calendar, 19th century lasted from 1801 to 1900. The invention of
useable electricity, steel, and petroleum products led into a second Industrial Revolution during
the 19th century. This century was considered to be the age of machine tools. Tools were made
for tools; machines were made for other parts of another machine.

During the 19th century, science also made great progress.

● John Dalton (1766-1844) published his atomic theory in 1803. Dalton also studied color
blindness.
● Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) formulated the Periodic Table.

● Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) formulated the law of the Conservation of Energy
in 1847. In 1851, he invented the ophthalmoscope.

In the late 19th century, physics made great strides.

● Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (!859-1906) discovered radium in 1898.

● Joseph Thomson discovered the electron in 1897.

In the 19th century, people mastered electricity.

● Michael Faraday (1791-1867) showed that a magnet can produce electricity and in 1831
he invented the dynamo.
● Samuel F.B. Morse (J 791-1872) invented the electric telegraph in 1837.
In the 19th century, machines in factories were usually operated by steam engines. At the end
of the 19th century, they began to convert to electricity. In the mid-19th century, railways
revolutionized travelling and made travel much faster. Steam locomotives pulled the carriages.

● Karl Benz (1844-1929) and Gottlieb Daimler (1834-19()0) made the first cars in 1885 and
1886.

In the 20th Century

It is not skeptical that the 20th century is one of the most noticeable in the history of
humans for its incomparable technological advances and scientific discoveries. There were a lot
of new technologies made and science discoveries.

Technology was rapidly developed in the 20th century. With the use of scientific methods
and funding for research, it helped achieve the advancement of modern science and
technology. With the ascension of new technology, it enhanced the communication and
transportation system of humans and brought it closer to people. Military research and
development brought about the rise of electronic computing and jet engines. Radio and
telephone enriched greatly and reached a wider population of users, though near-universal
access was impossible until mobile phones became affordable for the people in the late 2000s
and early 2010s.
 The relationship between science and technology has become more problematic on several
levels in the 20th century. In the face of an ever-growing complexity, technology has become
more scientific and the natural sciences more technological, as the social scientific concept of
"techno science" indicates. At the same time, many technological innovations since the 1970s
have only slowly resulted in job-creating new products.

Some of the greatest technological advancement during this period was the creation of
personal computer. In 1971, Intel developed a microprocessor that computer smaller, easier to
use, and cheaper which replaced the early hat were bulky and had a tube-powered behemoths.
Computer has become dominant tool in the global economy and as a necessity in many homes
that until today we greatly rely on them. Steve Jobs (1955-2011) and Steve Wozniak (1950)
have redefined the meaning of computer by introducing Apple in 1976. While in connection
with the invention of personal computers, the Internet was also created in for defense-related
research known as ARPANet or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It helped us in
terms of global communication, gathering formation through searching, conducting business
matters and on our everyday affairs through the Wide web which was created in 1989.

Another one is the automobiles or cars, which were considered to be one of most
revolutionary technological advancements in the century. Exploitation of the said technology
was made possible because of Henry Ford (1863-1947) by devising a system of mass production
for the Model T in 1908. It made cars affordable for the people and also made a dramatic
change in the society. Us; ng automobiles as a form of transportation have connected people
together including in c-he rural areas to urban centers.

One of the breakthroughs during the century was the invention of Artificial Intelligence that
has the capacity for a computer to perform humanlike intellectual processes and it was later on
developed during the 1940's. Modern A.l. features specially designed computers that can
"think" similarly to humans. A .1. is also being used to assist doctors in making medical
diagnoses. While there are no any program or computer existing today that can match the
man's full intellectual capacity.