Technology? |
Did you mean | Travel | Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology | New site added |
| Add a link on the top of this Technology page Express submission by secure payment ! |
- See also: Innovation
By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a level of technological mastery sufficient to leave the surface of the planet for the first time and explore space.Technology is a word with origins in the Greek word technologia (τεχνολογια), techne (τεχνη) "craft" + logia (λογια) "saying". It is an encompassing term dealing with the knowledge of humanity's tools and crafts. Depending on context, technology is:
- the tools and machines that help to solve problems;
- the techniques (knowledge) that includes methods, materials, tools, and processes for solving a problem (such as building technology or medical technology);
- a culture-forming activity (such as manufacturing technology, infrastructure technology, or space-travel technology). (McGinn)
- the application of resources to solve a problem (such as knowledge, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials).
- an encompasing term to describe the level of achievement in science, mathematics and engineering of a group or culture.
- in economics, technology is the current state of our knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products (and our knowledge of what can be produced).
As can be seen, the word Technology is used in a multitude of grammatical formats. This can create dissension about the meaning of the word and divert attention from inspecting the more impactful issues of understanding how humans are effected and affected by tools and machines. In pursuit of solving this problem with definition of the word, some etymological work has been done, but to little effect. Currently, a wiki called the Techniki located at http://brain.brainery.net/techniki/index.php/Main_Page1 which is actively pursuing contributions solely about the issue of "stabilizing" a definition of the word technology. Contributions to this aspect of stabilizing what we mean when we invoke the word technology can greatly influence the future focus of the field.
Technology is also a cultural activity that predates both science and engineering. It is a far-reaching term that includes both simple tools, such as a wooden spoon, and complex tools, such as the space station. Its scope includes any tool in any discipline. This is not to imply that technology is the only cultural forming activity, nor that it is the primary culture-forming activity. Often, it is dominant in cultural formation; often, it is not. In addition, culture may act to form technology. Due to widespread, and sometime careless, use of technology, several other topics arise in the study of technology, including technological ethics, environmental impacts, technological by-products, and technological risk, among many other philosophical and sociological topics.
Several disciplines deal with technology in some form, including crafts and trades, engineering, manufacturing, construction, and technologists. Each discipline has a plethora of unique knowledge about specific technological tools and techniques.
Thus, usefulness is the essential feature of technology.
Have to see |
Contents |
|
Science and Technology
The lines between science and technology are not always clear. Generally, science is the reasoned investigation or study of nature, aimed at finding out the truth, generally according to the scientific method. Technology is the application of knowledge (scientific, engineering, and/or otherwise) to achieve a practical result (Roussel, et.al.).
For example, science might study the flow of electrons in an electric current. This knowledge may be used to create artifacts, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of technology.
History of technology
- Main article: History of technology
- See also: Timeline of invention
- See also: History of science and technology
The history of technology is as old as the history of humanity, since humans have nearly always used tools to feed and protect themselves. The history of technology, therefore, is the history of natural resources, because our tools come from the earth. The history of technology follows a progression from simple tools and simple energy sources to complex tools and complex energy sources (Smil 1994), as follows:
The earliest technologies converted natural resources into simple tools. Processes such as carving, chipping, scraping, rolling (the wheel), and sun-baking are simple means for the conversion of raw materials into usable products. Anthropologists have uncovered many early human houses and tools made from natural resources.
The use, and then mastery, of fire was a key turning point in man's technological evolution providing him with simple energy. The use of fire extended the capability for the treatment of natural resources and allowed the use of natural resources that require heat to be useful. Wood and charcoal were among the first materials used as a fuel. Wood, clay, and rock (such as limestone), would be among the earliest materials shaped or treated by fire, for making weapons, pottery, bricks, and cement, among others. Continuing improvements such as the furnace enabled the ability to smelt and forge metal (such as copper, ca. 8000 BC), and eventually to the discovery of alloys, such as brass and bronze (ca. 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys, steel, dates to around 1400 BC.
Complex tools include such simple machines as the lever (ca. 300 BC), the screw (ca. 400 BC), and the pulley, and such complex machinery as the ocean liner, the engine, the computer, modern communications devices, the electric motor, the jet engine, among many others. As tools increase in complexity, so does the knowledge needed to support them. Modern tools are so complex, that entire technical knowledge-based processes and practices (also complex tools themselves) exist to support them, including engineering, medicine, computer science, etc. Further, complex tools require complex manufacturing and construction techniques and machines. Entire industries have arisen to support and develop complex tools.
Complex energy is derived predominately from wind, water, hydrocarbons, and nuclear fusion. Water provides energy through the process of hydropower generation. Wind provides energy by using wind currents using windmills. There are three major sources of hydrocarbons, beside wood and its derivative charcoal: coal and its derivative coke, natural gas, and petroleum. Coal and natural gas are used almost exclusively as an energy source. Coke is used in the manufacture of metals particularly steel. Petroleum is used as an energy source (gasoline and diesel) but is also the natural resource for plastics and many other synthetic. The most recent energy developments includes the ability to use nuclear energy, derived from fuels such as uranium.
The nature of technology
General characteristics
With all of the technology in use in modern society, it may seem futile to attempt a generalized list of common characteristics. Many authors, such as McGinn (1991) and Winston (2003), list the following:
Complexity refers to the characteristic that most modern tools are difficult to understand. Some are easy to use, but difficult to comprehend source and means of make, such as a kitchen knife, or a baseball. Others are both difficult to use and difficult to comprehend, such as a tractor, gasoline, a television, or a computer.
Dependency refers to the fact that modern tools depend on other modern tools, which depend on other modern tools, for their make and their use. Cars, as an example, have a huge complex of industry of means and methods. And to use them requires a complex of road, streets, highways, and gasoline stations, waste collection, etc., beyond our comprehension.
Valence refers to the many, many different types of the same tool. Imagine the many different types of spoons available today, or scissors, and even complex tools come in many shape as well, like the construction crane, or the automobile.
Scale refers to the sheer magnitude, size, and pervasiveness of modern technology. Simply put, technology seems to be everywhere. It dominates modern life. Scale refers also to the magnitude of some modern technological projects, like the cellular telephone network, the Internet, air travel, satellites, etc.
Types of Technology
- See also: List of technologies
One possible classification of technology uses the fields of technological studies, commonly found in academic institutions of higher learning:
- Applied Science;
- Athletics and recreation;
- The Arts and language;
- Business/information;
- Defense;
- Domestic/residential;
- Engineering;
- Health;
- Travel and trade .
Relationship with society
The relationship between society and technology is quite complex, creating what many characterize as a co-dependence upon the other; society creates and depends upon technology to meet its needs and desires, and technology's very existence arises due to society's needs and desires. However, this "symbiosis" goes further than that: Every advancement in technology influences and eventually changes society. So the needs of society change, creating more needs, and, eventually, creating more technology. (McGinn 1991)
Consider the telephone, and its latest sibling the mobile phone. With the invention of the telephone, society began to depend on quicker ways of communication with others. Higher expectations for quicker communications were initially met using short-range radio systems for use in emergency vehicles. However, even higher portability was realized with miniaturization of components. This demand for a new product led to the invention of the mobile phone. The influence of portability is so pervasive now anyone can be accessible to talk in most urban places in the U.S.
Funding for Technological Development
Government
The government is a major contributor to the development of technology. In the United States, many agencies invest millions of dollars in new technology.
Military technology
Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with most modern applications being developed for the military before being taken up for civilian use. However, this trend has recently seen a reversal, with the industry often taking the lead in developing technology which is then adopted by the military.
Other
Some government agencies are dedicated specifically to research, such as the American's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom scientific research institutes, the American's Small Business Innovative ReSearch with Google effort. And many government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.
Private source
For profit
Research and development is one of the biggest investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.
Non-profit
Side Effects
There are two types of effects from the use of technology, main effects and side effects. Main effects are those intended by the technology, usually to fulfill some desire or need. Side effects are (usually) unintended, and often unknown prior to technology's implementation. This portion of the article deals with those side effects.
Sociological
The most subtle side effects from technological uses are sociological in nature. Subtle because those side effects can go unnoticed without careful observation and contemplation of individual, institutional, and group behaviors.
Values
The implementation of technology influence the values of society by changing expectations and realities. There are (at least) three major values that are the result of technological innovations:
- Mechanistic World View. (McGinn)
- Efficiency. (McGinn)
- Progressivism
Ethics
Winston provides an excellent summary of the ethical implications of technological development and deployment. He states there are four major ethical implications:
- Challenges traditional ethical norms.
- Creates an aggregation of effects.
- Changes the distribution of justice.
- Provides great power.
Lifestyle
In many ways, technology simplifies life.
- The rise of leisure
- more informed
- others
In other ways, technology complicates life.
- too much information
- Consumerism
- Pace
- Technistic
- New forms of danger
Institutions and Groups
- The rise of health institutions
- The commericalization of leisure: sports events, products, etc. (McGinn)
- Large organizations
- Others
International
- Globalization of values
- Embeddedness of values
- Population
- Others
Environmental
- Use of natural resources
- Pollution
- Debates over economics
- Others
Control
Autonomous technology
In one line of thought, technology develops autonomously, in other words technology seems to feed on itself, moving forward with a force irresistible by humans. To these individuals, technology is "inherently dynamic and self-augmenting." (McGinn, p. 73)
Jacques Ellul is one proponent of the irresistibleness of technology to humans. He espouses the idea that humanity cannot resist the temptation of expanding our knowledge and our technological abilities. He, however, does not believe that these seeming autonomy of technology is inherent. But the perceived autonomy is due to the fact that humans do not adequately consider the responsibility that are inherent to technological processes.
Another proponent of these ideas is Langdon Winner who believes that technological evolution is essentially beyond the control of individuals or society.
Government
Individuals rely on governmental assistance to control the side effects and negative consequences of technology. Government intervenes many through laws.
- Supposed independence of government. An assumption commonly made about the government is that their governance role is neutral or independent. Often, if not usually, that assumption is misplaced. Governing is a political process, more so in some countries than in others, therefore government will be influenced by political winds of influence. In addition, government provides much of the funding for technological research and development. Therefore, even government has a vested interest in certain outcomes.
- Liability. One means for controlling technology is to place responsibility for the harm with the agent causing the harm. Government can allow more or less legal liability to fall to the organization(s) or individual(s) responsibile for damages.
- Legislation.
- Others
Choice
- Culture
- Channels of distribution
- Economics
- Others
Technology and philosophy
Technicism
Generally, Technicism is an overreliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of society.
Taken to extreme, some argue that technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will eventually be able to master all problems, supply all wants and needs, possibly even control the future. (For a more complete treatment of the topic see the work of Egbert Schuurman, for example at 2.) Some, such as Monsma, et al., connect these ideas to the abdication of God as a higher moral authority.
More commonly, technicism is a criticism of the commonly held belief that newer, more recently-developed technology is "better." For example, more recently-developed computers are faster than older computers, and more recently-developed cars have greater gas efficiency and more features than older cars. Since current technologies are generally accepted as good, future technological developments are not considered circumspectly, resulting in what seems to be a blind acceptance of technological developments.
Optimism, pessimism, and appropriate technology
Pessimism
On the somewhat pessimistic side, are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Ellul, and John Zerzan, who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed a priori. They suggest that the result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health (and probably physical health in general as pollution from technological products is dispersed).
Perhaps the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be literary classics, for example Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Optimism
On the other hand, the optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of technoprogressivist views or ideologies such as transhumanism and singularitarianism, that view technological development as generally having beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of scientism, mathematical fetishism, or techno-utopianism and fear the idea of technological singularity which they support.
Appropriate technology
The notion of appropriate technology, however, was developed in the twentieth century to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized infrastructure or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement emerged in part due to this concern.
Theories and concepts in technology
There are many theories and concepts that seek to explain the relationship beteen technology and society:
- Appropriate technology
- Diffusion of innovations
- Jacques Ellul's Technological Society, is considered a classic criticism of modern culture's pursuit of technology for its own sake. For more on these ideas see 3.
- Intermediate technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour, and scarcity of cash. In general, a so-called "appropriate" technology will also be "intermediate".
- Persuasion technology, in economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology — a concern covered in its own separate article.
- Posthumanism
- Precautionary principle
- Strategy of technology
- Technocapitalism
- Radovan Richta's theory of technological evolution
- Technological determinism
- Technological diffusion
- Technological singularity
- Technology acceptance model
- Technology lifecycle
- Technology transfer
- Transhumanism
References
- Adas, Michael. Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance, Cornell University Press, 1990.
- Nobel, David. Forces of Production: a social history of industrial automation, New York: Knopf 1984, Paperback ion: Oxford University Press, 1990.
- McGinn, Robert E. Science, Technology and Society, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1991.
- Monsma, S.V., C. Christians, E.R. Dykema, A. Leegwater, E. Schuurman, and L. VanPoolen. Responsible Technology. Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA): W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986.
- Roussel, P.A., K. N. Saad, and T. J. Erickson. Third Generation R&D, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.
- Winston, M.E. "Children of Invention", in Society, Ethics, and Technology, Second ion, M.E. Winston and R.D. Edelbach (eds.), Belmont, California (USA): Wadsworth Group/Thomson Learning, 2003.
- Smil, Vaclav. Energy in World History, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994, pp. 259-267, as quoted in http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/Technology/Technology.html, maintained by David W. Koeller, Northpark University, Chicago, Illinois (USA), downloaded September 11, 2005.
See also
- Golden hammer
- History of science and technology
- High technology
- Internet
- Knowledge economy
- Lewis Mumford
- Technique
- Technology assessment
- Timeline of invention
- Technological convergence
- Technology Tree
- List of technologies
- List of "ologies"
External links
- basic pneumatics
- Development Gateway's e-Government Page — Depository of various e-government technology resources.
- Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century
- The Business of Technology