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Technology

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Linguistics

   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.
   Enlarge
   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
   (τεχνολογία), techne (τέχνη) "craft" and logia (λογία) "saying." It is
   a broad term dealing with the use and knowledge of humanity's tools and
   crafts.

Usage

   It is difficult to obtain precise definition of technology. According
   to the involved science fields and engineering domain where it is
   developed, there are many kinds of technologies. Generally, the
   following distinctions can be made:
     * Science is the formal process of investigating natural phenomena.
       It produces information and knowledge about the world.
     * Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and building
       tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for a practical
       human means. Engineers work within the constraints of natural laws
       and societal needs to create technology.
     * Technology is the consequence of these two processes and societal
       requests. Most commonly, the term technology is used as the name of
       all engineering products.

   For scientists and engineers, technologies are: conceptual tools - as
   methods, methodologies, techniques; instruments - as machines,
   aparatus, software programs; as well as, different artificial materials
   which they normally use.

   Technologies are not direct products of science, because they have to
   satisfy such requirements as: utility, usability and safety, therefore
   the application of the scientific knowledge to concrete purposes
   requires the contribution of engineering research.

   Until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was
   a concept akin and restricted only to human beings, but recent studies
   show that other primates (such as chimpanzees), and certain dolphin
   communities, have developed simple tools and learned to pass this
   knowledge to other generations, what would constitute a form of
   non-human technological development.

History of technology

   Paleolithic flint spear
   Enlarge
   Paleolithic flint spear

   The history of technology is at least as old as humanity. Some
   primitive forms of tools have been discovered with almost every find of
   ancient human remains dating from the time of homo habilis).
   Nevertheless, other animals have been found to use tools—and to learned
   to use and refine tools—so it is incorrect to distinguish humans as the
   only tool-using or tool-making animal. The history of technology
   follows a progression from simple tools and simple (mostly human)
   energy sources to complex high-technology tools and energy sources.

   The earliest technologies converted readily occurring natural resources
   (such as rock, wood and other vegetation, bone and other animal
   byproducts) into simple tools. Processes such as carving, chipping,
   scraping, weaving, knotting, rolling (the wheel), and sun-baking are
   simple means for the conversion of raw materials into usable products.
   Anthropologists have uncovered many early human habitations and tools
   made from natural resources. Birds and other animals often build
   elaborate nests and some simple tools out of various materials. We
   normally don't consider them to be performing a technological feat,
   primarily because such behaviour is largely instinctive. There is some
   evidence of occasional cultural transferrence, especially among the
   other, nonhuman primates. Nevertheless, there is now considerable
   evidence of such simple technology among animals other than humans.

   The use, and then mastery, of fire (circa 1,000,000 - 500,000 BC ) was
   a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind, affording
   a simple energy source with many profound uses. Perhaps the first use
   of fire beyond providing heat was the preparation of food. This enabled
   a significant increase in the vegetable and animal sources of food,
   while greatly reducing perishability.

   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. (The oldest projectile found is a wooden spear with fire
   hardened point, circa 250,000 BC.) Wood and charcoal were among the
   first known materials used as a fuel. Wood, clay, and rock (such as
   limestone), were among the earliest materials shaped or treated by
   fire, for making artifacts such as weapons, pottery, bricks, and
   cement. Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and
   provided the ability to smelt and forge native metals (naturally
   occurring in relatively pure form). Gold, copper, silver, and lead,
   were such early metals. The advantages of copper tools over stone,
   bone, and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and
   native copper was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic
   times (about 8000 BCE). Native copper does not naturally occur in large
   amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce
   metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires.
   The wheel was invented circa 4000 BCE.
   Enlarge
   The wheel was invented circa 4000 BCE.

   Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such
   as bronze and brass (about 4000 BCE). The first uses of iron alloys
   such as steel dates to around 1400 BCE.

   Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The
   earliest known use of wind power is the sailboat. The earliest record
   of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200
   BCE. From prehistoric times, Egyptians probably used "the power of the
   Nile" annual floods to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to
   regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and
   'catch' basins. Similarly, the early peoples of Mesopotamia, the
   Sumerians, learned to use the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for much the
   same purposes. But more extensive use of wind and water (and even
   human) power required another invention.

   According to archaeologists, the wheel was invented about 4000 B.C. The
   wheel was likely independently invented in Mesopotamia (in present-day
   Iraq) as well. Estimates on when this may have occurred range from 5500
   to 3000 B.C., with most experts putting it closer to 4000 B.C. The
   oldest artifacts with drawings that depict wheeled carts date from
   about 3000 B.C.; however, the wheel may have been in use for millennia
   before these drawings were made. There is also evidence from the same
   period of time that wheels were used for the production of pottery.
   (Note that the original potter's wheel was probably not a wheel, but
   rather an irregularly shaped slab of flat wood with a small hollowed or
   pierced area near the centre and mounted on a peg driven into the
   earth. It would have been rotated by repeated tugs by the potter or his
   assistant.) More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world
   was found in the Ljubljana marshes of Slovenia.

   The invention of the wheel revolutionized activities as disparate as
   transportation, war, and the production of pottery (for which it may
   have been first used). It didn't take long to discover that wheeled
   wagons could be used to carry heavy loads and fast (rotary) potters'
   wheels enabled early mass production of pottery. But it was the use of
   the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels, windmills,
   and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman
   power sources.

   Tools include both simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and
   the pulley), and more complex machines (such as the clock, the engine,
   the electric generator and the electric motor, the computer, radio, and
   the Space Station, among many others).
   Integrated circuit
   Enlarge
   Integrated circuit

   As tools increase in complexity, so does the type of knowledge needed
   to support them. Complex modern machines require libraries of written
   technical manuals of collected information that has continually
   increased and improved -— their designers, builders, maintainers, and
   users often require the mastery of decades of sophisticated general and
   specific training. Moreover, these tools have become so complex that a
   comprehensive infrastructure of technical knowledge-based lesser tools,
   processes and practices (complex tools in themselves) exist to support
   them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science. Complex
   manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed
   to construct and maintain them. Entire industries have arisen to
   support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex
   tools.

Electronics

   Growth of transistor counts for Intel processors (dots) and Moore's Law
   (upper line=18 months; lower line=24 months)
   Enlarge
   Growth of transistor counts for Intel processors (dots) and Moore's Law
   (upper line=18 months; lower line=24 months)

   Electronics have grown ever smaller and more sophisticated. Components
   have progressed from vacuum tubes, through transistors, to integrated
   circuits.

   Moore's law is about the empirical observation, that at our rate of
   technological development, the complexity of an integrated circuit,
   with respect to minimum component cost, will double approximately every
   18 months.

   It is attributed to Gordon E. Moore, a co-founder of Intel. However,
   Moore had heard Douglas Engelbart's similar observation possibly in
   1965. Engelbart, a co- inventor of today's mechanical computer mouse,
   believed that the ongoing improvement of integrated circuits would
   eventually make interactive computing feasible.

   The influence of computers has been pervasive in the workplace,
   radically changing the way people access and buy goods and services,
   process accounts, store information and communicate with others. The
   personal computer has enabled these activities to be commonplace in the
   home, and electronic technologies have allowed people to receive news
   and entertainment from all over the world into their homes.

Economics and technological development

   Nuclear reactor, Doel, Belgium
   Enlarge
   Nuclear reactor, Doel, Belgium

   Economics can be said to have arrived on the scene when the occasional,
   spontaneous exchange of goods and services began to occur on a less
   occasional, less spontaneous basis. It probably didn't take long for
   the maker of arrowheads to realize that he could probably do a lot
   better by concentrating on the making of arrowheads and barter for his
   other needs. Clearly, regardless of the goods and services bartered,
   some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of
   shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects
   can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very
   beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of
   more elaborate economies.

   In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and
   history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning,
   robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of
   technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of
   human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for
   (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while
   in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than
   the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such
   investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many
   millions.

Funding

   Consequently, the sources of funding for large technological efforts
   have dramatically narrowed, since few have ready access to the
   collective labor of a whole society, or even a large part. It is
   conventional to divide up funding sources into governmental (involving
   whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and private (involving more
   limited, but generally more sharply focused) business or individual
   enterprises.

   The government is a major contributor to the development of new
   technology in many ways. In the United States alone, many government
   agencies specifically invest billions of dollars in new technology.

   [In 1980, the UK government invested just over 6 million pounds in a
   four-year programme, later extended to six years, called the
   Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was intended to give
   every school in Britain at least one computer, microprocessor training
   materials and software, and extensive teacher training. Similar
   programmes have been instituted by governments around the world.]

   Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with many modern
   applications being developed for the military before being adapted for
   civilian use. However, this has always been a two-way flow, with
   industry often taking the lead in developing and adopting a technology
   which is only later adopted by the military.

   Entire government agencies are specifically dedicated to research, such
   as America's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's
   scientific research institutes, America's Small Business Innovative
   Research effort. Many other government agencies dedicate a major
   portion of their budget to research and development.

Private funding

   Research and development is one of the biggest areas of investments
   made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.

   Many foundations and other nonprofit organizations contribute to the
   development of technology. In the OECD, about two-thirds of research
   and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by
   industry, and 20 percent and 10 percent respectively by universities
   and government. But in poorer countries such as Portugal and Mexico the
   industry contribution is significantly less. The U.S. government spends
   more than other countries on military research and development,
   although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the 1980s
   to less than 20 percent.

Other economic considerations

     * 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.
     * Technocapitalism
     * Technological diffusion
     * Technology acceptance model
     * Technology lifecycle
     * Technology transfer

   Public schools have attempted to introduce varied concepts of
   technology on the junior high level to better prepare youngsters for
   subsequent schooling, as well as entrance into the workforce.

Sociological factors and effects

   Downtown Tokyo (2005)
   Enlarge
   Downtown Tokyo (2005)

   The use of technology has a great many effects; these may be separated
   into intended effects and unintended effects. Unintended effects are
   usually also unanticipated, and often unknown before the arrival of a
   new technology. Nevertheless, they are often as important as the
   intended effect.

   The most subtle side effects of technology are often sociological. They
   are subtle because the side effects may go unnoticed unless carefully
   observed and studied. These may involve gradually occurring changes in
   the behaviour of individuals, groups, institutions, and even entire
   societies.

Values

   The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by
   changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology
   is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major,
   interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological
   innovations:
     * Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of
       parts, (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and
       understood (McGinn). This is a form of reductionism that is rare
       nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that
       nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human
       intellect. Also, while all things are greater than the sum of their
       parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the information
       involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must
       eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine
       or vital principle or essence is involved.

     * Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now
       applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected
       to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible
       performance, output, or ability. (McGinn)
     * Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social
       progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the
       Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology,
       almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social
       movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe. This was,
       obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons, and an
       agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity.
       Since much of the world (i.e., everyone but the hyperindustrialized
       West) is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still much
       more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history. This may be
       seen, for example, in Prabhat rainjan sarkar's modern social cycles
       theory. For a more westernized version of social cyclicity, see
       Generations : The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069
       (Paperback) by Neil Howe and William Strauss; Harper Perennial;
       Reprint edition (September 30, 1992); ISBN 0688119123, and
       subsequent books by these authors.

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.

   But the most important contribution of technology is making life of
   common people much easier and helping them achieve what was previously
   not possible.

Lifestyle

   Technology, throughout history, has allowed people to complete more
   tasks in less time and with less human intellectual or manual labour.
   Many herald this as a way of making life easier. However, work has
   continued to be proportional to the amount of energy expended, rather
   than the quantitiative amount of information or material processed.
   Technology has had profound effects on lifestyle throughout human
   history, and as the rate of progress increases, society must deal with
   both the good and bad implications. In many ways, technology simplifies
   life.
     * The rise of a leisure class
     * A more informed society can make quicker responses to events and
       trends
     * Sets the stage for more complex learning tasks
     * Increases multi-tasking
     * Global Networking
     * Creates denser social circles
     * Cheap price

   In other ways, technology complicates life.
     * Sweatshops and harsher forms of slavery are more likely to be found
       in technologically advanced societies, relative to primitive
       societies.
     * The increasing oppression of technologically advanced societies
       over those which are not.
     * More people are starving now, in this most technologically advanced
       age, than at any point in history or pre-history.
     * The increase in transportation technology has brought congestion in
       some areas.
     * Technicism
     * New forms of danger existing as a consequence of new forms of
       technology, new types of nuclear reactors, unforeseen genetic
       mutations as the result of genetic engineering, or perhaps
       something more subtle which destroys the ozone or warms the planet.
     * New forms of entertainment, such as video games and internet access
       could have possible social effects on areas such as academic
       performance.
     * Creates new diseases and disorders such as obesity, laziness and a
       loss of personality.

Institutions and groups

   Technology often enables organizational and bureaucratic group
   structures that otherwise and heretofore were simply not possible.
   Example of this might include:
     * The rise of very large organizations: e.g., governments, the
       military, health and social welfare institutions, supranational
       corporations.
     * The commercialization of leisure: sports events, products, etc.
       (McGinn)
     * The almost instantaneous dispersal of information (especially news)
       and entertainment around the world.

International

   Technology enables greater knowledge of international issues, values,
   and cultures. Due mostly to mass transportation and mass media, the
   world seems to be a much smaller place, due to the following, among
   others:
     * Globalization of ideas
     * Embeddedness of values
     * Population growth and control
     * Others

Environment

   Most modern technological processes produce unwanted byproducts in
   addition to the desired products, which is known as industrial waste
   and pollution. While most material waste is re-used in the industrial
   process, many forms are released into the environment, with negative
   environmental side effects, such as pollution and lack of
   sustainability. Different social and political systems establish
   different balances between the value they place on additional goods
   versus the disvalues of waste products and pollution. Some technologies
   are designed specifically with the environment in mind, but most are
   designed first for economic or ergonomic effects. Historically, the
   value of a clean environment and more efficient productive processes
   has been the result of an increase in the wealth of society, because
   once people are able to provide for their basic needs, they are able to
   focus on less-tangible goods such as clean air and water.

   The effects of technology on the environment are both obvious and
   subtle. The more obvious effects include the depletion of nonrenewable
   natural resources (such as petroleum, coal, ores), and the added
   pollution of air, water, and land. The more subtle effects include
   debates over long-term effects (e.g., global warming, deforestation,
   natural habitat destruction, coastal wetland loss.)

   Each wave of technology creates a set of waste previously unknown by
   humans: toxic waste, radioactive waste, electronic waste.

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. However, he
   does not believe that this seeming autonomy of technology is inherent.
   But the perceived autonomy is due to the fact that humans do not
   adequately consider the responsibility that is inherent in
   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.
     * Supposed independence of government. An assumption commonly made
       about the government is that their governance role is neutral or
       independent. However some argue that governing is a political
       process, so government will be influenced by political winds of
       influence. In addition, because government provides much of the
       funding for technological research and development, it has a vested
       interest in certain outcomes. Others point out that the world's
       biggest ecological disasters, such as the Aral Sea, Chernobyl, and
       Lake Karachay have been caused by government projects, which are
       not accountable to consumers, so governments should stay out of
       industry entirely.
     * 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
       organizations or individuals responsible for damages.
     * Legislation. A source of controversy is the role of industry versus
       that of government in maintaining a clean environment. While it is
       generally agreed that industry needs to be held responsible when
       pollution harms other people, there is disagreement over whether
       this should be prevented by legislation or civil courts, and
       whether ecological systems as such should be protected from harm by
       governments.

Choice

   Society also controls technology through the choices it makes. These
   choices not only include consumer demands; they also include:
     * the channels of distribution, how do products go from raw materials
       to consumption to disposal;
     * the cultural beliefs regarding style, freedom of choice,
       consumerism, materialism, etc.;
     * the economic values we place on the environment, individual wealth,
       government control, capitalism, etc.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology"
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