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{{Short description|Use of knowledge for practical goals}} | |||
].]] | |||
{{distinguish|Electronics}} | |||
'''Technology''' is the usage and knowledge of ]s, techniques, ]s, ]s or methods of organization. The word '']'' comes from the ] ''technología'' ('']'') — ''téchnē'' ('']''), an 'art', 'skill' or 'craft' and '']'' ('']''), the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline.<ref name="mwdict">{{cite web | url=http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology | title=Definition of technology | accessdate=2007-02-16 | publisher=]}}</ref> The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include ''construction technology'', ''medical technology'', or ''] technology'' or '']''. Technologies can also be exemplified in a material product, for example an object can be termed state of the art. | |||
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] with the case opened, an example of ]|alt=Photo of technicians working on a steam turbine]] | |||
{{History of technology sidebar}} | |||
'''Technology''' is the application of ] to achieve practical ]s, especially in a ] way.<ref>{{cite book |last=Skolnikoff |first=Eugene B. |year=1993 |title=The Elusive Transformation: Science, Technology, and the Evolution of International Politics |chapter=The Setting |page=13 |publisher=] |isbn=0-691-08631-1 |jstor=j.ctt7rpm1 |quote=I find the most useful conceptual definition for this study to be that given by Harvey Brooks, who has defined technology{{nbsp}}...as 'knowledge of how to fulfill certain human purposes in a specifiable and reproducible way.'}}</ref> The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts,<ref>{{harvnb|Salomon|1984|pages=117–118}}: "The first pole, that of the naturalisation of a new discipline within the university curriculum, was presented by Christian Wolff in 1728, in Chapter III of the "Preliminary discourse" to his ''{{lang|la|Philosophia rationalisis sive Logica}}'': 'Technology is the science of skills and works of skill, or, if one prefers, the science of things made by man's labour, chiefly through the use of his hands.'"</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mitcham |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Mitcham |year=1994 |title=Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy |publisher=] |isbn=0-226-53196-1}}</ref> including both tangible ]s such as ] or ]s, and intangible ones such as ]. Technology plays a critical role in ], ], and ]. | |||
Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The ] discovery of the ability to control ] increased the available sources of food and the invention of the ] helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the ], the ], and the ], have lessened physical barriers to ] and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of ]s of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from ] to ]s. | |||
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the ], used during ], followed by the ]—which in turn contributed to the ] of the ] and the development of ] during the ], according to the ]. The invention of the ] in the ] allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the ], telephone, and the ], have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the ]. | |||
Technology has affected ] and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced ] (including today's ]) and has allowed the rise of a ] ]. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as ], and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the ] and its ]. Various implementations of technology influence the ] of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of ] in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms. | |||
While technology contributes to ] and improves human ], it can also have negative impacts like ] and ], and can cause social harms like ] resulting from ]. As a result, philosophical and ] about the role and use of technology, the ], and ways to mitigate its downsides are ongoing. | |||
Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the ] or worsens it. ], ], and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as ] and ] view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other ] and certain ] communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations. | |||
== Etymology == | |||
==Definition and usage== | |||
''Technology'' is a term dating back to the ] that meant 'systematic treatment' (from ] {{lang|grc|Τεχνολογία}}, from the {{Langx|el|{{wikt-lang|el|τέχνη}}|tékhnē|craft, art}} and {{wikt-lang|grc|-λογία}} ({{transliteration|grc|-logíā}}), 'study, knowledge').''<ref name="Liddell 1980">{{cite book |last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |author1-link=Henry Liddell |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |author2-link=Robert Scott (philologist) |title=Greek-English Lexicon |title-link=Greek-English Lexicon |edition=Abridged |publisher=] |year=1996 |orig-date=1891 |isbn=0-19-910205-8 |oclc=38307662}}</ref>''<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=technology |encyclopedia=The Oxford English Dictionary |editor1-last=Simpson |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Weiner |editor2-first=Edmund |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0198611868}}</ref> It is predated in use by the ] word {{wikt-lang|grc|τέχνη}} ({{transliteration|grc|tékhnē}}), used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like architecture.<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |author-link=Aristotle |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Lesley |translator-last=Ross |translator-first=David |year=2009 |title=The Nicomachean Ethics |page=105 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921361-0 |lccn=2009005379 |oclc=246896490 |series=Oxford World's Classics}}</ref> | |||
] made it possible for scientists and ]s to communicate their ideas with ease, leading to the ]; an example of technology as a 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 usually referred to the description or study of the useful arts.<ref name="Crabb">For ex., George Crabb, , (London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1823), s.v. "technology."</ref> The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861).<ref name="Stratton">Julius Adams Stratton and Loretta H. Mannix, Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005), 190-92. ISBN | |||
0262195240.</ref> "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the ]. The meanings of technology changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with ], translated ideas from the German concept of ] into "technology." In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between ''Technik'' and ''Technologie'' that is absent in English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology" referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves.<ref name="Schatzberg">Eric Schatzberg, ''Technology and Culture'' 47 (July 2006): 486-512.</ref> 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."<ref name="Bain">Read Bain, American Sociological Review 2 (December 1937): 860.</ref> Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study technology reject this definition.<ref name="MacKenzie">Donald A. MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, "Introductory Essay" in ''The Social Shaping of Technology'', 2nd ed. (Buckingham, England : Open University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-335-19913-5.</ref> 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 ] ("techniques de soi"). | |||
Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms {{lang|de|Technik}} (German) or {{lang|fr|technique}} (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments.{{Sfn|Salomon|1984|pages=114–115}} At the time, {{lang|de|Technologie}} (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts."{{Sfn|Salomon|1984|page=117}} The distinction between {{lang|de|Technik}} and {{lang|de|Technologie}} is absent in English, and so both were translated as ''technology''. The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to the academic discipline, as in the ].<ref name=jstor40061169>{{Cite journal |last=Schatzberg |first=Eric |year=2006 |title="Technik" Comes to America: Changing Meanings of "Technology" before 1930 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40061169 |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=486–512 |doi=10.1353/tech.2006.0201 |jstor=40061169 |s2cid=143784033 |issn=0040-165X |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910165857/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40061169 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The ] dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge".<ref name="mwdict" /> ], in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.anansi.ca/titles.cfm?series_id=4&pub_id=58 | title=Real World of Technology | accessdate=2007-02-13 | author=Franklin, Ursula | publisher=]}}</ref> The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to ] or just ], rather than technology as a whole.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm | title=Technology news | accessdate=2006-02-17 | publisher=]}}</ref> ], in '']'', defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."<ref>{{cite book | last=Stiegler |first=Bernard | title=] | year=1998 |publisher=] | isbn=0-8047-3041-3 | pages=17, 82}} Stiegler has more recently stated that ] can no longer be defined as "organized inorganic matter," given that it is, rather, "the reorganization of the organic." {{cite book | last=Stiegler |first=Bernard | title=L'avenir du passé: Modernité de l'archéologie | year=2008 |publisher=La Découverte | isbn=2-7071-5495-4 | page=23}}</ref> | |||
In the 20th century, as a result of ] and the ], ''technology'' stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on the meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends.<ref>{{harvnb|Salomon|1984|page=119}}: "With the industrial revolution and the important part England played in it, the word technology was to lose this meaning as the subject or thrust of a branch of education, as first in English and then in other languages it embodied all technical activity based on the application of science to practical ends."</ref> | |||
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 ] or wooden ], or more complex machines, such as a ] or ]. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as ] and ]s, fall under this definition of technology.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind02/c6/c6s5.htm | work=Science and Engineering Indicators 2002 | title=Industry, Technology and the Global Marketplace: International Patenting Trends in Two New Technology Areas | accessdate=2007-05-07 | publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
==History== | |||
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 combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "] technology" refers to the ] available to humanity in any field. | |||
{{Main|History of technology|3 = Timeline of historic inventions}} | |||
===Prehistoric=== | |||
Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Borgmann | first=Albert | authorlink=Albert Borgmann | year=2006 | title=Technology as a Cultural Force: For Alena and Griffin | journal=The Canadian Journal of Sociology | volume=31 | issue=3 | pages=351–360 | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/canadian_journal_of_sociology/v031/31.3borgmann.html | format=fee required | accessdate=2007-02-16 | doi=10.1353/cjs.2006.0050}}</ref> Additionally, technology is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of ] technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of ] has, at its basis, the development of the ] and the ].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://macek.czechian.net/defining_cyberculture.htm | title=Defining Cyberculture | accessdate=2007-05-25 | author=Macek, Jakub}}</ref> Not all technology enhances culture in a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both ] and ], each of which formalize some aspects of technological endeavor. | |||
{{main|Prehistoric technology}} | |||
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]|alt=refer to caption]] | |||
Tools were initially developed by ] through observation and ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schiffer |first=M. B. |title=The Archaeology of Science |chapter=Discovery Processes: Trial Models |year=2013 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00077-0_13 |series=Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique |volume=9 |pages=185–198 |place=Heidelberg |publisher=Springer International Publishing |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-00077-0_13 |isbn=978-3319000770 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184259/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-00077-0_13 |url-status=live }}</ref> Around 2 ] (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp ].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |author=The British Museum |title=Our earliest technology? |url=https://smarthistory.org/our-earliest-technology/#:~:text=Made%20nearly%20two%20million%20years,deposits%20in%20Olduvai%20Gorge,%20Tanzania. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902015829/https://smarthistory.org/our-earliest-technology/#:~:text=Made%20nearly%20two%20million%20years,deposits%20in%20Olduvai%20Gorge,%20Tanzania. |archive-date=2 September 2022 |access-date=2 September 2022 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref> This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago) into ], enabling much finer work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Minogue |first=K. |date=28 October 2010 |title=Stone Age Toolmakers Surprisingly Sophisticated |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/stone-age-toolmakers-surprisingly-sophisticated |url-status=live |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=science.org |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910174555/https://www.science.org/content/article/stone-age-toolmakers-surprisingly-sophisticated }}</ref> | |||
The ] was described by ] as "possibly the greatest ever made by man".<ref>{{cite book | last=Crump | first=Thomas | title=A Brief History of Science | year=2001 | publisher=] | isbn=978-1841192352 | page=9}}</ref> Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gowlett |first1=J. A. J. |last2=Wrangham |first2=R. W. |date=1 March 2013 |title=Earliest fire in Africa: towards the convergence of archaeological evidence and the cooking hypothesis |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2012.756754 |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2012.756754 |s2cid=163033909 |issn=0067-270X}}</ref> Fire, fueled with wood and ], allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Stahl | first= Ann B. | author-link= Ann B. Stahl | year=1984 | title=Hominid dietary selection before fire | journal=] | volume=25 | pages= 151–68 | doi=10.1086/203106 | issue=2 | jstor=2742818| s2cid= 84337150 }}</ref> The '']'' proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid ], though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wrangham |first=R. |date=1 August 2017 |title=Control of Fire in the Paleolithic: Evaluating the Cooking Hypothesis |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692113 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=58 |issue=S16 |pages=S303–S313 |doi=10.1086/692113 |s2cid=148798286 |issn=0011-3204 |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910190830/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692113 |url-status=live }}</ref> Archaeological evidence of ]s was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human ] and may have contributed to the emergence of ].<ref name=worldcat1124046527>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1124046527 |title=Lucy to Language: the Benchmark Papers |year=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199652594 |editor-last=Dunbar |editor-first=R. I. M. |oclc=1124046527 |editor-last2=Gamble |editor-first2=C. |editor-last3=Gowlett |editor-first3=J. A. J. |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=14 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814044201/http://worldcat.org/oclc/1124046527 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=20030715nytimes-science>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |date=15 July 2003 |title=Early Voices: The Leap to Language |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/15/science/early-voices-the-leap-to-language.html |url-status=live |access-date=7 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312091336/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/15/science/early-voices-the-leap-to-language.html |archive-date=12 March 2017 }}</ref> | |||
==Science, engineering and technology== | |||
The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. ] is the ] investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the ] world by employing ] techniques such as the ].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/science | title=Science | accessdate=2007-02-17 | publisher=]}}</ref> Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as ], ] and ]. | |||
Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Shaar |first1=Ron |last2=Matmon |first2=Ari |last3=Horwitz |first3=Liora K. |last4=Ebert |first4=Yael |last5=Chazan |first5=Michael |last6=Arnold |first6=M. |last7=Aumaître |first7=G. |last8=Bourlès |first8=D. |last9=Keddadouche |first9=K. |date=1 May 2021 |title=Magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic dating of Wonderwerk Cave: New constraints for the chronology of the South African Earlier Stone Age |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379121001141 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=259 |page=106907 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106907 |bibcode=2021QSRv..25906907S |s2cid=234833092 |issn=0277-3791}}</ref> No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hallett |first1=Emily Y. |last2=Marean |first2=Curtis W. |last3=Steele |first3=Teresa E. |last4=Álvarez-Fernández |first4=Esteban |last5=Jacobs |first5=Zenobia |author5-link=Zenobia Jacobs |last6=Cerasoni |first6=Jacopo Niccolò |last7=Aldeias |first7=Vera |last8=Scerri |first8=Eleanor M. L. |last9=Olszewski |first9=Deborah I. |last10=Hajraoui |first10=Mohamed Abdeljalil El |last11=Dibble |first11=Harold L. |date=24 September 2021 |title=A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco |journal=iScience |volume=24 |issue=9 |page=102988 |doi=10.1016/j.isci.2021.102988 |issn=2589-0042 |pmc=8478944 |pmid=34622180|bibcode=2021iSci...24j2988H }}</ref> and shelter 450 kya.<ref name=":4" /> As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts.<ref>{{cite web |author=O'Neil, Dennis |title=Evolution of Modern Humans: Archaic Homo sapiens Culture |url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_3.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404130017/http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_3.htm |archive-date=4 April 2007 |access-date=31 March 2007 |publisher=] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Villa |first=Paola |title=Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of southern France |publisher=] |year=1983 |isbn=978-0520096622 |location=] |page=303}}</ref> Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to ] out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to ].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cordaux |first=Richard |author2=Stoneking, Mark |year=2003 |title=South Asia, the Andamanese, and the Genetic Evidence for an 'Early' Human Dispersal out of Africa |url=http://site.voila.fr/rcordaux/pdfs/04.pdf |url-status=live |journal=] |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=1586–1590; author reply 1590–93 |doi=10.1086/375407 |pmc=1180321 |pmid=12817589 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001022940/http://site.voila.fr/rcordaux/pdfs/04.pdf |archive-date=1 October 2009 |access-date=22 May 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='Oldest remains' outside Africa reset human migration clock |url=https://phys.org/news/2019-07-oldest-africa-reset-human-migration.html |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=phys.org |archive-date=11 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711124429/https://phys.org/news/2019-07-oldest-africa-reset-human-migration.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Harvati | first1=Katerina | author-link=Katerina Harvati | last2=Röding | first2=Carolin | last3=Bosman | first3=Abel M. | last4=Karakostis | first4=Fotios A. | last5=Grün | first5=Rainer | last6=Stringer | first6=Chris | last7=Karkanas | first7=Panagiotis | last8=Thompson | first8=Nicholas C. | last9=Koutoulidis | first9=Vassilis | last10=Moulopoulos | first10=Lia A. | last11=Gorgoulis | first11=Vassilis G. | last12=Kouloukoussa | first12=Mirsini | title=Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=571 | issue=7766 | year=2019 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z | pages=500–504 | pmid=31292546 | s2cid=195873640 | url=https://zenodo.org/record/6646855 | access-date=17 September 2022 | archive-date=1 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801132212/https://zenodo.org/record/6646855 | url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Engineering is the ] 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, ], ], and ] knowledge, to achieve some practical result. | |||
=== Neolithic === | |||
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 ]s in ]s, 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 ]s, ]s, 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/ | title=Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology | accessdate=2007-02-17 | publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|2 = Neolithic Revolution}} | |||
] | |||
The ] (or ''First Agricultural Revolution'') brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2D8OBwAAQBAJ&dq=neolithic+revolution+social+organization&pg=PA3 |title=Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation |publisher=Springer New York |year=2002 |isbn=9780306471667 |editor-last=Kuijt |editor-first=i. |series=Fundamental Issues in Archaeology |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184244/https://books.google.com/books?id=2D8OBwAAQBAJ&dq=neolithic+revolution+social+organization&pg=PA3 |url-status=live }}</ref> The invention of the polished ] was a major advance that allowed large-scale ] and farming.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coghlan |first=H. H. |date=1943 |title=The Evolution of the Axe from Prehistoric to Roman Times |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844356 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=73 |issue=1/2 |pages=27–56 |doi=10.2307/2844356 |jstor=2844356 |issn=0307-3114 |access-date=26 September 2022 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926011626/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844356 |url-status=live }}</ref> This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding ] in some areas such as Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Driscoll|first1=Killian|title=The early prehistory in the west of Ireland: Investigations into the social archaeology of the Mesolithic, west of the Shannon, Ireland|date=2006|url=http://lithicsireland.ie/mlitt_mesolithic_west_ireland_chap_2.html|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904110326/http://lithicsireland.ie/mlitt_mesolithic_west_ireland_chap_2.html|archive-date=4 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Agriculture fed larger populations, and the transition to ] allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by ]s. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in ] activities.<ref name=20060104sciencedaily>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060103114116.htm|title=The First Baby Boom: Skeletal Evidence Shows Abrupt Worldwide Increase In Birth Rate During Neolithic Period|last=University of Chicago Press Journals|date=4 January 2006|work=ScienceDaily|access-date=7 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108133752/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060103114116.htm|archive-date=8 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Child Transport, Family Size, and Increase in Human Population During the Neolithic|journal=]|author=Sussman, Robert W. |author2=Hall, Roberta L. |volume=13|issue=2| pages=258–267|date=April 1972|doi=10.1086/201274 |jstor=2740977|s2cid=143449170}}</ref> | |||
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 debate can inform the funding of basic and applied science. In the immediate wake of ], for example, in the United States it was widely considered 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 ]'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." 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 simply is a result of scientific research.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=George |last=Wise |title=Science and Technology |journal=Osiris (2nd Series) |volume=1 |year=1985 |pages=229–246 |postscript=<!--None--> }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=David H. |last=Guston |title=Between politics and science: Assuring the integrity and productivity of research |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0521653185 |postscript=<!--None--> }}.</ref> | |||
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in ].<ref>{{cite book|access-date=17 May 2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isGyuX9motEC&q=labor+neolithic+population&pg=PA163|title=Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective|publisher=]|author=Ferraro, Gary P.|year=2006|isbn=978-0495030393|archive-date=31 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331145412/https://books.google.com/books?id=isGyuX9motEC&q=labor+neolithic+population&pg=PA163|url-status=live}}</ref> What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as ], and the first civilizations, such as ], is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly ] social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war among adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges such as ], are all thought to have played a role.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pKKwlEcpwYC&q=labor+surplus+neolithic+population&pg=PA7|access-date=17 May 2008|title=The Essentials of Ancient History|publisher=Research & Education Association|author=Patterson, Gordon M.|year=1992|isbn=978-0878917044|archive-date=31 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331145419/https://books.google.com/books?id=8pKKwlEcpwYC&q=labor+surplus+neolithic+population&pg=PA7|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
== History == | |||
{{Main|History of technology|Timeline of historic inventions}} | |||
The invention of ] led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for history, ], schools, and ] research.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goody |first=J. |date=1986 |title=The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society |publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
=== Paleolithic (2.5 million – 10,000 BC) === | |||
Continuing improvements led to the ] and ] and provided, for the first time, the ability to ] and ] gold, copper, silver, and lead{{spaced ndash}}native metals found in relatively pure form in nature.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=A Short History of Metals |journal=Nature |volume=203 |issue=4943 |page=337 |last=Cramb |first=Alan W |bibcode=1964Natur.203Q.337T |year=1964 |doi=10.1038/203337a0 |s2cid=382712 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 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 ] times (about 10 kya).<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Ceramics |volume= 05 | pages = 703–760; see page 708 |last1= Hall |first1= Harry Reginald Holland |author-link= Harry Reginald Holland Hall |quote= The art of making a pottery consisting of a siliceous sandy body coated with a vitreous copper glaze seems to have been known unexpectedly early, possibly even as early as the period immediately preceding the Ist Dynasty (4000 B.C.).}}</ref> 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. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of ] such as ] and ] (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Hideo |last=Akanuma |title=The significance of the composition of excavated iron fragments taken from Stratum III at the site of Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey |journal=Anatolian Archaeological Studies |volume=14 |publisher=Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology |place=Tokyo}}</ref><ref name=hindu001200903261>{{Cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200903261611.htm |title=Ironware piece unearthed from Turkey found to be oldest steel |date=26 March 2009 |work=The Hindu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090329111924/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200903261611.htm |archive-date=29 March 2009 |url-status=dead |access-date=8 November 2016 }}</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
=== Ancient === | |||
The use of tools by ] was partly a process of discovery, partly of evolution. Early humans evolved from a ] of ] ] which were already ],<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml|title=Mother of man – 3.2 million years ago |publisher=]}}</ref> with a brain mass approximately one third that of modern humans.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=212317|title=Human Evolution|publisher=]}}</ref> Tool use remained relatively unchanged for most of early human history, but approximately 50,000 years ago, a ] and tool use emerged, believed by many archaeologists to be connected to the emergence of fully modern ].<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0DF173CF936A25754C0A9659C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1|title= Early Voices: The Leap to Language |work=]|date=2003-07-15|author=Wade, Nicholas}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Ancient technology}} | |||
{{Ancient technology}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
After harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the ]; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to around 7,000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1-first=Donatella |author1-last=Usai | author2-first=Sandro |author2-last=Salvatori |title=The oldest representation of a Nile boat|journal=Antiquity|volume=81}}</ref> From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of the annual ] to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Postel |first=Sandra |author-link=Sandra Postel |url=http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html |title=Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? |date=1999 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0393319378 |chapter=Egypt's Nile Valley Basin Irrigation |access-date=25 September 2022 |archive-date=19 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119022630/http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The ancient ]ians in ] used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from the ] and ] rivers for irrigation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Harriet|author-link=Harriet Crawford|date=2013|title=The Sumerian World|location=New York & London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0203096604|pages=34–43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSOYAAAAQBAJ&q=Sumerian+irrigation&pg=PA35|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=5 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205005423/https://books.google.com/books?id=qSOYAAAAQBAJ&q=Sumerian+irrigation&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia (in present-day ]), the Northern Caucasus (]), and Central Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East|last=Potts|first=D.T.|year=2012|page=285}}</ref> Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=New Light on the Most Ancient East|last=Childe|first=V. Gordon|year=1928|page=110}}</ref> The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World|last=Anthony|first=David A.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0691058870|location=Princeton|page=67}}</ref> More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world as of 2024 was found in the ] of ]; Austrian experts have established that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/worlds_oldest_wheel_found_in_slovenia/|title=World's Oldest Wheel Found in Slovenia|last=Gasser|first=Aleksander|date=March 2003|publisher=Republic of Slovenia Government Communication Office|access-date=8 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826021129/http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/worlds_oldest_wheel_found_in_slovenia/|archive-date=26 August 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
==== Stone tools ==== | |||
The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads. The ancient Sumerians used a ] and may have invented it.<ref name="Kramer1963">{{cite book|last=Kramer|first=Samuel Noah|date=1963|title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuxIdug8DBUC|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0226452388|page=290|access-date=26 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808201642/http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sumerians.html?id=IuxIdug8DBUC|archive-date=8 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> A stone pottery wheel found in the city-state of ] dates to around 3,429 BCE,<ref name="Moorey1994">{{cite book|last=Moorey|first=Peter Roger Stuart|date=1999|orig-year=1994|title=Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_Ixuott4doC|location=Winona Lake, Indiana|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1575060422|page=146|access-date=26 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017215042/https://books.google.com/books/about/Ancient_Mesopotamian_Materials_and_Indus.html?id=P_Ixuott4doC|archive-date=17 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> and even older fragments of wheel-thrown pottery have been found in the same area.<ref name="Moorey1994" /> Fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early ] of pottery, but it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through ]s, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources. The first two-wheeled carts were derived from ]<ref name="Lay1992">{{cite book|last=Lay|first=M G |title=Ways of the World|publisher=Primavera Press|year=1992|location=Sydney|page=28|isbn=978-1875368051}}</ref> and were first used in Mesopotamia and ] in around 3,000 BCE.<ref name="Lay1992" /> | |||
] period]] | |||
The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to {{Circa|4,000 BCE}},<ref name="Gregersen2012">{{cite book|last1=Gregersen|first1=Erik|title=The Complete History of Wheeled Transportation: From Cars and Trucks to Buses and Bikes|date=2012|publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing|location=New York |isbn=978-1615307012|page=130|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ldSbAAAAQBAJ&q=paved+road+in+Ur&pg=PA130|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=31 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331145500/https://books.google.com/books?id=ldSbAAAAQBAJ&q=paved+road+in+Ur&pg=PA130|url-status=live}}</ref> and timber roads leading through the swamps of ], England, dating to around the same period.<ref name="Gregersen2012" /> The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE,<ref name="Gregersen2012" /> spanned 2,400 km from the ] to the ],<ref name="Gregersen2012" /> but was not paved and was only partially maintained.<ref name="Gregersen2012" /> In around 2,000 BCE, the ] on the Greek island of ] built a 50 km road leading from the palace of ] on the south side of the island, through the mountains, to the palace of ] on the north side of the island.<ref name="Gregersen2012" /> Unlike the earlier road, the Minoan road was completely paved.<ref name="Gregersen2012" />] in France, one of the most famous ]<ref name="Aicher1995" />|alt=refer to caption]] | |||
], made via ]]] | |||
Ancient Minoan private homes had ].<ref name="Eslamian2014">{{cite book|last1=Eslamian|first1=Saeid|title=Handbook of Engineering Hydrology: Environmental Hydrology and Water Management|date=2014|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, Florida|isbn=978-1466552500|pages=171–175|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USXcBQAAQBAJ&q=Minoan+flush+toilet&pg=PA174|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=10 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210095408/https://books.google.com/books?id=USXcBQAAQBAJ&q=Minoan+flush+toilet&pg=PA174|url-status=live}}</ref> A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos.<ref name="Eslamian2014" /><ref name="Lechner2012">{{cite book|last1=Lechner|first1=Norbert|title=Plumbing, Electricity, Acoustics: Sustainable Design Methods for Architecture|date=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|location=Hoboken, NJ|isbn=978-1118014752|page=106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0loW1G-Q5f4C&q=Minoan+flush+toilet&pg=PA106|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=31 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331145421/https://books.google.com/books?id=0loW1G-Q5f4C&q=Minoan+flush+toilet&pg=PA106|url-status=live}}</ref> Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain.<ref name="Eslamian2014" /> The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets,<ref name="Lechner2012" /> which emptied into an extensive ].<ref name="Lechner2012" /> The primary sewer in Rome was the ];<ref name="Lechner2012" /> construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today.<ref name="Lechner2012" /> | |||
The ancient Romans also had a complex system of ],<ref name="Aicher1995">{{cite book|last1=Aicher|first1=Peter J.|title=Guide to the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome|date=1995|publisher=Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.|location=Wauconda, IL|isbn=978-0865162822|page=6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IEa04PmWXq0C&q=Pont+du+Gard|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=5 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205010425/https://books.google.com/books?id=IEa04PmWXq0C&q=Pont+du+Gard|url-status=live}}</ref> which were used to transport water across long distances.<ref name="Aicher1995" /> The first ] was built in 312 BCE.<ref name="Aicher1995" /> The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE.<ref name="Aicher1995" /> Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km,<ref name="Aicher1995" /> but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches.<ref name="Aicher1995" /> | |||
Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of '']'' approximately 200,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm | title=Human Ancestors Hall: Homo sapiens | accessdate=2007-12-08 | publisher=] }}</ref> The earliest methods of ] making, known as the ] "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/336555.stm | title=Ancient 'tool factory' uncovered | accessdate=2007-02-18 | publisher=] | date=1999-05-06}}</ref> with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in ] within the ], dating back to 2.5 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Environment and Behavior of 2.5-Million-Year-Old Bouri Hominids | last=Heinzelin | first=Jean de | journal=] | month=April | year=1999 | volume=284 | issue=5414 | pages=625–629 | doi= 10.1126/science.284.5414.625 | pmid=10213682 | last2=Clark | first2=JD | last3=White | first3=T | last4=Hart | first4=W | last5=Renne | first5=P | last6=Woldegabriel | first6=G | last7=Beyene | first7=Y | last8=Vrba | first8=E}}</ref> This era of stone tool use is called the '']'', or "Old stone age", and spans all of human history up to the development of ] approximately 12,000 years ago. | |||
=== Pre-modern === | |||
To make a stone tool, a "]" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as ]) was struck with a ]. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of ] or ].<ref name="ea_archaeology">{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0019880-04|title=Archaeology|publisher=]|author=Burke, Ariane}}</ref> These tools greatly aided the early humans in their ] lifestyle to perform a variety of tasks including butchering carcasses (and breaking bones to get at the ]); chopping wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its ]; and even forming other tools out of softer materials such as bone and wood.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Flaked Stones and Old Bones: Biological and Cultural Evolution at the Dawn of Technology|author= Plummer, Thomas|publisher=]|year=2004|issue=47}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Medieval technology|Renaissance technology}} | |||
Innovations continued through the ] with the introduction of silk production (in Asia and later Europe), the ], and ]s. ]s (such as the ], the ], and the ]) were combined into more complicated tools, such as the ], ]s, and ]s.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315588605 |title=Innovation and Creativity in Late Medieval and Early Modern European Cities |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315588605 |isbn=978-1317116530 |s2cid=148764971 |editor-last=Davids |editor-first=K. |editor-last2=De Munck |editor-first2=B. |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184255/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315588605/innovation-creativity-late-medieval-early-modern-european-cities-karel-davids-bert-de-munck |url-status=live }}</ref> A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices, including ] and ].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnQNVPbnrDgC |title=Universities and Schooling in Medieval Society |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |date=2000 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9004113510 |editor-last=Courtenay |editor-first=W. J. |editor-last2=Miethke |editor-first2=J. |editor-last3=Priest |editor-first3=D. B. |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184252/https://books.google.com/books?id=HnQNVPbnrDgC |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The earliest stone tools were crude, being little more than a fractured rock. In the ] era, beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stone into specific shapes, such as ]s emerged. The ], approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the ], where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone.<ref name="ea_archaeology" /> The ], beginning approximately 40,000 years ago, saw the introduction of ], where a wood, bone, or antler ] could be used to shape a stone very finely.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge|author= Haviland, William A.|publisher=]|year=2004|isbn=0534624871|page=77}}</ref> | |||
The ] era produced many innovations, including the introduction of the ] ] to Europe, which facilitated the communication of knowledge. Technology became increasingly influenced by science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deming |first=D. |url= |title=Science and Technology in World History, Volume 3: The Black Death, the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution |year=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786490868}}</ref> | |||
==== Fire ==== | |||
=== Modern === | |||
The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple ] source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind.<ref>{{cite book | last=Crump | first=Thomas | title=A Brief History of Science | year=2001 | publisher=] | isbn=1-84119-235-X | page=9}}</ref> The exact date of its discovery is not known; evidence of burnt animal bones at the ] suggests that the domestication of fire occurred before 1,000,000 BC;<ref>{{cite web | url=http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=915 | title=Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs | accessdate=2007-03-10 | publisher=]}}</ref> scholarly consensus indicates that ] had controlled fire by between 500,000 BC and 400,000 BC.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab10 | title=History of Stone Age Man | accessdate=2007-02-13 | publisher=History World}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Hominid Use of Fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene | last=James | first=Steven R. | journal=] | volume=30 | issue=1 | pages=1–26 | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(198902)30%3A1%3C1%3AHUOFIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J | format=fee required | month=February | year=1989 | doi=10.1086/203705}}</ref> Fire, fueled with ] and ], allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Stahl | first= Ann B. | year=1984 | title=Hominid dietary selection before fire | journal=] | volume=25 | pages= 151–168 | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(198404)25%3A2%3C151%3AHDSBF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E | format=fee required | doi=10.1086/203106 | issue=2}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Industrial Revolution|Second Industrial Revolution|Information Age}} | |||
], here the original ], revolutionized personal transportation.]] | |||
Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of ] set off the ], which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of ], manufacturing, mining, ], and transport, and the widespread application of the ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stearns |first=P. N. |url= |title=The Industrial Revolution in World History |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-0813347295 }}</ref> This was followed a century later by the ] which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including ], electricity, ], ]s, railroads, ], and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, ], ], and engineering.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mokyr |first=J. |title=The Second Industrial Revolution, 1870–1914 |year=2000 |url=https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jmokyr/castronovo.pdf |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910210450/https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jmokyr/castronovo.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=B. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPJjEAAAQBAJ |title=To Have and Have Not: Energy in World History |year= 2022 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1538105047 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184800/https://books.google.com/books?id=NPJjEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Communication improved with the invention of the ], the telephone, the radio, and television.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Albion |first=Robert G. |date=1 January 1933 |title=The Communication Revolution, 1760–1933 |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/tns.1933.002 |journal=Transactions of the Newcomen Society |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=13–25 |doi=10.1179/tns.1933.002 |issn=0372-0187 |access-date=26 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184825/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/tns.1933.002 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==== Clothing and shelter ==== | |||
The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of ] in the ] led to both ] and ]. ]s were invented and asserted dominance in processing complex data. While the invention of ]s allowed for digital computing with ]s like the ], their sheer size precluded widespread use until innovations in ] allowed for the invention of the ] in 1947, which significantly compacted computers and led the digital transition. Information technology, particularly ] and ]s, allowed for simple and fast long-distance communication, which ushered in the ] and the birth of the ]. The ] began with the launch of ] in 1957, and later the launch of ] to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to ] have used ]s to detect signs of technology use, or '']s'', given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis (], ], and ] scanning), treatment (like the ], ], ], and a wide array of new ]s), and research (like ] cloning and ]s).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Agar |first=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2TrhBB_4fYC |title=Science in the 20th Century and Beyond |year=2012 |publisher=Polity |isbn=978-0745634692|access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184804/https://books.google.com/books?id=e2TrhBB_4fYC |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era were ] and shelter; the adoption of both technologies cannot be dated exactly, but they were a key to humanity's progress. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380,000 BC, humans were constructing temporary wood huts.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_3.htm | title=Evolution of Modern Humans: Archaic Homo sapiens Culture | accessdate=2007-03-31 | author=O'Neil, Dennis | publisher=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Villa | first=Paola | year=1983 | title=Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of southern France| publisher=] |location=] | isbn= 0-520-09662-2 |page= 303}}</ref> Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to ] | |||
out of Africa by 200,000 BC and into other continents, such as ].<ref>{{cite journal | last=Cordaux | first=Richard | coauthors=Stoneking, Mark | title=South Asia, the Andamanese and the genetic evidence for an "early" human dispersal out of Africa | journal=] | year=2003 | volume=72 | url=http://site.voila.fr/rcordaux/pdfs/04.pdf |format=PDF| pages=1586 | doi=10.1086/375407 | pmid=12817589 | issue=6 | pmc=1180321}}</ref> | |||
Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire ] have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education – their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Goldin |first1=C. |author1-link=Claudia Goldin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGlCFqnakCoC |title=The Race between Education and Technology |last2=Katz |first2=L. F. |author2-link=Lawrence F. Katz |year=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674037731 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184804/https://books.google.com/books?id=yGlCFqnakCoC |url-status=live }}</ref> Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and ]; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture. | |||
=== Neolithic through Classical Antiquity (10,000BC – 300AD) === | |||
==Impact== | |||
] | |||
{{main|Technology and society}} | |||
Technological change is the largest cause of long-term economic growth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Solow |first=Robert M. |date=1957 |title=Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1926047 |journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=312–320 |doi=10.2307/1926047 |jstor=1926047 |issn=0034-6535 |access-date=15 January 2023 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115022751/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1926047 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bresnahan |first1=Timothy F. |last2=Trajtenberg |first2=M. |date=1 January 1995 |title=General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'? |journal=Journal of Econometrics |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=83–108 |doi=10.1016/0304-4076(94)01598-T |issn=0304-4076|doi-access=free }}</ref> Throughout human history, energy production was the main constraint on ], and new technologies allowed humans to significantly increase the amount of available energy'''.''' First came fire, which made edible a wider variety of foods, and made it less physically demanding to digest them. Fire also enabled ], and the use of ], copper, and iron tools, used for hunting or ]ship. Then came the agricultural revolution: humans no longer needed to ] to survive, and began to settle in towns and cities, forming more complex societies, with ] and more organized forms of religion.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Wrigley |first=E. A |date=13 March 2013 |title=Energy and the English Industrial Revolution |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |volume=371 |issue=1986 |page=20110568 |doi=10.1098/rsta.2011.0568|pmid=23359739 |bibcode=2013RSPTA.37110568W |s2cid=10624423 |doi-access=free }}</ref><!-- paragraph is not done (obviously stops abruptly) --> | |||
Technologies have contributed to human welfare through increased prosperity, improved comfort and quality of life, and ], but they can also disrupt existing social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups. | |||
Man's technological ascent began in earnest in what is known as the ] period ("New stone age"). The invention of polished ]s was a major advance because it allowed forest clearance on a large scale to create farms. The discovery of ] allowed for the feeding of larger populations, and the transition to a ] lifestyle increased the number of children that could be simultaneously raised, as young children no longer needed to be carried, as was the case with the nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060103114116.htm|title=The First Baby Boom: Skeletal Evidence Shows Abrupt Worldwide Increase In Birth Rate During Neolithic Period|publisher=]|date=2006-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(197204)13%3A2%3C258%3AACTFSA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5|title=Child Transport, Family Size, and Increase in Human Population During the Neolithic|journal=]|author=Sussman, Robert W. |coauthors= Hall, Roberta L.|volume=13|issue=2| pages=258–267|publisher=]|month=April|year=1972|doi=10.1086/201274}}</ref> | |||
Recent years have brought about a rise in social media's cultural prominence, with potential repercussions on democracy, and economic and social life. Early on, the internet was seen as a "liberation technology" that would democratize knowledge, improve access to education, and promote democracy. Modern research has turned to investigate the internet's downsides, including disinformation, polarization, hate speech, and propaganda.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-media-and-democracy/E79E2BBF03C18C3A56A5CC393698F117 |title=Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1108835558 |editor-last=Persily |editor-first=Nathaniel |series=SSRC Anxieties of Democracy |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781108890960 |hdl=11245.1/cf2f5b6a-8dc8-4400-bc38-3317b0164499 |s2cid=243715477 |editor-last2=Tucker |editor-first2=Joshua A. |access-date=19 October 2022 |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019091703/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-media-and-democracy/E79E2BBF03C18C3A56A5CC393698F117 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization.<ref>{{cite book|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://books.google.com/?id=isGyuX9motEC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=labor+neolithic+population|title=Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective|publisher=]|author=Ferraro, Gary P.|year=2006|isbn=0495030392}}</ref> What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as ], and the first civilizations, such as ], is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly ] social structures, the specialization of labor, trade and war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges, such as the building of ] and ]s, are all thought to have played a role.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/?id=8pKKwlEcpwYC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=labor+surplus+neolithic+population|accessdate=2008-05-17|title=The ESSENTIALS of Ancient History|publisher=Research & Education Association|author=Patterson, Gordon M.|year=1992|isbn=9780878917044}}</ref> | |||
Since the 1970s, technology's impact on the environment has been ], leading to a surge in investment in ], ], and other forms of ]. | |||
==== Metal tools ==== | |||
=== Social === | |||
Continuing improvements led to the ] and ] and provided the ability to ] and ] native metals (naturally occurring in relatively pure form).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/cramb/Processing/history.html | title=A Short History of Metals | accessdate=2007-01-08 | last=Cramb | first=Alan W | publisher=]}}</ref> ], ], ], and ], 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 ] times (about 8000 BC).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VANVAEjBG-QC&pg=PA708&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=fl2NR6ODGYbWiwGW8Zi_BA|accessdate=2008-05-17|author= Chisholm, Hugh|publisher=]|year=1910|page=708}}</ref> 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. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of ] such as ] and ] (about 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys such as ] dates to around 1400 BC. | |||
==== |
==== Jobs ==== | ||
Since the invention of the wheel, technologies have helped increase humans' economic output. Past automation has both substituted and complemented labor; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs (for example in agriculture), but this was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Autor|first=D. H.|year=2015|title=Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace|journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives|volume=29|number=3|pages=3–30|doi=10.1257/jep.29.3.3 |url=https://economics.mit.edu/files/11563|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901060615/http://economics.mit.edu/files/11563 |archive-date=1 September 2022 |doi-access=free|hdl=1721.1/109476|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Studies have found that computers did not create significant net ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bessen |first=J. E. |date=3 October 2016 |title=How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs, and Skills |journal=Economic Perspectives on Employment & Labor Law EJournal. |volume=15{{hyphen}}49 |location=Rochester, NY |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2690435 |ssrn=2690435 |s2cid=29968989 |url=https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/813 |access-date=20 January 2024 |archive-date=10 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310050823/https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/813/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Due to ] being far more capable than computers, and still being in its infancy, it is not known whether it will follow the same trend; the question has been debated at length among economists and policymakers. A 2017 survey found no clear consensus among economists on whether AI would increase long-term unemployment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2017 |title=Robots and Artificial Intelligence |url=https://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/robots-and-artificial-intelligence/ |access-date=17 September 2022 |website=igmchicago.org |publisher=] |archive-date=20 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920171212/https://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/robots-and-artificial-intelligence/ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the ]'s "The Future of Jobs Report 2020", AI is predicted to replace 85 million jobs worldwide, and create 97 million new jobs by 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 2020 |title=The Future of Jobs Report 2020 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf |access-date=16 January 2022 |website=www3.weforum.org |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115173909/https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robots and AI Taking Over Jobs: What to Know {{!}} Built In |url=https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-replacing-jobs-creating-jobs |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=builtin.com |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116171804/https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-replacing-jobs-creating-jobs |url-status=live }}</ref> From 1990 to 2007, a study in the U.S. by ] economist ] showed that an addition of one robot for every 1,000 workers decreased the ] by 0.2%, or about 3.3 workers, and lowered wages by 0.42%.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How many jobs do robots really replace? |url=https://news.mit.edu/2020/how-many-jobs-robots-replace-0504 |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=MIT News {{!}} Massachusetts Institute of Technology |date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116171803/https://news.mit.edu/2020/how-many-jobs-robots-replace-0504 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Acemoglu |first1=Daron |last2=Restrepo |first2=Pascual |date=1 June 2020 |title=Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/705716 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=128 |issue=6 |pages=2188–2244 |doi=10.1086/705716 |hdl=1721.1/130324 |s2cid=7468879 |issn=0022-3808 |hdl-access=free |access-date=16 January 2023 |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116171811/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/705716 |url-status=live }}</ref> Concerns about technology replacing human labor however are long-lasting. As US president ] said in 1964, "Technology is creating both new opportunities and new obligations for us, opportunity for greater productivity and progress; obligation to be sure that no workingman, no family must pay an unjust price for progress." upon signing the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress bill.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Remarks Upon Signing Bill Creating the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress. {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-signing-bill-creating-the-national-commission-technology-automation-and |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116174700/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-signing-bill-creating-the-national-commission-technology-automation-and |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=February 1966 |title=Technology and the American Economy |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED023803.pdf |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=files.eric.ed.gov |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116174655/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED023803.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=If Robots Take Our Jobs, Will They Make It Up to Us? |url=https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/if-robots-take-our-jobs-will-they-make-it-us |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=The University of Chicago Booth School of Business |archive-date=25 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325132904/https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/if-robots-take-our-jobs-will-they-make-it-us |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=GovInfo |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/STATUTE-78/STATUTE-78-Pg462 |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=www.govinfo.gov n |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116174655/https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/STATUTE-78/STATUTE-78-Pg462 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1963 |title=H.R.11611 – An Act to establish a National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/88th-congress/house-bill/11611/text |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=www.congress.gov |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116180845/https://www.congress.gov/bill/88th-congress/house-bill/11611/text |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
] was invented circa 4000 BC.]] | |||
==== Security ==== | |||
Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailboat.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dodge|first=Darrell|title=Part 1 - Early History Through 1875|url=http://www.telosnet.com/wind/early.html|work=Illustrated History of Wind Power Development|accessdate=23 June 2010}}</ref> The earliest record of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 BC.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dollinger|first=André|title=Ships and Boats|url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/navigation.htm|work=Pharaonic Egypt|accessdate=23 June 2010}}</ref> 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. | |||
With the growing reliance of technology, there have been security and privacy concerns along with it. Billions of people use different online payment methods, such as ], ], ], and much more to help transfer money. Although security measures are placed, some criminals are able to bypass them.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Elizabeth |author1-link=Elizabeth Rosenberg |last2=Harrell |first2=Peter E. |last3=Shiffman |first3=Gary M. |last4=Dorshimer |first4=Sam |date=2019 |title=Financial Technology and National Security |publisher=Center for a New American Security |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep20404 |access-date=19 January 2023 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119140345/https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep20404 |url-status=live }}</ref> In March 2022, North Korea used ], a ] which helped them to hide their cryptocurrency exchanges, to launder over $20.5 million in cryptocurrency, from ], and steal over $600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game's owner. Because of this, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, which marked the first time it has taken action against a mixer, to try to crack down on North Korean hackers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. takes aim at North Korean crypto laundering |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/us-takes-aim-north-korean-crypto-laundering-rcna27660 |access-date=19 January 2023 |website=NBC News |date=6 May 2022 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119140345/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/us-takes-aim-north-korean-crypto-laundering-rcna27660 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. ties North Korean hacker group to Axie Infinity crypto theft |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/north-korea-lazarus-axie-infinity-crypto-theft-rcna24518 |access-date=19 January 2023 |website=NBC News |date=15 April 2022 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119140346/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/north-korea-lazarus-axie-infinity-crypto-theft-rcna24518 |url-status=live }}</ref> The privacy of cryptocurrency has been debated. Although many customers like the privacy of cryptocurrency, many also argue that it needs more transparency and stability.<ref name=":11" /> | |||
=== Environmental === | |||
According to archaeologists, the ] was invented around 4000 B.C. The wheel was probably independently invented in Mesopotamia (in present-day ]) 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 ]. (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 center 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.angelfire.com/country/veneti/AmerDomoOldestWheel.html | title=Slovenian Marsh Yields World's Oldest Wheel | accessdate=2007-02-13 | publisher=Ameriška Domovina | date=2003-03-27}}</ref> | |||
Technology can have both positive and negative effects on the environment. ], describes an array of technologies which seek to reverse, mitigate or halt environmental damage to the environment. This can include measures to ] through environmental regulations, capture and storage of pollution, or using pollutant byproducts in other industries.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Austin |first1=David |last2=Macauley |first2=Molly K. |author2-link=Molly K. Macauley |date=1 December 2001 |title=Cutting Through Environmental Issues: Technology as a double-edged sword |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cutting-through-environmental-issues-technology-as-a-double-edged-sword/ |access-date=10 February 2023 |website=Brookings |archive-date=9 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209002853/https://www.brookings.edu/articles/cutting-through-environmental-issues-technology-as-a-double-edged-sword/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Other examples of environmental technology include ] and the reversing of deforestation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grainger |first1=Alan |last2=Francisco |first2=Herminia A. |last3=Tiraswat |first3=Penporn |date=July 2003 |title=The impact of changes in agricultural technology on long-term trends in deforestation |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837703000097 |journal=The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=209–223 |doi=10.1016/S0264-8377(03)00009-7 |bibcode=2003LUPol..20..209G |via=Elsevier Science Direct |access-date=10 February 2023 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210214149/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837703000097 |url-status=live }}</ref> Emerging technologies in the fields of ] may be able to halt or reverse global warming and its environmental impacts,<ref>{{cite web|author=EPA|date=19 January 2017|title=Climate Impacts on Ecosystems|url=https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-ecosystems_.html#Extinction|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127185656/https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-ecosystems_.html#Extinction|archive-date=27 January 2018|access-date=5 February 2019|quote=Mountain and arctic ecosystems and species are particularly sensitive to climate change... As ocean temperatures warm and the acidity of the ocean increases, bleaching and coral die-offs are likely to become more frequent.}}</ref> although this remains highly controversial.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=6 November 2017 |year=2017 |title=What is Climate Engineering? |url=https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-climate-engineering |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=www.ucsusa.org |language=en}}</ref> As technology has advanced, so too has the negative environmental impact, with increased release of ]es, including ], ] and ], into the atmosphere, causing the ]. This continues to gradually heat the earth, causing global warming and ]. Measures of technological innovation correlates with a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chaudhry |first1=Imran Sharif |last2=Ali |first2=Sajid |last3=Bhatti |first3=Shaukat Hussain |last4=Anser |first4=Muhammad Khalid |last5=Khan |first5=Ahmad Imran |last6=Nazar |first6=Raima |date=October 2021 |title=Dynamic common correlated effects of technological innovations and institutional performance on environmental quality: Evidence from East-Asia and Pacific countries |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1462901121001921 |journal=Environmental Science & Policy |volume=124 |issue=Environmental Science & Policy |pages=313–323 |doi=10.1016/j.envsci.2021.07.007 |bibcode=2021ESPol.124..313C |via=Elsevier Science Direct |access-date=14 February 2023 |archive-date=14 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214142841/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1462901121001921 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==== Pollution ==== | |||
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. | |||
Pollution, the presence of contaminants in an environment that causes adverse effects, could have been present as early as the ]. They used a ] ] in the ] of ores, along with the use of a wind-drafted clay ], which released lead into the ] and the ] of rivers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smol |first=J. P. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/476272945 |title=Pollution of Lakes and Rivers : a Paleoenvironmental Perspective. |date=2009 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1444307573 |edition=2nd |location=Chichester |page=135 |oclc=476272945 |access-date=14 February 2023 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429043125/https://search.worldcat.org/title/476272945 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
== Philosophy == | |||
=== Medieval and Modern history (300 AD —) === | |||
{{ |
{{main|Philosophy of technology}} | ||
Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created."<ref name=":5">{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Franssen |first1=M. |chapter=Philosophy of Technology |year=2018 |chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/technology/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=E. N. |edition=Fall 2018 |access-date=11 September 2022 |last2=Lokhorst |first2=G.-J. |last3=van de Poel |first3=I. |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911061556/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/technology/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since the 1970s.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last1=de Vries |first1=M. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOmPCgAAQBAJ |title=Philosophy of Technology : An Introduction for Technology and Business Students |last2=Verkerk |first2=M. J. |last3=Hoogland |first3=J. |last4=van der Stoep |first4=J. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2015 |isbn=978-1317445715 |location=United Kingdom |oclc=907132694 |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184227/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Philosophy_of_Technology/EOmPCgAAQBAJ |archive-date=4 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The ''humanities philosophy of technology'' is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture".<ref name=":5" /> | |||
Innovations continued through the ] with new innovations such as ], the ] and ] in the first few hundred years after the fall of the ]. ] saw the use of ] (such as the ], the ], and the ]) being combined to form more complicated tools, such as the ], ] and ]. The ] brought forth many of these innovations, including the ] (which facilitated the greater communication of knowledge), and technology became increasingly associated with ], beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. The advancements in technology in this era allowed a more steady supply of food, followed by the wider availability of consumer goods. | |||
Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brey |first=P. |year=2000 |editor-last=Mitcham |editor-first=C. |title=Theories of Technology as Extension of Human Faculties |journal=Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Technology. Research in Philosophy and Technology |volume=19 }}</ref> ] framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believed that technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture", arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like ] and ] represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology.<ref name=":8" />{{Page needed|date=December 2022}}<!-- citation applies to most of the paragraph --> | |||
Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the ] was a period of great technological discovery, particularly in the areas of ], ] ], ] and ], driven by the discovery of ]. Technology later took another step with the harnessing of ] to create such innovations as the ], ] and countless others. Scientific advancement and the discovery of new concepts later allowed for ], and advancements in ], ], ] and ]. The rise in technology has led to the construction of ] and large cities whose inhabitants rely on ] or other powered transit for transportation. Communication was also improved with the invention of the ], ], ] and ]. | |||
Early scholarship on technology was split between two arguments: ], and ]. Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Deborah G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iN6MEAAAQBAJ |title=Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future |edition=2nd |last2=Wetmore |first2=Jameson M. |date=2021 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262539968 |access-date=18 October 2022 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429043232/https://books.google.com/books?id=iN6MEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|page=95}} It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dusek |first=Val |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_VXvwEACAAJ |title=Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction |date=2006 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1405111621|access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184807/https://books.google.com/books?id=J_VXvwEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Social constructivists{{who|date=December 2022}} argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of ]s, "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at the value judgments that shape technology.<ref name=":9" />{{Page needed|date=December 2022}} | |||
The second half of the 20th century brought a host of new innovations. In ], the discovery of ] has led to both ] and ]. ] were also invented later ] with ] and ], with the creation of the ] resulting after. Humans have also been able to ] with ] (later used for ]) and in manned missions going all the way to the moon. In medicine, this era brought innovations such as ] and later ] along with new ] and treatments. Complex ] and ] techniques and organizations are needed to construct and maintain these new technologies, and entire ] have arisen to support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education — their designers, builders, maintainers, and often users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have been created to support them, including ], ], and ], and other fields have been made more complex, such as ], ] and ]. | |||
Cultural critic ] distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies", societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Postman |first=Neil |title=Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology |publisher=Vintage |year=1993 |location=New York}}</ref> ] and ] suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marcuse |first=H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WoKGAgAAQBAJ |title=Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume 1 |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134774661|access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184809/https://books.google.com/books?id=WoKGAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Technology and philosophy== | |||
===Technicism=== | |||
Generally, ] is an over reliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of society. Taken to extreme, technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will someday be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology. Some, such as ],<ref name="Monsma 1986">{{cite book| last = Monsma | first = Stephen V.| publisher = W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co|location= ]| title = Responsible Technology | year= 1986| isbn = 0802801757 }}</ref> connect these ideas to the abdication of religion as a higher moral authority. | |||
== |
==Ethics== | ||
{{main|Ethics of technology}} | |||
{{See also|Extropianism}} | |||
The ''ethics of technology'' is an interdisciplinary subfield of ethics that analyzes technology's ethical implications and explores ways to mitigate the potential negative impacts of new technologies. There is a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology, from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hansson |first=Sven Ove |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeLaDwAAQBAJ&dq=technology+ethics&pg=PR7 |title=The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches |year=2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1783486595 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184810/https://books.google.com/books?id=YeLaDwAAQBAJ&dq=technology+ethics&pg=PR7 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of ideologies such as ] and ], which view ] 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 ] and ] and fear the notion of ] and ] which they support. Some have described ] as a techno-optimist.<ref name="Hughes 2002">{{cite paper| author = Hughes, James| title = Democratic Transhumanism 2.0| year= 2002 | url = http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/DemocraticTranshumanism.htm| accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref> | |||
Prominent debates have surrounded ]s, the use of robotic soldiers, ], and the issue of ] behavior with human values.<ref name="Al-Rodhan">{{Cite web |last=Al-Rodhan |first=Nayef |title=The Many Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-many-ethical-implications-of-emerging-technologies/ |access-date=13 December 2019 |website=Scientific American |archive-date=8 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408081948/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-many-ethical-implications-of-emerging-technologies/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Pessimism=== | |||
{{See also|Luddite|Neo-luddism|Anarcho-primitivism|Bioconservatism}} | |||
On the somewhat pessimistic side are certain philosophers like ] and ], who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed '']''. They suggest that the result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health. | |||
Technology ethics encompasses several key fields. ] looks at ethical issues surrounding biotechnologies and modern medicine, including cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. ] focuses on issues related to computing. ] explores internet-related issues like ], ], and ]. ] examines issues surrounding the alteration of matter at the atomic and molecular level in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. And ] deals with the professional standards of engineers, including ] and their moral responsibilities to the public.<ref name="Luppicini, R. 20082">{{cite book |last=Luppicini |first=R. |title=Handbook of Research on Technoethics |publisher=Idea Group Publishing |year=2008 |editor1=Luppicini |location=Hershey |chapter=The emerging field of Technoethics |editor2=R. Adell}}</ref> | |||
Many, such as the ]s and prominent philosopher ], hold serious reservations, although not ''a priori'' flawed reservations, about technology. Heidegger presents such a view in "]": "Thus we shall never experience our relationship to the essence of technology so long as we merely conceive and push forward the technological, put up with it, or evade it. Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it."<ref name="Heidegger 1977">{{cite book | last = Lovitt | first = William | chapter = The Question Concerning Technology | year= 1977 | url = http://www.culturaleconomics.atfreeweb.com/Anno/Heidegger%20The%20Question%201954.htm | accessdate=2007-11-21 | title = The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays | publisher = Harper Torchbooks | pages = 3–35 | isbn = 0613913140}}</ref> | |||
A wide branch of technology ethics is concerned with the ]: it includes ], which deals with ethical issues involved in the design, construction, use, and treatment of robots,<ref name="Veruggio2002">{{cite journal |author=Veruggio, Gianmarco |year=2011 |title=The Roboethics Roadmap |journal=EURON Roboethics Atelier |publisher=Scuola di Robotica |page=2 |citeseerx=10.1.1.466.2810}}</ref> as well as ], which is concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of ].<ref name="Anderson2011">{{Cite book |title=Machine Ethics |date= 2011 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0521112352 |editor1-last=Anderson |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Anderson |editor2-first=Susan Leigh}}</ref> Within the field of AI ethics, significant yet-unsolved research problems include ] (ensuring that AI behaviors are aligned with their creators' intended goals and interests) and the reduction of ]. Some researchers have warned against the hypothetical risk of an ], and have advocated for the use of ] in addition to AI alignment methods. | |||
Some of the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be dystopian literary classics, for example ] '']'' and other writings, ] '']'', and ] '']''. And, in '']'' by ], Faust's selling his soul to the devil in return for power over the physical world, is also often interpreted as a metaphor for the adoption of industrial technology. | |||
Other fields of ethics have had to contend with technology-related issues, including ], ], and ]. | |||
An overtly anti-technological treatise is '']'', written by ] (aka The ]) and printed in several major newspapers (and later books) as part of an effort to end his bombing campaign of the techno-industrial infrastructure. | |||
==Futures studies== | |||
{{main|Futures studies}} | |||
''Futures studies'' is the systematic and interdisciplinary study of social and technological progress. It aims to quantitatively and qualitatively explore the range of plausible futures and to incorporate human values in the development of new technologies.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=54}} More generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of humankind".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=73}} It relies on a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of past and present technological trends, and attempts to rigorously extrapolate them into the future.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILJ_pfMgLqsC |title=Foundations of Futures Studies, Volume 1: Human Science for a New Era |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1412823791|access-date=12 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185315/https://books.google.com/books?id=ILJ_pfMgLqsC |url-status=live }}</ref> Science fiction is often used as a source of ideas.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=173}} Futures research methodologies include ], modeling, ], and ].<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=187}}<!-- I think this section shouldn't just give an overview of the field, but also its major findings, currents, etc. Avoid redundancy with the Emerging technologies section; add more perspectives on "what society might look like in the future" --> | |||
=== Existential risk === | |||
{{main|Global catastrophic risk}} | |||
Existential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to ] or civilizational collapse, and look for ways to build resilience against them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.cser.ac.uk/about-us/ |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=cser.ac.uk |archive-date=30 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230172611/https://www.cser.ac.uk/about-us/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Gottlieb |first=J. |date=1 May 2022 |title=Discounting, Buck-Passing, and Existential Risk Mitigation: The Case of Space Colonization |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964622000121 |journal=Space Policy |volume=60 |page=101486 |bibcode=2022SpPol..6001486G |doi=10.1016/j.spacepol.2022.101486 |issn=0265-9646 |s2cid=247718992}}</ref> Relevant research centers include the ], and the Stanford Existential Risk Initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |last3= |title=Stanford Existential Risks Initiative |url=https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/stanford-existential-risks-initiative/content/stanford-existential-risks-initiative |access-date=4 October 2022 |website=cisac.fsi.stanford.edu |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922150116/https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/stanford-existential-risks-initiative/content/stanford-existential-risks-initiative |url-status=live }}</ref> Future technologies may contribute to the risks of ], ], ], ], ], ], or stable global ], though technologies may also help us mitigate ] and ]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bostrom |first1=Nick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTkfAQAAQBAJ |title=Global Catastrophic Risks |last2=Cirkovic |first2=Milan M. |year=2011 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0199606504|access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185315/https://books.google.com/books?id=sTkfAQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2019 philosopher ] introduced the notion of a ''vulnerable world'', "one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default", citing the risks of a ] caused by ], or an ] triggered by the development of novel armaments and the loss of ].<ref name="Bostrom 2019">{{Cite journal |last=Bostrom |first=Nick |date=6 September 2019 |title=The Vulnerable World Hypothesis |journal=Global Policy |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=455–476 |doi=10.1111/1758-5899.12718 |issn=1758-5880 |s2cid=203169705|doi-access=free }}</ref> He invites policymakers to question the assumptions that technological progress is always beneficial, that scientific openness is always preferable, or that they can afford to wait until a dangerous technology has been invented before they prepare mitigations.<ref name="Bostrom 2019" /> | |||
==Emerging technologies== | |||
{{main|Emerging technologies}} | |||
] | |||
Emerging technologies are novel technologies whose development or practical applications are still largely unrealized. They include ], ], ], ], ]s, and ]. | |||
In 2005, futurist ] claimed the next technological revolution would rest upon advances in ], ], and ], with robotics being the most impactful of the three technologies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kurzweil |first=Ray |title=The Singularity is Near |publisher=Penguin |year=2005 |isbn=978-1101218884 |chapter=GNR: Three Overlapping Revolutions}}</ref> ] will allow far greater control over human biological nature through a process called ]. Some thinkers believe that this may shatter our sense of self, and have urged for renewed public debate exploring the issue more thoroughly;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kompridis |first=N. |year=2009 |title=Technology's challenge to democracy: What of the human |url=http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia08/parrhesia08_kompridis.pdf |journal=Parrhesia |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=20–33 |access-date=21 February 2011 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185314/http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia08/parrhesia08_kompridis.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> others fear that directed evolution could lead to eugenics or extreme social inequality. ] will grant us the ability to manipulate matter "at the molecular and atomic scale",<ref>{{Cite news|date=19 April 2016|title=Ray Kurzweil Predicts Three Technologies Will Define Our Future|url=https://singularityhub.com/2016/04/19/ray-kurzweil-predicts-three-technologies-will-define-our-future/|access-date=10 May 2021|website=Singularity Hub|last1=McShane|first1=Sveta|archive-date=10 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510191934/https://singularityhub.com/2016/04/19/ray-kurzweil-predicts-three-technologies-will-define-our-future/|url-status=live}}</ref> which could allow us to reshape ourselves and our environment in fundamental ways.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Poole |first1=C. P. Jr. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfzgEoY9SNkC |title=Introduction to Nanotechnology |last2=Owens |first2=F. J. |year=2003 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0471079354}}</ref> Nanobots could be used within the human body to destroy cancer cells or form new body parts, blurring the line between biology and technology.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vince |first=G. |date=3 July 2003 |title=Nanotechnology may create new organs |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3916-nanotechnology-may-create-new-organs/ |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=New Scientist |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911220109/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3916-nanotechnology-may-create-new-organs/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Autonomous robots have undergone rapid progress, and are expected to replace humans at many dangerous tasks, including ], ], ], and war.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Sukhan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65-q7fi9yrcC&dq=progress+in+robotics&pg=PA4 |title=Recent Progress in Robotics: Viable Robotic Service to Human: An Edition of the Selected Papers from the 13th International Conference on Advanced Robotics |last2=Suh |first2=Il Hong |year= 2008 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3540767282 |page=3 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185316/https://books.google.com/books?id=65-q7fi9yrcC&dq=progress+in+robotics&pg=PA4 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
Estimates on the advent of ] vary, but half of machine learning experts surveyed in 2018 believe that AI will "accomplish every task better and more cheaply" than humans by 2063, and automate all human jobs by 2140.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grace |first1=K. |last2=Salvatier |first2=J. |last3=Dafoe |first3=A. |last4=Zhang |first4=B. |last5=Evans |first5=O. |date=31 July 2018 |title=Viewpoint: When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts |url=https://jair.org/index.php/jair/article/view/11222 |journal=Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research|volume=62 |pages=729–754 |doi=10.1613/jair.1.11222 |issn=1076-9757 |s2cid=8746462 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185317/https://jair.org/index.php/jair/article/view/11222 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> This expected technological unemployment has led to calls for increased emphasis on ] education and debates about ]. Political science experts predict that this could lead to a rise in extremism, while others see it as an opportunity to usher in a ]. | |||
==Movements== | |||
===Appropriate technology=== | ===Appropriate technology=== | ||
{{main|Appropriate technology}} | |||
{{See also|Technocriticism|Technorealism}} | |||
Some segments of the ] grew to dislike urban living and developed a preference for ], ], and ] technology, termed ''appropriate technology''. This later influenced ] and ]. | |||
The notion of ], however, was developed in the 20th century (e.g., see the work of ]) to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized ] or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The ] movement emerged in part due to this concern. | |||
===Technological utopianism=== | |||
==Other animal species== | |||
{{main|Technological utopianism}} | |||
] uses a branch as a ] to gauge the water's depth; an example of technology usage by primates.]]<!-- Could do with cropping --> | |||
The use of basic technology is also a feature of other animal species apart from humans. These include primates such as ]s, some ] communities,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb//anthro2003/origins/hominid_journey/optional3.html | title=Chimpanzee Tool Use | accessdate=2007-02-13 | author=Sagan, Carl; Druyan, Ann; Leakey, Richard}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4613709.stm | title=Sponging dolphins learn from mum. | accessdate=2007-02-13 | author=Rincon, Paul | publisher=] | date=2005-06-07}}</ref> and ]s.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21135366/|title=Crows use tools to find food|publisher=]|date=2007-10-04|author=Schmid, Randolph E.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Rutz, C.; Bluff, L.A.; Weir, A.A.S.; Kacelnik, A.|title=Video cameras on wild birds|journal=]|date=2007-10-04}}</ref> Considering a more generic perspective of technology as ethology of active environmental conditioning and control, we can also refer to animal examples such as beavers and their dams, or bees and their honeycombs. | |||
Technological utopianism refers to the belief that technological development is a ], which can and should bring about a ], that is, a society in which laws, governments, and social conditions serve the needs of all its citizens.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Segal |first=H. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6RabZ8t48gC |title=Technological Utopianism in American Culture|edition=20th Anniversary|year=2005 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0815630616 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185317/https://books.google.com/books?id=n6RabZ8t48gC |url-status=live }}</ref> Examples of techno-utopian goals include ], ], ], ], and the creation of artificial ]. Major techno-utopian movements include ] and ]. | |||
The ability to make and use tools was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus ].<ref>{{cite book | last=Oakley | first=K. P. | title=Man the Tool-Maker | publisher=] |year=1976 | isbn=978-0226612706}}</ref> However, the discovery of tool construction among chimpanzees and related primates has discarded the notion of the use of technology as unique to humans. For example, researchers have observed wild chimpanzees utilising tools for foraging: some of the tools used include leaf sponges, termite fishing probes, ]s and ]s.<ref>{{cite book | last=McGrew | first=W. C | year=1992 | title=Chimpanzee Material Culture | publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press | isbn=978-0521423717 | location=Cambridge u.a.}}</ref> West African ]s also use stone hammers and anvils for cracking nuts,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Boesch | first=Christophe | title=Mental map in wild chimpanzees: An analysis of hammer transports for nut cracking | year=1984 | journal=] | issue=25 | pages=160–170 | coauthors=Boesch, Hedwige | url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/e7x6620732717288/ | format=fee required | doi=10.1007/BF02382388 | volume=25}}</ref> as do ]s of ], Brazil.<ref>, New Scientist, 15 January 2009</ref> | |||
The transhumanism movement is founded upon the "continued evolution of human life beyond its current human form" through science and technology, informed by "life-promoting principles and values."<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Roots and Core Themes |date=29 April 2013 |chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118555927.part1 |title=The Transhumanist Reader |pages=1–2 |editor-last=More |editor-first=M. |editor-link=Max More |edition= |publisher=Wiley |doi=10.1002/9781118555927.part1 |isbn=978-1118334294 |access-date=11 September 2022 |editor2-last=Vita-More |editor2-first=N. |editor2-link=Natasha Vita-More |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911102725/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118555927.part1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The movement gained wider popularity in the early 21st century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Istvan |first=Zoltan |date=1 February 2015 |title=A New Generation of Transhumanists Is Emerging |url=https://www.interaliamag.org/articles/a-new-generation-of-transhumanists-is-emerging/ |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=Interalia Magazine |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911102727/https://www.interaliamag.org/articles/a-new-generation-of-transhumanists-is-emerging/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
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] believe that machine superintelligence will "accelerate technological progress" by orders of magnitude and "create even more intelligent entities ever faster", which may lead to a pace of societal and technological change that is "incomprehensible" to us. This ''event horizon'' is known as the ].<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Future Trajectories: Singularity |date=29 April 2013 |chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118555927.part8 |title=The Transhumanist Reader |pages=361–363 |editor-last=More |editor-first=M. |edition= |publisher=Wiley |doi=10.1002/9781118555927.part8 |isbn=978-1118334294 |access-date=11 September 2022 |editor2-last=Vita-More |editor2-first=N. |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911110449/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118555927.part8 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==Future techonology== | |||
Major figures of techno-utopianism include ] and ]. Techno-utopianism has attracted both praise and criticism from progressive, religious, and conservative thinkers.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Blackford |first1=R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XinlAEACAAJ |title=H±: Transhumanism and Its Critics |last2=Bostrom |first2=N. |last3=Dupuy |first3=J.-P. |date=2011 |publisher=Metanexus Institute |isbn=978-1456815653 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185317/https://books.google.com/books?id=2XinlAEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
{{See also|List of emerging technologies}} | |||
===Anti-technology backlash=== | |||
] often attempt to predict the future of technology based on the ] and science of the time. This process is difficult if not impossible. Referring to the sheer velocity of technological ], Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." | |||
{{See also|Luddite|Neo-Luddism|Bioconservatism}} | |||
Technology's central role in our lives has drawn concerns and backlash. The backlash against technology is not a uniform movement and encompasses many heterogeneous ideologies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Steven E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPBZANKoOHkC |title=Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1135522391 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185317/https://books.google.com/books?id=VPBZANKoOHkC |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The earliest known revolt against technology was ], a pushback against early automation in textile production. Automation had resulted in a need for fewer workers, a process known as ]. | |||
==See also== | |||
{{Main|Outline of technology}} | |||
Between the 1970s and 1990s, American terrorist ] carried out a series of bombings across America and published the ] denouncing technology's negative impacts on nature and human freedom. The essay resonated with a large part of the American public.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelman |first=David |date=1 June 2020 |title=Politics in a Small Room: Subterranean Babel in Piglia's El camino de Ida |url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/ycl.63.005 |journal=The Yearbook of Comparative Literature |volume=63 |pages=179–201 |doi=10.3138/ycl.63.005 |s2cid=220494877 |issn=0084-3695 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=6 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306190259/https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/ycl.63.005 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was partly inspired by Jacques Ellul's '']''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Sean |date=7 May 2021 |title=The Unabomber and the origins of anti-tech radicalism |journal=Journal of Political Ideologies |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=207–225 |doi=10.1080/13569317.2021.1921940 |issn=1356-9317 |doi-access=free}}</ref> | |||
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Some subcultures, like the ] movement, advocate a withdrawal from technology and a return to nature. The ] movement seeks to reestablish harmony between technology and nature.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vannini|first1=Phillip|author2=Jonathan Taggart|title=Voluntary simplicity, involuntary complexities, and the pull of remove: The radical ruralities of off-grid lifestyles|journal=Environment and Planning A|volume=45|number=2|year=2013|pages=295–311|doi=10.1068/a4564 |bibcode=2013EnPlA..45..295V |s2cid=143970611 }}</ref> | |||
===Theories and concepts in technology=== | |||
{{Main|Theories of technology}} | |||
==Relation to science and engineering== | |||
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] experimenting with combustion generated by amplified sunlight|alt=Drawing of Lavoisier conducting an experiment in front of onlookers]] | |||
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Engineering is the process by which technology is developed. It often requires problem-solving under strict constraints.<ref name=":7" /> Technological development is "action-oriented", while scientific knowledge is fundamentally explanatory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Di Nucci Pearce |first1=M. R. |last2=Pearce |first2=David |year=1989 |title=Technology vs. Science: The Cognitive Fallacy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20116729 |journal=Synthese |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=405–419 |doi=10.1007/BF00869324 |jstor=20116729 |s2cid=46975083 |issn=0039-7857 |access-date=12 September 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910152955/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20116729 |url-status=live }}</ref> Polish philosopher ] framed it like so: "science concerns itself with what {{em|is}}, technology with what {{em|is to be}}."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Skolimowski |first=Henryk |year=1966 |title=The Structure of Thinking in Technology |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=371–383 |doi=10.2307/3101935 |jstor=3101935 |issn=0040-165X }}</ref>{{rp|375}} | |||
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The direction of ] between scientific discovery and technological innovation has been debated by scientists, philosophers and policymakers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brooks |first=H. |date=1 September 1994 |title=The relationship between science and technology |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333%2894%2901001-3 |journal=Research Policy |series=Special Issue in Honor of Nathan Rosenberg|volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=477–486 |doi=10.1016/0048-7333(94)01001-3 |issn=0048-7333 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185321/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0048733394010013?via%3Dihub |url-status=live }}</ref> Because innovation is often undertaken at the edge of scientific knowledge, most technologies are not derived from scientific knowledge, but instead from engineering, tinkering and chance.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Taleb |first=Nassim Nicholas |title=Antifragile |year=2012 |publisher=Penguin Random House |oclc=1252833169}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=217–240}} For example, in the 1940s and 1950s, when knowledge of turbulent combustion or fluid dynamics was still crude, jet engines were invented through "running the device to destruction, analyzing what broke and repeating the process".<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Scranton |first=Philip |date=1 May 2006 |title=Urgency, uncertainty, and innovation: Building jet engines in postwar America |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/1744935906064096 |journal=Management & Organizational History |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=127–157 |doi=10.1177/1744935906064096 |s2cid=143813033 |issn=1744-9359}}</ref> Scientific explanations often follow technological developments rather than preceding them.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=217–240}} Many discoveries also arose from pure chance, like the discovery of ] as a result of accidental lab contamination.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hare |first=Ronald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQecpwAACAAJ |title=The Birth of Penicillin, and the Disarming of Microbes |date=1970 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-0049250055 |access-date=12 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185318/https://books.google.com/books?id=hQecpwAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Since the 1960s, the assumption that government funding of ] would lead to the discovery of marketable technologies has lost credibility.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wise |first=George |year=1985 |title=Science and Technology |journal=Osiris |series=2nd Series |volume=1 |pages=229–46 |doi=10.1086/368647 |s2cid=144475553}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Guston |first=David H. |title=Between Politics and Science: Assuring the Integrity and Productivity of Research |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0521653183 |location=New York}}</ref> Probabilist Nassim Taleb argues that national research programs that implement the notions of ] and ] through frequent trial and error are more likely to lead to useful innovations than research that aims to reach specific outcomes.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Taleb |first=N. N. |date=12 December 2012 |title=Understanding is a Poor Substitute for Convexity (Antifragility) |url=https://fooledbyrandomness.com/ConvexityScience.pdf |access-date=12 September 2022 |website=fooledbyrandomness.com |archive-date=21 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621041454/https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/ConvexityScience.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
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Despite this, modern technology is increasingly reliant on deep, domain-specific scientific knowledge. In 1975, there was an average of one citation of scientific literature in every three patents granted in the U.S.; by 1989, this increased to an average of one citation per patent. The average was skewed upwards by patents related to the pharmaceutical industry, chemistry, and electronics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Narin |first1=Francis |last2=Olivastro |first2=Dominic |date=1 June 1992 |title=Status report: Linkage between technology and science |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333%2892%2990018-Y |journal=Research Policy |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=237–249 |doi=10.1016/0048-7333(92)90018-Y |issn=0048-7333 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004185326/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004873339290018Y?via%3Dihub |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2021 analysis shows that patents that are based on scientific discoveries are on average 26% more valuable than equivalent non-science-based patents.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Krieger |first1=Joshua L. |last2=Schnitzer |first2=Monika |author2-link=Monika Schnitzer | last3=Watzinger| first3=Martin|date=1 May 2019 |title=Standing on the Shoulders of Science |url=https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-128_6a36a0e5-7f30-4d63-a591-3196d4b3fb5e.pdf |ssrn=3401853 |access-date=12 September 2022 |archive-date=12 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912192637/https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-128_6a36a0e5-7f30-4d63-a591-3196d4b3fb5e.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Economics of technology=== | |||
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] to gauge the water's depth.|alt=Photo of a gorilla walking hip-deep in a pond, holding a stick]] | |||
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The use of basic technology is also a feature of non-human animal species. Tool use was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus ].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Oakley |first=K. P. |title=Man the Tool-Maker |journal=Nature |year=1976 |isbn=978-0226612706 |volume=199 |pages=1042–1043 |bibcode=1963Natur.199U1042. |doi=10.1038/1991042e0 |issue=4898 |s2cid=4298952}}</ref> This view was supplanted after discovering evidence of tool use among ]s and other primates,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb//anthro2003/origins/hominid_journey/optional3.html |title=Chimpanzee Tool Use |access-date=13 February 2007 |author1=Sagan, Carl |author1-link=Carl Sagan |author2=Druyan, Ann |author2-link=Ann Druyan |author3=Leakey, Richard |author3-link=Ann Druyan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060921062716/http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/origins/hominid_journey/optional3.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=21 September 2006}}</ref> dolphins,<ref name="20050607bbc">{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4613709.stm|title=Sponging dolphins learn from mum|last=Rincon|first=Paul|date=7 June 2005|work=BBC News|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204093731/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4613709.stm|archive-date=4 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> and ]s.<ref name=nbcnews21135366>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna21135366|title=Crows use tools to find food|last=Schmid|first=Randolph E.|date=4 October 2007|publisher=NBC News|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310185618/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21135366/#.WCYQR9IrLIU|archive-date=10 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Rutz, C. |author2=Bluff, L.A. |author3=Weir, A.A.S. |author4=Kacelnik, A. |title=Video cameras on wild birds|journal=]|date=4 October 2007|doi=10.1126/science.1146788|pmid=17916693 |volume=318|issue=5851|page=765 |bibcode = 2007Sci...318..765R |s2cid=28785984 |doi-access=free }}</ref> For example, researchers have observed wild chimpanzees using basic foraging tools, pestles, levers, using leaves as sponges, and tree bark or vines as probes to fish termites.<ref>{{cite book | last=McGrew | first=W. C | year=1992 | title=Chimpanzee Material Culture | publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press | isbn=978-0521423717 | location=Cambridge u.a.}}</ref> ]s use stone hammers and anvils for cracking nuts,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Boesch | first=Christophe | title=Mental map in wild chimpanzees: An analysis of hammer transports for nut cracking | year=1984 | journal=] | issue=2 | pages=160–170 |author2=Boesch, Hedwige | doi=10.1007/BF02382388 | volume=25| s2cid=24073884 }}</ref> as do ]s of ], Brazil.<ref name=20090115newscientist>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16426-nut-cracking-monkeys-find-the-right-tool-for-the-job/|title=Nut-cracking monkeys find the right tool for the job|last=Brahic|first=Catherine|date=15 January 2009|work=New Scientist|access-date=11 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115142232/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16426-nut-cracking-monkeys-find-the-right-tool-for-the-job/|archive-date=15 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Tool use is not the only form of animal technology use; for example, ]s, built with wooden sticks or large stones, are a technology with "dramatic" impacts on river habitats and ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Müller |first1=G. |last2=Watling |first2=J. |date=24 June 2016 |title=The engineering in beaver dams |url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/400282/ |conference=River Flow 2016: Eighth International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics |location=St. Louis|publisher=University of Southampton Institutional Research Repository |access-date=29 September 2022 |archive-date=24 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924081921/https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/400282/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==Popular culture== | |||
* ] | |||
{{See also|Science fiction}} | |||
* ] | |||
The relationship of humanity with technology has been explored in science-fiction literature, for example in '']'', '']'', '']'', ]'s essays, and movies like '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. It has spawned the dystopian and futuristic ] genre, which juxtaposes futuristic technology with societal collapse, dystopia or decay.<ref>{{cite book |contributor=Thomas Michaud|contribution=Science fiction and politics: Cyberpunk science fiction as political philosophy|pages=65–77 |last= Hassler |first= Donald M. |title= New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction |publisher= ] |year= 2008 |isbn= 978-1570037368}}</ref> Notable cyberpunk works include ]'s '']'' novel, and movies like '']'', and '']''. | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==See also== | |||
{{multicol-end}} | |||
{{Portal|Technology}} | |||
{{div col end}} | |||
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* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
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* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
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}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{Clear}} | |||
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} | |||
== |
===Citations=== | ||
{{reflist}} | |||
* {{Cite journal |authorlink=Michael Kremer |last=Kremer |first=Michael |year=1993 |title=Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990 |journal=] |volume=108 |issue=3 |pages=681–716 |doi=10.2307/2118405 |url=http://jstor.org/stable/2118405 |publisher=The MIT Press |postscript=<!--None--> }}. | |||
* ] (2007) ''From Technological to Virtual Art'', Leonardo Books, ] | |||
* ] (2005) ''Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body'', Berg | |||
* {{cite paper | author=Ambrose, Stanley H. | title=Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution | publisher=''Science'' | date=2001-03-02 | url=http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~junwang4/langev/localcopy/pdf/ambrose01science.pdf |format=PDF| accessdate=2007-03-10}} | |||
== |
===Sources=== | ||
{{refbegin|30em}} | |||
* Technology for Kids | |||
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* | |||
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* | |||
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* {{cite book |first1=Benjamin |last1=Cohen |first2=Gwen |last2=Ottinger |editor-first1=Gwen |editor-last1=Ottinger |editor-first2=Benjamin |editor-last2=Cohen| chapter=Introduction: Environmental Justice and the Transformation of Science and Engineering |date=2011 |pages=1–18 |title=Technoscience and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement |publisher=] |isbn=978-0262015790}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Heidegger |first=Martin |title=The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1977 |location=New York |pages=25–26 |translator-last=Lovitt |translator-first=W. |chapter=The Question Concerning Technology}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Huesemann |first1=M.H. |last2=Huesemann |first2=J.A. |date=2011 |url=http://www.newtechnologyandsociety.org/ |title=Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment |publisher=New Society Publishers |isbn=978-0865717046 |access-date=25 November 2013 |archive-date=2 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802194018/http://www.newtechnologyandsociety.org/ |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Kelly|first=K.|author-link=Kevin Kelly (editor)|title=]|location=New York|publisher=]|date=2010|isbn=978-0670022151}} | |||
* {{cite journal |author-link=Michael Kremer |last=Kremer |first=M. |year=1993 |title=Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990 |journal=] |volume=108 |issue=3 |pages=681–716 |doi=10.2307/2118405 |jstor=2118405 |s2cid=139085606| issn=0033-5533 }} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Kuijt |first=I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2D8OBwAAQBAJ&dq=neolithic+revolution+social+organization&pg=PA3 |title=Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation |year=2006 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-0306471667 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429034748/https://books.google.com/books?id=2D8OBwAAQBAJ&dq=neolithic+revolution+social+organization&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=neolithic%20revolution%20social%20organization&f=false |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{Cite book|title=To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism|last=Morozov|first=Evgeny|publisher=PublicAffairs|year=2013|isbn=978-1610391399|location=New York|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/tosaveeverything0000moro}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Mumford|first=L.|author-link=Lewis Mumford|date=2010|title=Technics and Civilization|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226550275}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Ord |first=T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aSiDwAAQBAJ |title=The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity |year=2020 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=978-0316484893 |access-date=13 September 2022 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429042206/https://books.google.com/books?id=3aSiDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite book |first1=Gwen |last1= Ottinger |editor-first1=Gwen |editor-last1=Ottinger |editor-first2=Benjamin |editor-last2=Cohen |title=Technoscience and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement |date=2011 |pages=229–248 |chapter=Rupturing Engineering Education: Opportunities for Transforming Expert Identities Through Community-Based Projects |publisher=] |isbn=978-0262015790}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Rhodes|first=R.|author-link=Richard Rhodes|date=2000|title=Visions of Technology: A Century of Vital Debate about Machines, Systems, and the Human World|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-684-86311-1}} | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Salomon |first=Jean-Jacques |year=1984 |title=What is technology? The issue of its origins and definitions |journal=History and Technology |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=113–156 |doi=10.1080/07341518408581618 |issn=0734-1512 |eissn=1477-2620 |lccn=88656216 |oclc=8682103}} | |||
* {{Cite journal | last=Schuurman | first=E. | url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v3n1/schuurman.html | year=1997 | title=Philosophical and Ethical Problems of Technicism and Genetic Engineering | journal=Society for Philosophy and Technology Quarterly Electronic Journal | volume=3 | issue=1 | issn=1091-8264 | doi=10.5840/techne19973111 | pages=27–44 | access-date=11 September 2022 | archive-date=11 September 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911090553/https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v3n1/schuurman.html | url-status=live }} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last1=Shaar |first1=R. |last2=Matmon |first2=A. |last3=Horwitz |first3=L. K. |last4=Ebert |first4=Y. |last5=Chazan |first5=M. |last6=Arnold |first6=M. |last7=Aumaître |first7=G. |last8=Bourlès |first8=D. |last9=Keddadouche |first9=K. |date=1 May 2021 |title=Magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic dating of Wonderwerk Cave: New constraints for the chronology of the South African Earlier Stone Age |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379121001141 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=259 |page=106907 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106907 |bibcode=2021QSRv..25906907S |s2cid=234833092 |issn=0277-3791 }} | |||
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_O0q-LMbiQC&pg=PA6 |title=A Treatise on Science Technology and Society |date=2020 |last=Sharma |first=M. R. |publisher=Laxmi Publications Pvt Limited |isbn=978-8131806678 |access-date=19 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417100334/https://books.google.com/books?id=P_O0q-LMbiQC&pg=PA6 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Teich|first=A.H. |date=2008|title=Technology and the Future|publisher=Wadsworth Publishing|edition=11th|isbn=978-0495570523}} | |||
* {{cite magazine|last=Tooze|first=A.|author-link=Adam Tooze|title=Democracy and Its Discontents|magazine=]|volume=LXVI|number=10|date=6 June 2019|pages=52–53, 56–57|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/06/06/democracy-and-its-discontents/|issn=0028-7504|access-date=1 January 2024|archive-date=1 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201202423/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/06/06/democracy-and-its-discontents/|url-status=live}} | |||
* {{Cite journal |last=Turchin |first=A. |year=2018 |title=Approaches to the Prevention of Global Catastrophic Risks |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/TURATT-6 |journal=Human Prospect |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=52–65 |s2cid=135224906 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911094554/https://philpapers.org/rec/TURATT-6 |url-status=live }} | |||
* {{cite Q|Q26221492|author=Wilson, G.|mode=cs1}}<!-- What is technology? --> | |||
* {{cite book|last=Wright|first=R.T. |date=2008|title=Technology|publisher=Goodheart-Wilcox Company|edition=5th|isbn=978-1590707180}} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
==Further reading== | |||
{{Technology}} | |||
* ], "Alone in the Milky Way: Why we are probably the only intelligent life in the galaxy", '']'', vol. 319, no. 3 (September 2018), pp. 94–99. "Is life likely to exist elsewhere in the galaxy? Almost certainly yes, given the speed with which it appeared on Earth. Is another technological civilization likely to exist today? Almost certainly no, given the chain of circumstances that led to our existence. These considerations suggest that we are unique not just on our planet but in the whole Milky Way. And if our planet is so special, it becomes all the more important to preserve this unique world for ourselves, our descendants and the many creatures that call Earth home." (p. 99.) | |||
{{Technology topics}} | |||
{{Levels of technological manipulation of matter}} | |||
{{History of technology}} | |||
{{Science and technology studies}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 06:34, 12 December 2024
Use of knowledge for practical goals Not to be confused with Electronics. For other uses, see Technology (disambiguation).
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy.
While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity, it can also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion, and can cause social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation. As a result, philosophical and political debates about the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology, and ways to mitigate its downsides are ongoing.
Etymology
Technology is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment' (from Greek Τεχνολογία, from the Greek: τέχνη, romanized: tékhnē, lit. 'craft, art' and -λογία (-logíā), 'study, knowledge'). It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek word τέχνη (tékhnē), used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like architecture.
Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms Technik (German) or technique (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments. At the time, Technologie (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts." The distinction between Technik and Technologie is absent in English, and so both were translated as technology. The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to the academic discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial Revolution, technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on the meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends.
History
Main articles: History of technology and Timeline of historic inventionsPrehistoric
Main article: Prehistoric technologyTools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error. Around 2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe. This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work.
The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made by man". Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten. The cooking hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size, though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive. Archaeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language.
Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter. No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya and shelter 450 kya. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to Eurasia.
Neolithic
Main article: Neolithic RevolutionThe Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution) brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity. The invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance and farming. This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland. Agriculture fed larger populations, and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by nomads. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in hunter-gatherer activities.
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization. What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war among adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation, are all thought to have played a role.
The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for history, libraries, schools, and scientific research.
Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time, the ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead – native metals found in relatively pure form in nature. 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 10 kya). 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. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE.
Ancient
Main article: Ancient technologyAfter harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailing ship; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to around 7,000 BCE. From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation.
Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture), and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE. The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE. More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world as of 2024 was found in the Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia; Austrian experts have established that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old.
The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads. The ancient Sumerians used a potter's wheel and may have invented it. A stone pottery wheel found in the city-state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE, and even older fragments of wheel-thrown pottery have been found in the same area. 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. The first two-wheeled carts were derived from travois and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE.
The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to c. 4,000 BCE, and timber roads leading through the swamps of Glastonbury, England, dating to around the same period. The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE, spanned 2,400 km from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, but was not paved and was only partially maintained. In around 2,000 BCE, the Minoans on the Greek island of Crete built a 50 km road leading from the palace of Gortyn on the south side of the island, through the mountains, to the palace of Knossos on the north side of the island. Unlike the earlier road, the Minoan road was completely paved.
Ancient Minoan private homes had running water. A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets, which emptied into an extensive sewage system. The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima; construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today.
The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts, which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km, but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches.
Pre-modern
Main articles: Medieval technology and Renaissance technologyInnovations continued through the Middle Ages with the introduction of silk production (in Asia and later Europe), the horse collar, and horseshoes. Simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley) were combined into more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow, windmills, and clocks. A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge.
The Renaissance era produced many innovations, including the introduction of the movable type printing press to Europe, which facilitated the communication of knowledge. Technology became increasingly influenced by science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement.
Modern
Main articles: Industrial Revolution, Second Industrial Revolution, and Information AgeStarting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of steam power set off the Industrial Revolution, which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, metallurgy, and transport, and the widespread application of the factory system. This was followed a century later by the Second Industrial Revolution which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including sewage systems, electricity, light bulbs, electric motors, railroads, automobiles, and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, chemistry, physics, and engineering. They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization. Communication improved with the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and television.
The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission in the Atomic Age led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Analog computers were invented and asserted dominance in processing complex data. While the invention of vacuum tubes allowed for digital computing with computers like the ENIAC, their sheer size precluded widespread use until innovations in quantum physics allowed for the invention of the transistor in 1947, which significantly compacted computers and led the digital transition. Information technology, particularly optical fiber and optical amplifiers, allowed for simple and fast long-distance communication, which ushered in the Information Age and the birth of the Internet. The Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and later the launch of crewed missions to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence have used radio telescopes to detect signs of technology use, or technosignatures, given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis (CT, PET, and MRI scanning), treatment (like the dialysis machine, defibrillator, pacemaker, and a wide array of new pharmaceutical drugs), and research (like interferon cloning and DNA microarrays).
Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire industries have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education – their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture.
Impact
Main article: Technology and societyTechnological change is the largest cause of long-term economic growth. Throughout human history, energy production was the main constraint on economic development, and new technologies allowed humans to significantly increase the amount of available energy. First came fire, which made edible a wider variety of foods, and made it less physically demanding to digest them. Fire also enabled smelting, and the use of tin, copper, and iron tools, used for hunting or tradesmanship. Then came the agricultural revolution: humans no longer needed to hunt or gather to survive, and began to settle in towns and cities, forming more complex societies, with militaries and more organized forms of religion.
Technologies have contributed to human welfare through increased prosperity, improved comfort and quality of life, and medical progress, but they can also disrupt existing social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups.
Recent years have brought about a rise in social media's cultural prominence, with potential repercussions on democracy, and economic and social life. Early on, the internet was seen as a "liberation technology" that would democratize knowledge, improve access to education, and promote democracy. Modern research has turned to investigate the internet's downsides, including disinformation, polarization, hate speech, and propaganda.
Since the 1970s, technology's impact on the environment has been criticized, leading to a surge in investment in solar, wind, and other forms of clean energy.
Social
Jobs
Since the invention of the wheel, technologies have helped increase humans' economic output. Past automation has both substituted and complemented labor; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs (for example in agriculture), but this was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs. Studies have found that computers did not create significant net technological unemployment. Due to artificial intelligence being far more capable than computers, and still being in its infancy, it is not known whether it will follow the same trend; the question has been debated at length among economists and policymakers. A 2017 survey found no clear consensus among economists on whether AI would increase long-term unemployment. According to the World Economic Forum's "The Future of Jobs Report 2020", AI is predicted to replace 85 million jobs worldwide, and create 97 million new jobs by 2025. From 1990 to 2007, a study in the U.S. by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu showed that an addition of one robot for every 1,000 workers decreased the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2%, or about 3.3 workers, and lowered wages by 0.42%. Concerns about technology replacing human labor however are long-lasting. As US president Lyndon Johnson said in 1964, "Technology is creating both new opportunities and new obligations for us, opportunity for greater productivity and progress; obligation to be sure that no workingman, no family must pay an unjust price for progress." upon signing the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress bill.
Security
With the growing reliance of technology, there have been security and privacy concerns along with it. Billions of people use different online payment methods, such as WeChat Pay, PayPal, Alipay, and much more to help transfer money. Although security measures are placed, some criminals are able to bypass them. In March 2022, North Korea used Blender.io, a mixer which helped them to hide their cryptocurrency exchanges, to launder over $20.5 million in cryptocurrency, from Axie Infinity, and steal over $600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game's owner. Because of this, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, which marked the first time it has taken action against a mixer, to try to crack down on North Korean hackers. The privacy of cryptocurrency has been debated. Although many customers like the privacy of cryptocurrency, many also argue that it needs more transparency and stability.
Environmental
Technology can have both positive and negative effects on the environment. Environmental technology, describes an array of technologies which seek to reverse, mitigate or halt environmental damage to the environment. This can include measures to halt pollution through environmental regulations, capture and storage of pollution, or using pollutant byproducts in other industries. Other examples of environmental technology include deforestation and the reversing of deforestation. Emerging technologies in the fields of climate engineering may be able to halt or reverse global warming and its environmental impacts, although this remains highly controversial. As technology has advanced, so too has the negative environmental impact, with increased release of greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect. This continues to gradually heat the earth, causing global warming and climate change. Measures of technological innovation correlates with a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Pollution
Pollution, the presence of contaminants in an environment that causes adverse effects, could have been present as early as the Inca Empire. They used a lead sulfide flux in the smelting of ores, along with the use of a wind-drafted clay kiln, which released lead into the atmosphere and the sediment of rivers.
Philosophy
Main article: Philosophy of technologyPhilosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created." It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since the 1970s. The humanities philosophy of technology is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture".
Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties. Marx framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believed that technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture", arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like Don Ihde and Albert Borgmann represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology.
Early scholarship on technology was split between two arguments: technological determinism, and social construction. Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes. It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented. Social constructivists argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of sociotechnical systems, "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at the value judgments that shape technology.
Cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies", societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views. Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health.
Ethics
Main article: Ethics of technologyThe ethics of technology is an interdisciplinary subfield of ethics that analyzes technology's ethical implications and explores ways to mitigate the potential negative impacts of new technologies. There is a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology, from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life.
Prominent debates have surrounded genetically modified organisms, the use of robotic soldiers, algorithmic bias, and the issue of aligning AI behavior with human values.
Technology ethics encompasses several key fields. Bioethics looks at ethical issues surrounding biotechnologies and modern medicine, including cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. Computer ethics focuses on issues related to computing. Cyberethics explores internet-related issues like intellectual property rights, privacy, and censorship. Nanoethics examines issues surrounding the alteration of matter at the atomic and molecular level in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. And engineering ethics deals with the professional standards of engineers, including software engineers and their moral responsibilities to the public.
A wide branch of technology ethics is concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence: it includes robot ethics, which deals with ethical issues involved in the design, construction, use, and treatment of robots, as well as machine ethics, which is concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of artificially intelligent agents. Within the field of AI ethics, significant yet-unsolved research problems include AI alignment (ensuring that AI behaviors are aligned with their creators' intended goals and interests) and the reduction of algorithmic bias. Some researchers have warned against the hypothetical risk of an AI takeover, and have advocated for the use of AI capability control in addition to AI alignment methods.
Other fields of ethics have had to contend with technology-related issues, including military ethics, media ethics, and educational ethics.
Futures studies
Main article: Futures studiesFutures studies is the systematic and interdisciplinary study of social and technological progress. It aims to quantitatively and qualitatively explore the range of plausible futures and to incorporate human values in the development of new technologies. More generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of humankind". It relies on a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of past and present technological trends, and attempts to rigorously extrapolate them into the future. Science fiction is often used as a source of ideas. Futures research methodologies include survey research, modeling, statistical analysis, and computer simulations.
Existential risk
Main article: Global catastrophic riskExistential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse, and look for ways to build resilience against them. Relevant research centers include the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk, and the Stanford Existential Risk Initiative. Future technologies may contribute to the risks of artificial general intelligence, biological warfare, nuclear warfare, nanotechnology, anthropogenic climate change, global warming, or stable global totalitarianism, though technologies may also help us mitigate asteroid impacts and gamma-ray bursts. In 2019 philosopher Nick Bostrom introduced the notion of a vulnerable world, "one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default", citing the risks of a pandemic caused by bioterrorists, or an arms race triggered by the development of novel armaments and the loss of mutual assured destruction. He invites policymakers to question the assumptions that technological progress is always beneficial, that scientific openness is always preferable, or that they can afford to wait until a dangerous technology has been invented before they prepare mitigations.
Emerging technologies
Main article: Emerging technologiesEmerging technologies are novel technologies whose development or practical applications are still largely unrealized. They include nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, blockchains, and artificial intelligence.
In 2005, futurist Ray Kurzweil claimed the next technological revolution would rest upon advances in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, with robotics being the most impactful of the three technologies. Genetic engineering will allow far greater control over human biological nature through a process called directed evolution. Some thinkers believe that this may shatter our sense of self, and have urged for renewed public debate exploring the issue more thoroughly; others fear that directed evolution could lead to eugenics or extreme social inequality. Nanotechnology will grant us the ability to manipulate matter "at the molecular and atomic scale", which could allow us to reshape ourselves and our environment in fundamental ways. Nanobots could be used within the human body to destroy cancer cells or form new body parts, blurring the line between biology and technology. Autonomous robots have undergone rapid progress, and are expected to replace humans at many dangerous tasks, including search and rescue, bomb disposal, firefighting, and war.
Estimates on the advent of artificial general intelligence vary, but half of machine learning experts surveyed in 2018 believe that AI will "accomplish every task better and more cheaply" than humans by 2063, and automate all human jobs by 2140. This expected technological unemployment has led to calls for increased emphasis on computer science education and debates about universal basic income. Political science experts predict that this could lead to a rise in extremism, while others see it as an opportunity to usher in a post-scarcity economy.
Movements
Appropriate technology
Main article: Appropriate technologySome segments of the 1960s hippie counterculture grew to dislike urban living and developed a preference for locally autonomous, sustainable, and decentralized technology, termed appropriate technology. This later influenced hacker culture and technopaganism.
Technological utopianism
Main article: Technological utopianismTechnological utopianism refers to the belief that technological development is a moral good, which can and should bring about a utopia, that is, a society in which laws, governments, and social conditions serve the needs of all its citizens. Examples of techno-utopian goals include post-scarcity economics, life extension, mind uploading, cryonics, and the creation of artificial superintelligence. Major techno-utopian movements include transhumanism and singularitarianism.
The transhumanism movement is founded upon the "continued evolution of human life beyond its current human form" through science and technology, informed by "life-promoting principles and values." The movement gained wider popularity in the early 21st century.
Singularitarians believe that machine superintelligence will "accelerate technological progress" by orders of magnitude and "create even more intelligent entities ever faster", which may lead to a pace of societal and technological change that is "incomprehensible" to us. This event horizon is known as the technological singularity.
Major figures of techno-utopianism include Ray Kurzweil and Nick Bostrom. Techno-utopianism has attracted both praise and criticism from progressive, religious, and conservative thinkers.
Anti-technology backlash
See also: Luddite, Neo-Luddism, and BioconservatismTechnology's central role in our lives has drawn concerns and backlash. The backlash against technology is not a uniform movement and encompasses many heterogeneous ideologies.
The earliest known revolt against technology was Luddism, a pushback against early automation in textile production. Automation had resulted in a need for fewer workers, a process known as technological unemployment.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, American terrorist Ted Kaczynski carried out a series of bombings across America and published the Unabomber Manifesto denouncing technology's negative impacts on nature and human freedom. The essay resonated with a large part of the American public. It was partly inspired by Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society.
Some subcultures, like the off-the-grid movement, advocate a withdrawal from technology and a return to nature. The ecovillage movement seeks to reestablish harmony between technology and nature.
Relation to science and engineering
See also: Science and EngineeringEngineering is the process by which technology is developed. It often requires problem-solving under strict constraints. Technological development is "action-oriented", while scientific knowledge is fundamentally explanatory. Polish philosopher Henryk Skolimowski framed it like so: "science concerns itself with what is, technology with what is to be."
The direction of causality between scientific discovery and technological innovation has been debated by scientists, philosophers and policymakers. Because innovation is often undertaken at the edge of scientific knowledge, most technologies are not derived from scientific knowledge, but instead from engineering, tinkering and chance. For example, in the 1940s and 1950s, when knowledge of turbulent combustion or fluid dynamics was still crude, jet engines were invented through "running the device to destruction, analyzing what broke and repeating the process". Scientific explanations often follow technological developments rather than preceding them. Many discoveries also arose from pure chance, like the discovery of penicillin as a result of accidental lab contamination. Since the 1960s, the assumption that government funding of basic research would lead to the discovery of marketable technologies has lost credibility. Probabilist Nassim Taleb argues that national research programs that implement the notions of serendipity and convexity through frequent trial and error are more likely to lead to useful innovations than research that aims to reach specific outcomes.
Despite this, modern technology is increasingly reliant on deep, domain-specific scientific knowledge. In 1975, there was an average of one citation of scientific literature in every three patents granted in the U.S.; by 1989, this increased to an average of one citation per patent. The average was skewed upwards by patents related to the pharmaceutical industry, chemistry, and electronics. A 2021 analysis shows that patents that are based on scientific discoveries are on average 26% more valuable than equivalent non-science-based patents.
Other animal species
See also: Tool use by animals, Structures built by animals, and Ecosystem engineerThe use of basic technology is also a feature of non-human animal species. Tool use was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus Homo. This view was supplanted after discovering evidence of tool use among chimpanzees and other primates, dolphins, and crows. For example, researchers have observed wild chimpanzees using basic foraging tools, pestles, levers, using leaves as sponges, and tree bark or vines as probes to fish termites. West African chimpanzees use stone hammers and anvils for cracking nuts, as do capuchin monkeys of Boa Vista, Brazil. Tool use is not the only form of animal technology use; for example, beaver dams, built with wooden sticks or large stones, are a technology with "dramatic" impacts on river habitats and ecosystems.
Popular culture
See also: Science fictionThe relationship of humanity with technology has been explored in science-fiction literature, for example in Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Isaac Asimov's essays, and movies like Minority Report, Total Recall, Gattaca, and Inception. It has spawned the dystopian and futuristic cyberpunk genre, which juxtaposes futuristic technology with societal collapse, dystopia or decay. Notable cyberpunk works include William Gibson's Neuromancer novel, and movies like Blade Runner, and The Matrix.
See also
- Bright green environmentalism
- Ecological modernization
- Ecomodernism
- Instrumentation
- Logology
- Outline of technology
- Productivity-improving technologies
- Raw material
- Resource
- Tech ed
- Technogaianism
- Techno-progressivism
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Further reading
- Gribbin, John, "Alone in the Milky Way: Why we are probably the only intelligent life in the galaxy", Scientific American, vol. 319, no. 3 (September 2018), pp. 94–99. "Is life likely to exist elsewhere in the galaxy? Almost certainly yes, given the speed with which it appeared on Earth. Is another technological civilization likely to exist today? Almost certainly no, given the chain of circumstances that led to our existence. These considerations suggest that we are unique not just on our planet but in the whole Milky Way. And if our planet is so special, it becomes all the more important to preserve this unique world for ourselves, our descendants and the many creatures that call Earth home." (p. 99.)
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Nanotechnology | |
Picotechnology | |
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