What is Technology?

Before we can talk about technology, we need to define it. What does it mean and why do we use the word and/or concept of technology so much? Those of you who are old enough to know what life was like before computers might understand what I'm getting at. In the 1960s, when I was growing up, an automobile had an electrical system for starting, to supply a spark for combustion and to supply power to lights, radio and heater. Today that electrical system has become automotive technology. It seems that everything today has become some kind of technology. We had technologies in the past; mechanical, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, etc, but it has only been recently that we have started using the word technology more pervasively.

The word technology comes from the Greek root word techno - which meant (in ancient Greece): art, skill, craft, method, system, and Greek ology - indicating science or study. Before the 20th century, the term technology usually referred to the description or study of the Useful Arts. Useful Arts were concerned with the skills and methods of practical subjects such as manufacturing and craftsmanship. Useful Art is an antonym to performing art and the fine art.

I think I could say that everyone uses some kind of art, or skill or craft every day. Just picking out the clothes you will wear is part art and part skill. Dressing correctly is a useful art. Driving a car to work involves skill, another useful art. As you can see, a dictionary definition of technology doesn’t really tell us much about what it is today.

Through the ages our technology has been based on many different things. First there were our human senses and muscles, then came primitive hand tools, then horse or ox power, running water, steam, internal combustion, and now, electricity. Also through the ages, our knowledge base of technology has been increasing through the application of ideas, life experience and new information to what we already knew. Today we gain knowledge much faster than we can fully understand it or even catalog it for future learning.

Archeology gives us a glimpse of early technologies -- arrowheads, knife blades and hide scrapers made from flint rock. If you just randomly banged flint against another rock, you may eventually make a usable tool. That may very well be how the development of stone tools started. But to efficiently make a tool, early man learned techniques of angles and strength applied to the blows which allowed him to make his tools faster and better. Also, once a tool is made, man has to learn how to use it efficiently and effectively.

I think a better definition of modern technology is: Technology is a human endeavor which involves creating tools, defining methodologies, making materials and producing products to solve problems and benefit society.

Technology is about taking action or actions to meet a human need rather than merely understanding the workings of the natural world, which is the goal of science. Technology is much more than just scientific knowledge. It includes values (numerical,theoretical & practical) as much as facts, practical craft knowledge and art as well as theoretical knowledge. Technology also involves organized ways of doing things. It covers the intended and unintended interactions between products (machines, devices, artifacts) and the people and systems who make them, use them or are affected by them through various processes.

Human evolution is driven by the recombination of genes. Human creativity is driven by a recombination of curiosity, imagination, experiences, knowledge and research. Technology evolves through the application of our ever evolving human mind to a recombination of the products of human creativity.

The question of when and where technology began to evolve plagued me for a long time. It seemed to differ depending on your association with technology. Different associations such as academic, engineer, technician or user yield different views of what technology is and how it influences human life.

The academic sees technology as theories, methodologies, protocols and mathematics. Academics develop ideas through research, testing and imagination. they develop what is imagined into theories, knowledge and prepare guidelines for further development and implementation at the engineering level.

Hardware and software product engineers work together to apply theories, knowledge, mathematics, specifications and limits developed by academics; to a machine that performs a user defined function. In many cases, engineers feed data back to the academic for refinement. The academic then sends the refined data back to the engineer to be applied to the machine. The circle of feedback and refinement continues throughout the life of the machine or software, evolving as humans do.

A system engineer builds on the product engineer's creation and defines communications methodologies and protocols (developed by academics); defines communications media specifications to match product engineer equipment specifications; defines geographic and media limitations and applies this to a system that allows communication between products and/or users. The system engineer may at times feed data back to the product engineers and/or academics for refinement. The circle of feedback and refinement continues throughout the life of the system, evolving as humans do.

The user sees technology as a tool for completing a task. The user does not have to know the theory, knowledge and mathematics behind the machine and/or system, it's installation or how it communicates (if it does) with other machines or systems. The user only has to know how to operate the human-machine interface to apply it to a task at hand. The user evolves as the machine, software and system evolves.

The technician views technology as an integrated system of hardware, software and human-machine interfaces. Technicians focus on hardware and software functionality, machine and system performance and user interaction. Their expertise must allow them to navigate both the complexities of technology and human-machine interoperability to ensure that technology and humans operate efficiently and effectively. The technician evolves as the human-machine interface evolves.

Simply put, human needs, drive humans to create machines to meet their needs (curiosity and imagination develop knowledge which is used applied to machines, software and systems). Because society changes humans and their needs, their machines, software and systems must either evolve (look at the computer) with humans or die (such as 8-bit computers). The evolution of machines, software and systems cause humans to evolve through the realization of new needs.

Lastly, there is the hacker. A hacker does not always address human needs nor follow engineering guidelines or corporate rules and regulations. Hackers imagine, build, tinker and refine products and systems for fun or the enjoyment of the challenge. I thought long and hard about mentioning hackers, but they are and have been a part of the evolution of technology since the beginning. Many of the early gaming and desktop computers were born through the curiosity and imagination of hackers. The Linux operating system was born out of the need and imagination of a collage student who needed a computer but did not want to pay Microsoft for an operating system.

My role in the evolution of technology began as a technician in the US Navy, then to a systems engineer for the US government, then a network engineer for a university system. Now, retired, I'm just a user. ... And, at times, a hacker. In high school, I messed around with radios, communications equipment and computers, just for the fun of it.

Personally, now I see technology as a product of society. We (American society) create technology to fill needs that grow out of wants. Those in wealthy societies such as the United States, have a lot of technology and we are constantly creating more. Those living in poor societies are satisfied with the technology their ancestors used because they can not afford the academic, labor and material costs associated with technology creation.

What's your view of technology?

Why is studying the evolution of technology important? Just as human evolution is affected by climate, animal and plant life, and human evolution effects climate, animal and plant life (circle of life); the evolution of technology both effects and is affected by human evolution. In the past decade, technology and humanity have evolved in step with each other. A change in one has caused a change in the other. There are some who have said that we have become one with our technology.

There is no one master discipline called Technology. Today, technical matters are threaded through almost every discipline of human endeavor. But the diversity of science, mathematics and art does not allow for a singularity of technology. The term technology, in essence, is just a "catch-all" phrase that is wide and everyone has their own way of understanding the meaning of it.