Technology
Technology is the application of conceptual understanding to accomplish practical objectives, especially in a repeatable manner. The term technology can also refer to the outputs resulting from such efforts, including both physical tools such as utensils or machines, and non-physical ones such as software. Technology plays an essential role in science, engineering, and daily life.
Technological progress has led to substantial changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, utilized during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the expansion 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 increased travel and the creation of more advanced machines. More recent technological innovations, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have reduced barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy.
While technology contributes to economic growth and enhances human prosperity, it can also have adverse impacts such as pollution and resource depletion, and can cause social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation. As a result, philosophical and political discussions about the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology, and ways to minimize 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, meaning "craft, art" and -λογία (-logíā), "study, knowledge"). It is preceded in use by the Ancient Greek word τέχνη (tékhnē), used to mean "knowledge of how to make things", which included activities like architecture.
Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans began using the terms Technik (German) or technique (French) to refer to a "method 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 regulate 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 advancement and the Second Industrial Revolution, technology stopped being considered a separate academic discipline and took on the meaning: the systematic use of knowledge to practical purposes.
Prehistoric
Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and experimentation. Around 2 million years ago, they learned to make the first stone tools by striking flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe. This practice was refined 75 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 indicate "continuous human fire-use" at least 1.5 million years ago. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutritional value and broadening the variety of foods that could be consumed. The cooking hypothesis suggests 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 thousand years ago; researchers believe this likely intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language.
Other technological developments 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 evidence of clothing 90–120 thousand years ago and shelter 450 thousand years ago. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more complex and more elaborate; as early as 380 thousand years ago, humans were constructing temporary wooden 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 thousand years ago, initially moving to Eurasia.
Neolithic
The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution) brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a resulting increase in social complexity. The invention of the polished stone axe was a major advancement that allowed large-scale forest clearing and farming. This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some regions 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 by nomads. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the cultivation 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 conflict among neighboring 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 foundation 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 evident to early humans, and native copper was likely used from near the beginning of Neolithic times. Native copper does not naturally occur in large quantities, 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. The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE.
After 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 deliberately 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, the Northern Caucasus, and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts placing it closer to 4,000 BCE. The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE.
The invention of the wheel transformed trade and warfare. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to transport heavy loads. Fast potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery, but it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources.
Ancient
Ancient Minoan private homes had running water. A bathtub nearly identical to modern ones was discovered at the Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan 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 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.
Pre-modern
Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with the introduction of silk production, the horse collar, and horseshoes. Simple machines such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley were combined into more complex tools, such as the wheelbarrow, windmills, and clocks. A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices.
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
Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of steam power initiated the Industrial Revolution, which saw wide-ranging technological advancements, particularly in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, metallurgy, and transportation.
The 20th century brought numerous innovations. Information technology allowed for simple and rapid long-distance communication, which ushered in the Information Age and the emergence of the Internet.
Modern technology increasingly relies on education and training.
Impact
Technological change is the largest driver of long-term economic growth.
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 structures, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups.
Social
Jobs
Technologies have helped increase human economic output. Machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs, but this was balanced by the creation of new jobs.
Security
With growing reliance on technology, security and privacy concerns have also increased.
Environmental
Technology can have both beneficial and harmful effects on the environment.
Philosophy
Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the practice of designing and creating artifacts, and the nature of the things produced.
Ethics
The ethics of technology examines moral issues related to technology and explores ways to reduce potential negative impacts.
Futures studies
Futures studies is the study of social and technological progress.
Existential risk
Existential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse.
Emerging technologies
Emerging technologies are new technologies whose development or applications are still largely unrealized.
Movements
Appropriate technology
Focuses on sustainable and decentralized technological solutions.
Technological utopianism
Belief that technology can create an ideal society.
Anti-technology backlash
Opposition to technological dependence.
Relation to science and engineering
Engineering is the process by which technology is developed, while science explains phenomena.
Other animal species
The use of basic technology is also present in non-human animals such as chimpanzees, dolphins, and crows.
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