Technology

I

Introduction

Technology, general term for the processes by which human beings fashion tools and machines to increase their control and understanding of the material environment. The term is derived from the Greek words tekhnē, which refers to an art or craft, and logia, meaning an area of study; thus, technology means, literally, the study, or science, of crafting.

Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization but also that the rate of technological change has developed its own momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now seem to appear at a rate that increases geometrically, without respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural systems, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive process.

II

Science and Technology

The meanings of the terms science and technology have changed significantly from one generation to another. More similarities than differences, however, can be found between the terms.

Both science and technology imply a thinking process, both are concerned with causal relationships in the material world, and both employ an experimental methodology that results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by repetition (see Scientific Method). Science, at least in theory, is less concerned with the practicality of its results and more concerned with the development of general laws, but in practice science and technology are inextricably involved with each other. The varying interplay of the two can be observed in the historical development of such practitioners as chemists, engineers, physicists, astronomers, carpenters, potters, and many other specialists. Differing educational requirements, social status, vocabulary, methodology, and types of rewards, as well as institutional objectives and professional goals, contribute to such distinctions as can be made between the activities of scientists and technologists; but throughout history the practitioners of “pure” science have made many practical as well as theoretical contributions.

---

---

Indeed, the concept that science provides the ideas for technological innovations and that pure research is therefore essential for any significant advancement in industrial civilization is essentially a myth. Most of the greatest changes in industrial civilization cannot be traced to the laboratory. Fundamental tools and processes in the fields of mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, metallurgy, and hydraulics were developed before the laws governing their functions were discovered. The steam engine, for example, was commonplace before the science of thermodynamics elucidated the physical principles underlying its operations.

In recent years a sharp value distinction has grown up between science and technology. Advances in science have frequently had their bitter opponents, but today many people have come to fear technology much more than science. For these people, science may be perceived as a serene, objective source for understanding the eternal laws of nature, whereas the practical manifestations of technology in the modern world now seem to them to be out of control.

III

Ancient and Medieval Technology

Technology has been a dialectical and cumulative process at the center of human experience. It is perhaps best understood in a historical context that traces the evolution of early humans from a period of very simple tools to the complex, large-scale networks that influence most of contemporary human life. For the sake of simplicity, the following account focuses primarily on developments in the Western world, but major contributions from other cultures are also indicated.

A

Early Technology

The earliest known human artifacts are roughly flaked stones used for chopping and scraping, found primarily in eastern Africa. Known as Oldowan tools, they date from about 2.3 million years before present, and serve to define the beginning of the Stone Age. The first toolmakers were nomadic groups of people who used the sharp edges of stone to process food. By about 40,000 years before present, humans had begun to use fire and to make a variety of tools, including pear-shaped axes, scrapers, knives, and other instruments of stone, bone, and other materials. They had also begun to use tools to make clothing and build shelters for protection from inclement weather. The use of tools can be observed in many members of the animal kingdom, but the capacity for creating tools to craft other objects distinguishes humans from all other animals.

The next big step in the history of technology was the control of fire. By striking flint against pyrites to produce sparks, people could kindle fires at will, thereby freeing themselves from the necessity of perpetuating fires obtained from natural sources. Besides the obvious benefits of light and heat, fire was also used to bake clay pots, producing heat-resistant vessels that were then used for cooking grains and for brewing and fermenting. Fired pottery later provided the crucibles in which metals could be refined. Advanced thought processes may well have first developed around the hearth, and it was there that the first domesticated animal, the dog, was tamed.

Early technologies were not centered only on practical tools. Colorful minerals were pulverized to make pigments that were then applied to the human body, to clay utensils, and to baskets, clothing, and other objects. In their search for pigments, early peoples discovered the green mineral malachite and the blue mineral azurite. When these copper-containing ores were hammered they did not turn to powder but bent instead, and they could be polished but not chipped. Because of these qualities, small bits of copper were soon made into jewelry. Early peoples also learned that if this material was repeatedly hammered and put into a fire, it would not split or crack. This process of relieving metal stress, called annealing, eventually brought human civilizations out of the Stone Age—particularly when, about 3000 bc, people also found that alloying tin with copper produces bronze (see Bronze Age). Bronze is not only more malleable than copper but also holds a better edge, a quality necessary for such objects as swords and sickles.

Although copper deposits existed in the foothills of Syria and Turkey, at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates, the largest deposits of copper in the ancient world were found on the island of Crete (Kríti). With the development of seaworthy ships that could reach this extremely valuable resource, Knossos (Knosós) on Crete became a wealthy mining center during the Bronze Age.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain