Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.

It encompasses the tools, machines, systems, and methods created by

humans to solve problems, simplify tasks, and adapt to or manipulate their
environment. [1, 2]
While we often associate technology with digital electronics, it represents a
vast spectrum of human-made solutions ranging from the incredibly simple
to the highly advanced. [1]
The Three Pillars of Technology
Technology is not just physical hardware; it is a combination of three key
elements: [1]
1. Hardware: The physical objects or manufactured tools (e.g., smartphones,
cars, hand axes, the wheel).
2. Software: The immaterial knowledge, algorithms, and processes required
to design, manufacture, and operate the hardware.
3. Orgware: The rules, institutional frameworks, and social settings that
regulate how technologies are generated and used. [1]
Types of Technology
Technology is continuously evolving to meet human needs across various
fields: [1, 2, 3, 4]
 Information Technology (IT): Systems, networks, and software designed
to process, store, and distribute data (e.g., the internet, cloud computing,
AI).
 Medical Technology: Tools and medicines used to prevent, diagnose, and
treat diseases (e.g., MRI scanners, vaccines, surgical robots).
 Manufacturing & Industrial Technology: Systems and robots used to
produce goods and generate energy on a massive scale.
 Transportation Technology: Mechanisms designed to facilitate human
and material movement (e.g., airplanes, electric vehicles).
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals,
especially in a reproducible way.[1] The word technology can also mean the products
resulting from such efforts,[2][3] 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.[4][5]

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.[6] 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 such as 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.
[7]

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').[8][9] 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.[10]

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.[11] 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." [12] 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.[13]

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.[14]

History
Main articles: History of technology and Timeline of historic inventions
Prehistoric
Main article: Prehistoric technology

A person holding a hand axe

Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error.
[15]
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.[16] This practice was refined
75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work.[17]

The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever
made by man".[18] Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous
[human] fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya.[19] 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.[20] The cooking
hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size,
though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive.[21] 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.[22][23]

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and
shelter.[24] No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either
technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120
kya[25] and shelter 450 kya.[24] As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more
sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing
temporary wood huts.[26][27] 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.[28][29][30]

Neolithic
Main article: Neolithic Revolution

An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe

heads, chisels, and polishing tools
The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution) brought about an acceleration
of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity.[31] The
invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest
clearance and farming.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34][35]
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor
specialization.[36] 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.[37]

The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis
for history, libraries, schools, and scientific research.[38]

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.[39] 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).[40] 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. [41][42]

Ancient
Main article: Ancient technology
Ancient technology
 Egyptian technology
 Indian technology
 Chinese technology
 Greek technology
 Roman technology
 Iranian technology
 African technology
 The wheel was invented c. 4,000 BCE.

Ljubljana Marshes Wheel with axle (oldest wooden wheel yet

discovered as of 2024)
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.[43] 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. [44] The
ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to
divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation.[45]

Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in
Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture), and
Central Europe.[46] Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts
putting it closer to 4,000 BCE.[47] The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled
carts date from about 3,500 BCE.[48] 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.[49]

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.[50] A stone pottery wheel found in the city-
state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE,[51] and even older fragments of wheel-thrown
pottery have been found in the same area.[51] 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[52] and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE.[52]
The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of
Ur, dating to c. 4,000 BCE,[53] and timber roads leading through the swamps
of Glastonbury, England, dating to around the same period.[53] The first long-distance
road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE,[53] spanned 2,400 km from the Persian
Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea,[53] but was not paved and was only partially maintained.
[53]
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.[53] Unlike the earlier
road, the Minoan road was completely paved.[53]

Photograph of the Pont du Gard in France,

one of the most famous ancient Roman aqueducts [54]

Ancient Minoan private homes had running water.[55] A bathtub virtually identical to
modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos.[55][56] Several Minoan private
homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. [55] The
ancient Romans had many public flush toilets,[56] which emptied into an
extensive sewage system.[56] The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima;
[56]
construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today.[56]

The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts,[54] which were used to
transport water across long distances.[54] The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312
BCE.[54] The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE.[54] Put
together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km,[54] but less than 70 km of this
was above ground and supported by arches.[54]

Pre-modern
Main articles: Medieval technology and Renaissance technology
Innovations 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.[57] A system of universities developed and
spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge.[58]

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.[59]

Modern
Main articles: Industrial Revolution, Second Industrial Revolution, and Information Age
 The automobile, here the original Benz Patent-
Motorwagen, revolutionized personal transportation.
Starting 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.[60] 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.[61] They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the
introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization.[62] Communication
improved with the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and television.[63]

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).[64]

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
[65]

developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science; and
other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and
architecture.