Technology
186 languages
Article
Talk
Read
View source
View history
Tools
Appearance
hide
Text
Small
Standard
Large
Width
Standard
Wide
Color (beta)
Automatic
Light
Dark
Report an issue with dark mode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Technology (disambiguation).
A steam turbine with the case opened, an
example of energy technology
History of technology
show
By technological eras
show
By historical regions
show
By type of technology
show
Technology timelines
show
Article indices
v
t
e
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.
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest
known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistoric times, followed by
the control of fire, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the
development of language during the Ice Age. 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, 'study, knowledge').[4][5] It is predated in use by the Ancient
Greek word tékhnē, used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which
encompassed activities like architecture.[6]
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.[7] 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." [8] Since
the distinction between Technik and Technologie is absent in English, 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.[9]
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 its current-day meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends. [10]
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.
[11]
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.[12] This practice was refined
75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work.[13]
The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever
made by man".[14] Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous
[human] fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya.[15] 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.[16] The cooking
hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size,
though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive.[17] 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.[18][19]
Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and
shelter.[20] No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either
technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120
kya[21] and shelter 450 kya.[20] As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more
sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing
temporary wood huts.[22][23] 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.[24][25][26]
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.[27] The
invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest
clearance and farming.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30][31]
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor
specialization.[32] 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 amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to
overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation, are all thought to have played a
role.[33]
The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis
for history, libraries, schools, and scientific research.[34]
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.[35] 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).[36] 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. [37][38]
Ancient
Main article: Ancient technology
Ancient technology
Egyptian technology
Indian technology
Chinese technology
Greek technology
Roman technology
Iranian technology
The wheel was invented c. 4,000 BCE.
Ljubljana Marshes Wheel with axle (oldest wooden wheel yet discovered)
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.[39] 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. [40] The
ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to
divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation.[41]
Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in
Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture), and
Central Europe.[42] Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts
putting it closer to 4,000 BCE.[43] The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled
carts date from about 3,500 BCE.[44] More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in
the world was found in the Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia.[45]
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.[46] A stone pottery wheel found in the city-
state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE,[47] and even older fragments of wheel-thrown
pottery have been found in the same area.[47] 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[48] and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE.[48]
The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of
Ur, dating to c. 4,000 BCE,[49] and timber roads leading through the swamps
of Glastonbury, England, dating to around the same period.[49] The first long-distance
road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE,[49] spanned 2,400 km from the Persian
Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea,[49] but was not paved and was only partially maintained.
[49]
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.[49] Unlike the earlier
road, the Minoan road was completely paved.[49]
Photograph of the Pont du Gard in France, one
of the most famous ancient Roman aqueducts[50]
Ancient Minoan private homes had running water.[51] A bathtub virtually identical to
modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos.[51][52] Several Minoan private
homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. [51] The
ancient Romans had many public flush toilets,[52] which emptied into an
extensive sewage system.[52] The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima;
[52]
construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today.[52]
The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts,[50] which were used to
transport water across long distances.[50] The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312
BCE.[50] The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE.[50] Put
together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km,[50] but less than 70 km of this
was above ground and supported by arches.[50]
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.[53] A system of universities developed and
spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge.[54]
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.[55]
Modern
Main articles: Industrial Revolution, Second Industrial Revolution, and Information Age
The automobile 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.[56] 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.[57] They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the
introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization.[58] Communication
improved with the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and television.[59]
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).[60]
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.
[61]
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 society
Technological change is the largest cause of long-term economic growth.[62]
[63]
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.[64]
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.[65]
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.[66] Studies have found that
computers did not create significant net technological unemployment.[67] 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.[68] 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.[69][70] 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%.[71][72] 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.[73][74][75][76][77]
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.[78] In March 2022, North
Korea used [Link], 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 [Link], which marked the first time it has
taken action against a mixer, to try and crack down on North Korean hackers.[79][80] 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.[78]
Environmental
Technology has impacted the world with negative and positive environmental impacts,
which are usually the reverse of the initial damage, such as; the creation of pollution
and the attempt to undo said pollution,[81] deforestation and the reversing of
deforestation,[82] and oil spills. All of these have had a significant impact on the
environment of the earth. As technology has advanced, so has the negative
environmental impact, with the releasing of greenhouse gases, like methane and carbon
dioxide, into the atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect, gradually heating the earth
and causing global warming. All of this has become worse with the advancement of
technology.[83]
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.[84]
Philosophy
Main article: 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." [85] It emerged
as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since the
1970s.[86] The humanities philosophy of technology is concerned with the "meaning of
technology for, and its impact on, society and culture".[85]
Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or
amplified bodily and mental faculties.[87] 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.[86][page needed]
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.[88]: 95 It usually encompasses a related
argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a
natural progression and cannot be prevented.[89] Social constructivists[who?] 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.[88][page needed]
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.[90] Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan suggest that
technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health.
[91]
Ethics
Main article: Ethics of technology
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.[92]
Prominent debates have surrounded genetically modified organisms, the use of robotic
soldiers, algorithmic bias, and the issue of aligning AI behavior with human values.[93]
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.[94]
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,[95] as well as machine ethics, which is
concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of artificially intelligent agents.[96] 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 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.[97]: 54 More
generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of
humankind".[97]: 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.
[97]
Science fiction is often used as a source of ideas.[97]: 173 Futures research
methodologies include survey research, modeling, statistical analysis, and computer
simulations.[97]: 187
Existential risk