Technology

What Exactly is Technology?

Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals. It encompasses tangible tools and intangible products, including software, and plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.

The Evolution of Technology Through Time

From prehistoric stone tools to modern-day smartphones, technology has transformed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. The term ‘technology’ dates back to the early 17th century, originating from Greek words for ‘craft, art,’ and ‘study, knowledge.’ It has evolved over time, with earlier uses including the terms ‘Technik’ (German) or ‘technique’ (French), which referred to a ‘way of doing’ that included all technical arts.

Prehistoric Innovations

Prehistoric humans developed tools through observation and trial and error, making stone tools around 2 million years ago. They also discovered fire, which allowed for cooking, socialization, and the emergence of language. Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter. The Neolithic Revolution (around 10 kya) brought technological innovation and increased social complexity, allowing for the development of agriculture, sedentism, and larger populations.

Technological Milestones

The invention of writing allowed for the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for history, libraries, schools, and scientific research. Improvements in metallurgy led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze (about 4,000 BCE) and steel (around 1,800 BCE). Humans discovered other forms of energy, including wind power through sailing ships (around 7,000 BCE). The wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus, and Central Europe around 4,000 BCE. The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war.

Further Innovations

The use of the wheel led to the development of potter’s wheels (around 3,429 BCE), water wheels, windmills, and treadmills. Constructed roadways, such as those in Ur (c. 4,000 BCE) and England (around the same period), emerged during this time, with the first long-distance road spanning from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea around 3,500 BCE. In around 2,000 BCE, Minoans built a 50 km paved road on Crete. Ancient Minoan homes had running water, bathtubs, and toilets that could be flushed. The ancient Romans developed a complex system of aqueducts to transport water across long distances.

Modern Technological Advancements

Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with silk production, horse collars, and clock-making. The Renaissance introduced the printing press, while the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century saw widespread technological discoveries, including steam power, electricity, and railroads. The 20th century brought innovations such as nuclear fission, computers, optical fiber, and space exploration.

Complex Manufacturing and Construction

Complex manufacturing and construction techniques are needed to develop modern technologies, which rely on training and education for their designers, builders, maintainers, and users. Entire fields have developed to support these technologies, including engineering, medicine, and computer science.

The Impact of Technology on Society

Technological change is the largest cause of long-term economic growth, increasing energy production, and contributing to human welfare through prosperity, comfort, and medical progress. However, technologies can disrupt social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups.

The Internet’s Impact

The internet has had a profound impact on society, with potential repercussions on democracy, economic, and social life. The environmental impact of technology has been criticized, leading to investment in clean energy.

Technology and Employment

The use of technology has both substituted and complemented labor, with machines replacing humans at some lower-paying jobs but creating new, higher-paying ones. There are concerns about technology replacing human labor, with predictions that AI will replace 85 million jobs worldwide and create 97 million new ones by 2025.

Security Concerns

Although security measures are placed, some criminals are able to bypass them, as seen in the case of North Korea’s use of Blender.io to launder over $20.5 million in cryptocurrency. The US Treasury Department has taken action against Blender.io, marking the first time a mixer has been sanctioned.

Environmental and Ethical Considerations

Technology can have both positive and negative effects on the environment. Environmental technology seeks to reverse or mitigate environmental damage, while emerging technologies like climate engineering may be able to halt global warming. However, technological innovation correlates with increased greenhouse gas emissions, causing global warming and climate change.

Ethical Implications

Pollution has been present since ancient times, including the use of lead sulfide flux in the smelting of ores. The philosophy of technology studies the design and creation of artifacts, their impact on society and culture, and explores the relationship between humans and technology.

Philosophical Debates

Philosophers have debated technological determinism, which suggests that technologies cause unavoidable social changes, versus social construction, which argues that technological progress is shaped by societal factors. Social constructivists argue that technologies are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship focuses on sociotechnical systems and the value judgments that shape technology.

Cultural Critiques

Cultural critics like Neil Postman distinguish between tool-using societies, technological societies, and technopolies. Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan warn of technological society’s potential to deprive us of freedom and psychological health.

Technology Ethics and Futures Studies

Technology ethics is an interdisciplinary field analyzing tech’s ethical implications and mitigating negative impacts. Bioethics, computer ethics, cyberethics, nanoethics, engineering ethics, and AI ethics are key fields. Ethics in AI raises issues like robot ethics, machine ethics, AI alignment, and algorithmic bias.

Futures Studies

Futures studies explores social and technological progress, aiming to incorporate human values in tech development. Existential risk researchers analyze risks leading to human extinction or civilizational collapse, seeking ways to build resilience against them. Emerging technologies include nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, blockchains, and artificial intelligence.

Technological Predictions

In 2005, futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted a technological revolution in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, with robotics being the most impactful. Genetic engineering could control human biological nature, while nanotechnology could reshape matter at a molecular scale. Autonomous robots will replace humans in dangerous tasks.

AI’s Future

Half of machine learning experts surveyed believe AI will surpass humans by 2063, automating all jobs by 2140, leading to debates about universal basic income and technological unemployment.

Technological Movements

Some groups advocate for ‘appropriate technology’ and sustainable living, while others follow techno-utopianism, believing that technology can create a utopia. This movement includes transhumanism and singularitarianism, which aims to accelerate technological progress through machine superintelligence.

Anti-Technology Backlash

Anti-technology backlash exists, with movements like Luddism, the off-the-grid movement, and ecovillages advocating for a withdrawal from technology or a return to nature. It often requires problem-solving under strict constraints. Technological development is ‘action-oriented,’ while scientific knowledge is fundamentally explanatory. Science concerns itself with what is, technology with what is to be.

The Direction of Causality

The direction of causality between scientific discovery and technological innovation has been debated. Most technologies are not derived from scientific knowledge, but instead from engineering, tinkering, and chance. Scientific explanations often follow technological developments rather than preceding them. Many discoveries arose from pure chance, like the discovery of penicillin as a result of accidental lab contamination.

Modern Technology’s Reliance on Science

Despite this, modern technology is increasingly reliant on deep, domain-specific scientific knowledge. The use of basic technology is also a feature of non-human animal species. Tool use was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus Homo, but has been found in other primates, dolphins, and crows.

The Relationship Between Humanity and Technology

The relationship of humanity with technology has been explored in science-fiction literature, for example in Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Isaac Asimov’s essays, and movies like Minority Report, Total Recall, Gattaca, and Inception.

Patents and Scientific Discoveries

In 1975, there was an average of one citation of scientific literature in every three patents granted in the U. S.; by 1989, this increased to an average of one citation per patent. Patents based on scientific discoveries are on average 26% more valuable than equivalent non-science-based patents.

Conclusion

An analysis shows that modern technology is increasingly reliant on deep, domain-specific scientific knowledge. Is life likely to exist elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy? Almost certainly yes. Is another technological civilization likely to exist today? Almost certainly no. We are unique in the Milky Way. Our planet is special, making it crucial to preserve it for ourselves and future generations.