TechnologyEssay Preview: TechnologyReport this essayTechnology is the making, usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. The word technology comes from Greek τεχνολογία (technología); from τέχνη (téchnē), meaning “art, skill, craft”, and -λογία (-logía), meaning “study of-“.[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology.
Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.
Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including todays global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.
The Future
Philosophers have proposed that a new world is already within its capabilities, and so the future is being envisaged. However, this proposal is speculative, to say the least, although some of its critics have argued against it. For example, the ‘philosophical’ movement has argued, among other things, that technology is now just one step away from becoming a viable form of civilisation, thus extending the time period of natural selection, and so creating a new world. The latter argument is, in practice, not necessarily the case, but it does suggest that social technology and the growing technological divide is not only a threat to the future, it is a means by which we will all be forced to stop, if we want to live in an advanced world which has no such problems as it has now.
One way to counter this is to seek for an alternative to technology, the use of which would be beneficial to society. This is a long-standing position and, in theory, it can be defended. However, a recent article in The World That Does not Understand argues, as it might well, that new technologies such as cell phone technology and new bio-inspired technologies are a form of ‘modern slavery’, a view that has long hindered a new use of technology such as cell phones because it does not fully explain what would have happened had technology been made possible. Indeed, several of the authors argue that the lack of a clear mechanism for achieving these ends would result in technologies that were neither in use nor would have allowed mankind to escape in one form or another; while others posit that an alternative mechanism has already been found which would have prevented humans from ever getting to the end of their lives.
The problem with any alternative is that it involves a complex of mechanisms, and that they do involve the risk of being destroyed by artificial means. A number of these mechanisms involve some potential to ‘solve’, but often, they are not well designed to address the issues facing the modern world, or that are designed to ‘change’ existing technology or technologies. The problem is also that there are many different technologies in use which can be understood with little to no scientific rigor. If these technologies are not in use, there appears to be no logical way to do so, although there are many options available. This is because technological innovation has so far been limited to some aspects of the world, and because such innovations have been mostly confined to the development of specific technology, or ‘smartphones’ or drones.
To see why alternatives to technology are difficult to envisage, consider the case of the cell phone. In an earlier post we discussed the issues of the future of telecommunications. Some of these are more pressing, such as a new form of wireless technology that bypasses cellular towers, and is expected to address the current difficulties for the communications infrastructure in the future. However, while the development of mobile networks should be ‘open’, and have the potential to lead to more efficient and efficient communications, all other aspects of telecommunications such as the transmission of information as well as the network’s processing capacity are also being undermined. This is particularly true with regard to the use of wireless and cellular technology for public transport and communications in general.
When such technological transformations are