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Technology has more than one definition. One is the development and application of tools, machines, materials and processes that help to solve human problems. As a human
activity, technology predates both science and engineering.
The term technology thus often characterises inventions and gadgets using
recently-discovered scientific principles and processes. However, even very old inventions such as the wheel exemplify technology.
Another definition -- used by economics -- sees technology as the
current state of our knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products (and the our knowledge of what
can be produced). Thus, we can see technological change when our technical knowledge increases.
Technology in ideology
Very often, new is assumed to mean "better" in technology and engineering circles. The notion of appropriate technology developed in the 20th century to
describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized
infrastructure or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement evolved in part due to this concern. Intermediate technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between
central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those
which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an
excess of labour, and scarcity of cash. In general, an "appropriate" technology will also be "intermediate".
Exactly contrary assumptions are made by those who promote transhumanism, posthumanism, technological singularity, which collectively were
described as "Cosmist" views by Hugo de Garis. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. These ideologies are seen as
symptoms of scientism and mathematical fetishism by those who use those terms. Some consider them also to be symptoms of
belief in capitalism.
In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one of more of
the above assumptions. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies,
specifically, as persuasion technology - a concern
covered in its own separate article.
Concepts in technology
See also
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