By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a level of technological mastery sufficient to leave the surface of the planet for the first time and explore space.
Technology is a word with origins in the Greek word technologia (τεχνολογία), techne (τέχνη) "craft" and logia (λογία) "saying." It is a broad term dealing with the use and knowledge of humanity's tools and crafts.Definitions
It is difficult to obtain precise definition of technology. According to the involved science fields and engineering domain where it is developed, there are many kinds of technologies. Generally, the following distinctions can be made:- Science is the formal process of investigating natural phenomena. It produces information and knowledge about the world.
- Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and building tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for a practical human means. Engineers work within the constraints of natural laws and societal needs to create technology.
- Technology is the consequence of these two processes and societal requests. Most commonly, the term technology is used as the name of all engineering products.
Technologies are not direct products of science, because they have to satisfy such requirements as: utility, usability and safety, therefore the application of the scientific knowledge to concrete purposes requires the contribution of engineering research.
Until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was a concept akin and restricted only to human beings, but recent studies show that other primates (such as chimpanzees), and certain dolphin communities, have developed simple tools and learned to pass this knowledge to other generations, what would constitute a form of non-human technological development. [1] [2]
[edit] Bernard Stiegler on technology
The philosopher Bernard Stiegler, in his book Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus, understands technology (or "technics") as "organized inorganic matter" (drawing here on the work of Gilbert Simondon), and as "the pursuit of life by means other than life."[3] As such, the advent of technology represents a moment in the history of the exteriorization of existence (drawing here on the work of André Leroi-Gourhan).For human beings this does not only mean that it is possible to learn how to use tools from one's parents, but that the past is in general inscribed in objects and remains. Whether purposely or incidentally, every manufactured object is therefore a means of transmitting knowledge, a third kind of memory in addition to genetic memory and individual nervous system memory. Thus an archeologist can learn from the discovery of a primitive tool about the life of the person whose gesture is inscribed in the flint from which it is fashioned. As Stiegler puts it, "humans die but their histories remain."[4] According to Stiegler this interrupts the ordinary processes of natural selection, and it is therefore no more true to say that humans invented technology than it is to say that technology invented humanity.
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