What is technology?
What IS technology?
On my own, I don't know. It seems like a really broad term to define, so I turned to dictionary.com for some answers:
1. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives.
2. Electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group.
3. (anthropology) The body of knowledge available to a society that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.
I like the third definition the best. When I first think of the word "technology," what comes to mind is a sterile, white labratory with a lot of machinery and men in lab coats solving a lot of math problems that I will never understand. And the product of that is machinery that will always be above my understanding and will never be of use to my life (read: "industrial or commercial objectives").
But this third definition humanizes the idea. Technology isn't just limited to industry. It can also be applied to society, everyday people, and it's not the same to everyone. For example, the latest technology, according to this definition, could mean the digging of a new well in Malawi, Africa. It could be the knowledge of soil that helps invent a new gardening shovel for my mom to use. Technology doesn't necessarily have to be complicated, and it's definitely not limited to having to involve a lot of parts and involved calculations to create.
So my original concept of technology has been corrected and refined, and all is well again :)
On my own, I don't know. It seems like a really broad term to define, so I turned to dictionary.com for some answers:
1. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives.
2. Electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group.
3. (anthropology) The body of knowledge available to a society that is of use in fashioning implements, practicing manual arts and skills, and extracting or collecting materials.
I like the third definition the best. When I first think of the word "technology," what comes to mind is a sterile, white labratory with a lot of machinery and men in lab coats solving a lot of math problems that I will never understand. And the product of that is machinery that will always be above my understanding and will never be of use to my life (read: "industrial or commercial objectives").
But this third definition humanizes the idea. Technology isn't just limited to industry. It can also be applied to society, everyday people, and it's not the same to everyone. For example, the latest technology, according to this definition, could mean the digging of a new well in Malawi, Africa. It could be the knowledge of soil that helps invent a new gardening shovel for my mom to use. Technology doesn't necessarily have to be complicated, and it's definitely not limited to having to involve a lot of parts and involved calculations to create.
So my original concept of technology has been corrected and refined, and all is well again :)
posted by Sydney @ 9:24 AM
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