Definition and usage
The use of the term
technology has changed significantly over
the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in
English, and usually referred to the description or study of the
useful arts.
[2] The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861).
[3] "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the
Second Industrial Revolution. The meanings of technology changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with
Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of
Technik into "technology." In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between
Technik and
Technologie
that is absent in English, as both terms are usually translated as
"technology." By the 1930s, "technology" referred not to the study of
the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves.
[4]
In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology
includes all tools, machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing,
clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills by which
we produce and use them."
[5]
Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially
social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology
as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although
most social scientists who study technology reject this definition.
[6]
More recently, scholars have borrowed from European philosophers of
"technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of
instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on
technologies of the self ("techniques de soi").
Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The
Merriam-Webster
dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application
of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by
the practical application of knowledge".
[7] Ursula Franklin,
in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition
of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here".
[8] The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to
high technology or just
consumer electronics, rather than technology as a whole.
[9] Bernard Stiegler, in
Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."
[10]
Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material
and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical
effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers
to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It
is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a
crowbar or wooden
spoon, or more complex machines, such as a
space station or
particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as
computer software and
business methods, fall under this definition of technology.
[11]
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