## What is technology? Technology is how we act on the world. It's the structuring of materials, energy, information to fulfill a purpose. > **"*Technology** is the application of conceptual knowledge for achieving practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software."* [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology) > "*Technology is a means to fulfill a human purpose. As a means, it is a method or procedure for accomplishing a goal by applying technical processes or knowledge.*" [The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nature-of-Technology/W-Brian-Arthur/9781416544067) > *"One (statement) says: Technology is a means to an end. The other says: Technology is a human activity. The two definitions of technology belong together. For to posit ends and procure and utilize the means to them is a human activity. The manufacture and utilization of equipment, tools, and machines, the manufactured and used things themselves, and the needs and ends that they serve, all belong to what technology is. The whole complex of these contrivances is technology."* [Philosophy of Technology](https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/philosophy-of-technology/0/steps/26315) > _**Technology** is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment' ... It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek word tékhnē, used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things'... Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms **Technik** (German) or **technique** (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments._ [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology) > *Technology, understood as our interface with the material world, is that human practice which most closely ties us to our context and our environment.* [[Ways of Being - Animals, Plants, Machines]] ### Elements of Technology ![[Info-Energy-Materials.png]] Technologies can be understood as operating through the dynamic interplay of three key elements: - materials, - energy, - information. We'll call this the [[MEI Model]] of technology. ## Layers of Technology ### Tools Human-scale artifacts, either found or crafted, that enhance individual and social practices. Examples include rocks, axes, forks, and writing implements. ### Technologies The application of complex (scientific) knowledge to problem-solving, embodied in intentionally designed artifacts that are sufficiently intricate to necessitate engineering. Examples include the waterwheel, steam engine, light bulb, and refrigerator. ### Techniques Applied conceptual knowledge or a 'way of doing' that may or may not require tools or instruments. Techniques encompass methods, skills, and processes used to accomplish specific tasks or solve problems. ### Ecologies of technologies Sets of technologies that are symbiotically related and co-evolving as nested functional units. For instance, a light bulb, lamp, power lines, transformers, and power station form an ecology of technologies. Similarly, a microchip, hard drive, screen, mouse, modem, broadband, and server banks constitute another ecology. ### Infrastructures Multiple different ecologies of technology embedded together to form a basic part of social coordination and material reproduction within a society. Examples include supply chains, transportation systems, markets, and communication systems. ### Technological epochs A duration of historical time characterized by a specific suite of infrastructures that are interrelated as the foundation of a social system. Examples include the pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial eras. Each epoch is defined by the dominant technologies and infrastructures that shape social, economic, and cultural patterns. Adapted from [Technology is Not Values Neutral: Ending the Reign of Nihilistic Design](https://consilienceproject.org/technology-is-not-values-neutral-ending-the-reign-of-nihilistic-design-2/) ## -ologies > *But we have no agreement on what the word “technology” means, no overall theory of how technologies come into being, no deep understanding of what “innovation” consists of, and no theory of evolution for technology. Missing is a set of overall principles that would give the subject a logical structure, the sort of structure that would help fill these gaps. Missing, in other words, is a theory of technology—an “-ology” of technology.* [The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nature-of-Technology/W-Brian-Arthur/9781416544067) > *Ecology is the study of the place we find ourselves in, and the relationships between its inhabitants, while technology is the study of what we do there: τέχνη (techne), or craft... An ecology of technology, then, is concerned with the interrelationships between technology and the world, its meaning and materiality, its impact and uses, beyond the everyday, deterministic fact of its own existence. > > If we are to address the wholesale despoliation of the planet, and our growing helplessness in the face of vast computational power, then we must find ways to reconcile our technological prowess and sense of human uniqueness with an earthy sensibility and an attentiveness to the interconnectedness of all things. We must learn to live with the world, rather than seek to dominate it. In short, we must discover an ecology of technology.* [[Ways of Being - Animals, Plants, Machines]] ## Dive Deeper ### Topic relates to: [[Informational Constructs]] [[MEI Model]] [[Technology Values]] [[Technological Evolution]] ### Further reading: [[Ways of Being - Animals, Plants, Machines]] [[How To Do Nothing - Resisting the Attention Economy]] [The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nature-of-Technology/W-Brian-Arthur/9781416544067) [Technology is Not Values Neutral: Ending the Reign of Nihilistic Design](https://consilienceproject.org/technology-is-not-values-neutral)