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Technology ( Gr. τεχνολογια < τεχνη "craftsmanship" + λογος "word, reckoning" + the suffix ια) 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. It embodies the human knowledge of solving real problems in the design of standard tools, machines, materials or the process. Thus standardisation of design is an essential feature of technology.
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 our knowledge of what can be produced). Thus, we can see technological change when our technical knowledge increases.
1 Technology in ideology
Very often, new is assumed to mean "better" in technology and engineering circles. The notion of appropriate technology developed in the twentieth 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 technologyIntermediate technology is infrastructural capital that is at least an order of magnitude more expensive than that prevalent in a developing nation but also at least an order of magnitude less expensive than that prevalent in a developed nation offering a, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nationDeveloped nations are countries that have achieved (currently or historically) a high degree of industrialization, and which enjoy the higher standards of living which wealth and technology make possible. There is a strong correlation between countries has and those which developing nationA developing nation is an undeveloped nation. Such countries may actually be developing, but the term is often used euphemistically to include those which are not. Borrowing from the natural sciences the comparison to an organism, to say that a nation iss 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 transhumanismTranshumanism is an emergent school of speculative philosophy analysing or favouring the use of technology to improve the human condition. Overview of transhumanism The term 'transhumanism' was coined by Julian Huxley in 1957, though his definition differ, posthumanismPosthumanism is a kind of neohumanist ideology. It is often thought of in two markedly different ways. European posthumanism In Europe, posthumanism is understood as beyond humanism and is the dominant secular, rational humanist philosophy. It transcends, technological singularityIn futurology, a technological singularity is a predicted point in the development of a civilization at which technological progress accelerates beyond the ability of present-day humans to fully comprehend or predict. The Singularity is sometimes used mor, which collectively were described as " CosmistA Cosmist according to Professor Hugo de Garis at Starlab in Belgium, is an individual who favors building or growing artificial intelligence, and ultimately leaving the planet Earth to the Terrans, e. Kevin Warwick, Bill Joy, who oppose this path for hum" 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 or 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.
