Talk:Technology

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In my view there is only one mainstream technology, all the rest are suppliers of additional know-how, providers of lesser solutions. The mainstream technology is aiming and shooting - moving whatever intended into/right on target, from nano stage to precision cosmology level, at all times and universally. This concept could help you rearrange the zig-zag courses of telling about the individual achievements of scientists and other busy-bodies in history who "cannot see the forest from the trees", as we "Martians" say. Apogr 21:25, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC) Of course, I meant to write "cannot see the woods, because of the trees...."

We should introduce categorizations based on different criteria, e.g. "Material which the technology acts upon", "Principle of working", "Functional: human sensory modality concerned with the technology", etc.

(we need some way to cover for example, both the technology of television and the content of television, which are greatly different topics with the same name)

How about a "Mass Media" category? It would also cover radio, printing press, etc.

What is the difference between technology and engineering?

Am I correct in thinking this page places too much emphasis on recent or conspicuous technologoy? Wouldn't the lever, pully, and wheel be considered vital advances in technology? If not, how long do you imagine it will be before the pump and microchip are considered trivial? Why not include irrigation, literacy, geometry, etc.? --KQ

I agree with KQ (above), and further suggest that the references to industry and commerce make this definition too narrow. Technology can be for warfare, for the fighting of disease, for the production of more aesthetically pleasing music, for the more accurate measurement of time so that monks can pray 6 times each day at the proper times, etc.

How about:

Technology is "the application of knowledge to affect the human condition" 1.

(The quote isn't on that URL, but it's from the forthcoming book mentioned on that page.)

"The field of technology applies human knowledge of the physical or natural sciences to accomplish a specific human goal or purpose." You can cut the first "human". The second "human" is important although arguable: If technology invents new technology for its own sake, e.g. just because man has become educated by technology (writing, the school system, mass media) to invent technology, or because negative side effects of technology must be treated by technology whose side effects in turn must be treated ... and again until infinity - then, is that still technology or is it "culture"? Culture (in the word sense of "civilization") is the father of technology but doesn´t define as "to accomplish a specific human goal or purpose" but simply as "the outcome of mankind" (simplified, as I didn´t yet consult Wiki about this).

BTW, why doesn´t someone update wiki/technology according to the proposals which have been made here? Too shy? Grasso

Is it desirable to have so many bulleted items in a list with no text to make them cohere? What are these lists of?

The list was of links to different fields of technology or specific technology items. A click through index is desirable to many potential readers. I use it to browse myself. mirwin 05:33, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I do not think that the two recording items should appear under acoustics, however I cannot think of a better place or another heading. Any suggestions. In fact recording, live sound reinforcement, and acoustics, though all dealing with sound are all pretty independent, maybe they should all appear as sub-headings to audio.

I removed this section. There is useful information here, but aside from being very non-neutral, it completely overwhelms the page at this point. It only discusses a comparatively narrow aspect of the concept. --Robert Merkel 02:20, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Technology in ideology

Very often, technology and engineering circles assume that "new" means "better". The notion of appropriate technology developed in the 20th 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 technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash. In general, an "appropriate" technology will also be "intermediate".

Those who promote transhumanism, posthumanism or technological singularity make exactly contrary assumptions. Such ideologues regard technological development as morally good.

In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or of growth often derive from one of the above assumptions. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. One could view these, and economics itself, as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology - a concern covered in its own separate article.

In warfare, technological escalation is often a feature of an arms race, and may result in new military technology.

In fiction, fictional technology often plays a role in the story, especially in science fiction, which depends on such ideas.