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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Technology (disambiguation).

A steam turbine with the case opened, an example of

energy technology
History of technology
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Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals,

especially in a reproducible way.[1] The word technology can also mean the products
resulting from such efforts,[2][3] including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines,
and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science,
engineering, and everyday life.

Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known
technology is the stone tool, used during prehistoric times, followed by the control of fire,
which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language
during the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and
the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including
the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication
and ushered in the knowledge economy.

While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity,

it can also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion, and can cause
social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation. As a result,
there are ongoing philosophical and political debates about the role and use of technology,
the ethics of technology, and ways to mitigate its downsides.

Etymology
Technology is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic
treatment' (from Greek Τεχνολογία, from the Greek: τέχνη, romanized: tékhnē, lit. 'craft, art'
and -λογία, 'study, knowledge').[4][5] It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek word tékhnē,
used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like
architecture.[6]

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.[7] At the time, Technologie (German and French) referred either to the
academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline
"intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts." [8] Since the distinction
between Technik and Technologie is absent in English, both were translated as technology.
The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to the academic
discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[9]
In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial Revolution,
technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on its
current-day meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends. [10]

History
Main articles: History of technology and Timeline of historic inventions
Prehistoric
Main article: Prehistoric technology

A person holding a hand axe

Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error.[11]
Around 2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering
flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe.[12] This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand
years ago) into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work.[13]

The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made
by man".[14] Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous [human] fire-
use" at least 1.5 Mya.[15] Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook
their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the
number of foods that could be eaten.[16] The cooking hypothesis proposes that the ability to
cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size, though some researchers find the
evidence inconclusive.[17] Archaeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya;
researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human socialization and may have
contributed to the emergence of language.[18][19]

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and
shelter.[20] No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology,
but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya[21] and
shelter 450 kya.[20] As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated
and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood
huts.[22][23] Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity
expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially
moving to Eurasia.[24][25][26]

Neolithic
Main article: Neolithic Revolution

An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads,

chisels, and polishing tools

The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution) brought about an acceleration of
technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity.[27] The invention
of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance
and farming.[28] This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was
originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland.[29] Agriculture fed
larger populations, and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of
more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by nomads. Additionally,
children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could
participate in hunter-gatherer activities.[30][31]

With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor
specialization.[32] What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first
cities, such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known;
however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized
labor, of trade and war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to
overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation, are all thought to have played a
role.[33]

The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for
history, libraries, schools, and scientific research.[34]

Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time,
the ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead – native metals found in
relatively pure form in nature.[35] The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone and
wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably
used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 10 kya).[36] Native copper does not
naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them
produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of
metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first
use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE. [37][38]

Ancient
Main article: Ancient technology
Ancient technology
• Egyptian technology
• Indian technology
• Chinese technology
• Greek technology
• Roman technology
• Iranian technology

The wheel was invented c. 4,000 BCE.

After harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of
wind power is the sailing ship; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat
dating to around 7,000 BCE.[39] From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of
the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of
it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins.[40] The ancient Sumerians
in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers for irrigation.[41]

Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in
Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture), and Central
Europe.[42] Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer
to 4,000 BCE.[43] The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about
3,500 BCE.[44] More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the
Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia.[45]

The inve