What is the history of technology? One of the categories of world history is technology history, which is the history of the invention of tools and processes. Technology encompasses a wide range of techniques, from primitive stone tools to the more advanced genetic engineering and information technology that have arisen since the 1980s. Here is all you need to know about the history of technology.
Etymology
One thing you need to know about the history of technology is that the word technology is derived from the Greek words techne, which means art and craft, and logos, which means word and speech. It was originally intended to describe applied arts, but it is now used to describe technological breakthroughs and changes that have an impact on the environment.
Considerations in general
Techniques are essentially strategies for making new tools and tools’ products, and the ability to construct such objects is a distinguishing feature of humanlike species. Other animals create objects as well: bees construct sophisticated hives to store their honey, birds construct nests, and beavers construct dams. However, these characteristics are the product of natural behaviour patterns and cannot be changed to meet rapidly changing conditions. Humans, unlike other animals, lack highly developed innate reactions, but they do have the ability to think logically and imaginatively about procedures.
Evolution of humankind
As a result, humans have the ability to innovate and consciously affect the environment in ways that no other animal has. An ape may use a stick to beat bananas from a tree once in a while, but a person can make a cutting tool out of the stick and remove a complete bunch of bananas.
Tools and weapons
The hominid, the earliest human-like species, appears somewhere in the transition between the two. One thing you need to know about the history of technology is that humans have been technologists from the beginning due to humanity’s nature as a toolmaker, and the history of technology spans the entire evolution of humanity.
Development of technology and technical innovation
In order to examine the development of technology through successive civilizations, it is necessary to be aware of this relationship. To keep things as simple as feasible, there must be some social engagement in technical innovation at three points: social need, social resources, and a sympathetic social ethos. Without any of these criteria, a technological breakthrough is unlikely to be broadly adopted or successful.
Social need
People will not be willing to invest resources to a technological advancement unless they have a strong sense of social necessity. A more efficient cutting instrument, a more powerful lifting device, a labor-saving machine, or a method of utilising new fuels or a new source of energy may be required.
Modern culture
Alternatively, because military needs have always been a driving force behind technological advancement, it could take the form of a requirement for better weaponry. Advertising has created requirements in modern cultures. Whatever the cause of social need, it is critical that enough people are aware of it in order to create a market for an item or commodity that can supply the need.
Social resources
Similarly, social resources are an essential prerequisite for a successful innovation. One thing you need to know about the history of technology is that many inventions have failed because the social resources required for their realization—capital, materials, and skilled labor—were not available.
Primary Ideas
Another interesting point you need to know about the history of technology is that Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are full of ideas for helicopters, submarines, and aeroplanes, but few of these ever made it past the model stage due to a lack of resources of one kind or another. The existence of surplus productivity and an organization capable of directing available money into channels through which the inventor can employ it constitute the existence of capital resources.
New artifacts
The availability of appropriate metallurgical, ceramic, plastic, or textile substances capable of performing whatever duties a new innovation demands is referred to as material resource. The availability of qualified employees indicates the presence of technicians capable of creating new artefacts and developing unique processes. In order to support technological progress, a society must be well-equipped with appropriate resources.
Knowledge transmission
In the ancient world, technological knowledge was passed down through traders who went out in search of tin and other commodities, as well as craftsmen in metal, stone, leather, and other mediums who passed on their skills to others through direct instruction or by providing models that challenged other craftsmen to replicate them.
Civilization
During the second millennium BCE, this transmission via intermediary contact occurred between the ancient civilizations and their neighbours to the north and west. The pace intensified in the millennium that followed, with distinct new civilizations emerging in Crete and Mycenae, Troy and Carthage.
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