"තාක්‍ෂණය" හි සංශෝධන අතර වෙනස්කම්

{{දියුණු කරන්න}}

 

'''Technology''' is the usage and knowledge of [[tool]]s, techniques, and [[craft]]s, or is [[system]]s or methods of organization, or is a material product (such as [[clothing]]) of these things. The word ''[[wiktionary:technology|technology]]'' comes from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''technología'' (''[[wiktionary:τεχνολογία|τεχνολογία]]'') — ''téchnē'' (''[[wiktionary:τέχνη|τέχνη]]''), 'craft' and ''[[wiktionary:logia|-logía]]'' (''[[wiktionary:λογία|-λογία]]''), the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline.<ref name="mwdict">{{cite web | url=http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology | title=Definition of technology | accessdate=2007-02-16 | publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]]}}</ref> The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical technology", or "[[state-of-the-art]] technology".

 

 

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the [[human condition]] or worsens it. [[Neo-Luddism]], [[anarcho-primitivism]], and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as [[transhumanism]] and [[techno-progressivism]] view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other [[primates]] and certain [[dolphin]] communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

The use of the the term ''technology'' has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, and usually referred to the description or study of the useful arts.<ref name="Crabb">For ex., George Crabb, [http://www.archive.org/stream/universaltechno01crabgoog#page/n525 ''Universal Technological Dictionary, or Familiar Explanation of the Terms Used in All Arts and Sciences, Containing Definitions Drawn From the Original Writers''], (London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1823), s.v. "technology."</ref> The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861).<ref name="Stratton"> Julius Adams Stratton and Loretta H. Mannix, Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005), 190-92. ISBN

0262195240. </ref> "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the [[second industrial revolution]]. In the process, the concept of technology became associated with the worlds of science, big business, and engineering, implicitly excluding workers, women, and non-Western peoples.<ref name="Oldenziel"> Ruth Oldenziel, ''Making Technology Masculine: Men, Women and Modern Machines in America, 1870-1945'' (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999), esp. chap. 1. ISBN 90-5356-381-4.</ref><ref name="Marx"> Leo Marx, [http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9710256731 "''Technology'': The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept,"] ''Social Research'' 64 (Fall 1997): 965-88. </ref> The meanings of technology changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with [[Thorstein Veblen]], translated ideas from the German concept of [[:de:Technik|Technik]] into "technology." In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between ''Technik'' and ''Technologie'' that is absent in English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology" referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves.<ref name="Schatzberg"> Eric Schatzberg, [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v047/47.3schatzberg.html "''Technik'' Comes to America: Changing Meanings of ''Technology'' Before 1930,"] ''Technology and Culture'' 47 (July 2006): 486-512. </ref> In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills by which we produce and use them."<ref name="Bain"> Read Bain, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2084365 "Technology and State Government,"] American Sociological Review 2 (December 1937): 860. </ref> Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study technology reject this definition.<ref name="MacKenzie> Donald A. MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, "Introductory Essay" in ''The Social Shaping of Technology'', 2nd ed. (Buckingham, England : Open University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-335-19913-5.</ref> More recently, scholars have borrowed from European philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on [[technologies of the self]].

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The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. [[Science]] is the [[reasoned]] investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the [[phenomenal]] world by employing [[formal]] techniques such as the [[scientific method]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/science | title=Science | accessdate=2007-02-17 | publisher=[[Dictionary.com]]}}</ref> Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as [[utility]], [[usability]] and [[safety]].

 

The exact relations between science and technology in particular have been debated by scientists, historians, and policymakers in the late 20th century, in part because the debate can inform the funding of basic and applied science. In immediate wake of [[World War II]], for example, in the United States it was widely considered that technology was simply "applied science" and that to fund basic science was to reap technological results in due time. An articulation of this philosophy could be found explicitly in [[Vannevar Bush]]'s treatise on postwar science policy, ''Science—The Endless Frontier'': "New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous additions to knowledge of the laws of nature... This essential new knowledge can be obtained only through basic scientific research." In the late-1960s, however, this view came under direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentious—though most analysts resist the model that technology simply is a result of scientific research.<ref>{{Citation |first=George |last=Wise |title=Science and Technology |journal=Osiris (2nd Series) |volume=1 |year=1985 |pages=229–246 }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=David H. |last=Guston |title=Between politics and science: Assuring the integrity and productivity of research |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0521653185 }}.</ref>

 

{{Main|History of technology|Timeline of historic inventions}}

 

The use of tools by [[Homo (genus)|early humans]] was partly a process of discovery, partly of evolution. Early humans evolved from a [[Australopithecus afarensis|race]] of [[foraging]] [[hominids]] which were already [[bipedal]],<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml|title=Mother of man – 3.2 million years ago |publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> with a brain mass approximately one third that of modern humans.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=212317|title=Human Evolution|publisher=[[History (TV channel)|History channel]]}}</ref> Tool use remained relatively unchanged for most of early human history, but approximately 50,000 years ago, a [[behavioral modernity|complex set of behaviors]] and tool use emerged, believed by many archaeologists to be connected to the emergence of fully-modern [[language]].<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0DF173CF936A25754C0A9659C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1|title= Early Voices: The Leap to Language |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2003-07-15|author=Wade, Nicholas}}</ref>

 

Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' approximately 200,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm | title=Human Ancestors Hall: Homo sapiens | accessdate=2007-12-08 | publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] }}</ref> The earliest methods of [[stone tool]] making, known as the [[Oldowan]] "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/336555.stm | title=Ancient 'tool factory' uncovered | accessdate=2007-02-18 | publisher=[[BBC News]] | date=1999-05-06}}</ref> with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in [[Ethiopia]] within the [[Great Rift Valley]], dating back to 2.5 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Environment and Behavior of 2.5-Million-Year-Old Bouri Hominids | last=Heinzelin | first=Jean de | journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] | month=April | year=1999 | volume=284 | issue=5414 | pages=625–629 | doi= 10.1126/science.284.5414.625 | pmid=10213682}}</ref> This era of stone tool use is called the ''[[Paleolithic]]'', or "Old stone age", and spans all of human history up to the development of [[agriculture]] approximately 12,000 years ago.

 

The earliest stone tools were crude, being little more than a fractured rock. In the [[Acheulian]] era, beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stone into specific shapes, such as [[hand axe]]s emerged. The [[Middle Paleolithic]], approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the [[prepared-core technique]], where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone.<ref name="ea_archaeology" /> The [[Upper Paleolithic]], beginning approximately 40,000 years ago, saw the introduction of [[Lithic reduction#Pressure flaking|pressure flaking]], where a wood, bone, or antler [[punch (engineering)|punch]] could be used to shape a stone very finely.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge|author= Haviland, William A.|publisher=[[The Thomson Corporation]]|year=2004|isbn=0534624871|page=77}}</ref>

 

 

The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple [[energy]] source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind.<ref>{{cite book | last=Crump | first=Thomas | title=A Brief History of Science | year=2001 | publisher=[[Constable & Robinson]] | isbn=1-84119-235-X | page=9}}</ref> The exact date of its discovery is not known; evidence of burnt animal bones at the [[Cradle of Humankind]] suggests that the domestication of fire occurred before 1,000,000&nbsp;BC;<ref>{{cite web | url=http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=915 | title=Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs | accessdate=2007-03-10 | publisher=[[UNESCO]]}}</ref> scholarly consensus indicates that [[Homo erectus]] had controlled fire by between 500,000&nbsp;BC and 400,000&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab10 | title=History of Stone Age Man | accessdate=2007-02-13 | publisher=History World}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Hominid Use of Fire in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene | last=James | first=Steven R. | journal=[[Current Anthropology]] | volume=30 | issue=1 | pages=1–26 | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(198902)30%3A1%3C1%3AHUOFIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J | format=fee required | month=February | year=1989 | doi=10.1086/203705}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Stahl | first= Ann B. | year=1984 | title=Hominid dietary selection before fire | journal=[[Current Anthropology]] | volume=25 | pages= 151–168 | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(198404)25%3A2%3C151%3AHDSBF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E | format=fee required | doi=10.1086/203106}}</ref>

 

 

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era were [[clothing]] and shelter; the adoption of both technologies cannot be dated exactly, but they were a key to humanity's progress. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380,000&nbsp;BC, humans were constructing temporary wood huts.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_3.htm | title=Evolution of Modern Humans: Archaic Homo sapiens Culture | accessdate=2007-03-31 | author=O'Neil, Dennis | publisher=[[Palomar College]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Villa | first=Paola | year=1983 | title=Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of southern France| publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=[[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] | isbn= 0-520-09662-2 |page= 303}}</ref> Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to [[Historical migration|migrate]]

Humans began to work bones, [[antler]], and [[hides]], as evidenced by [[burin]]s and [[racloir]]s produced during this period.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}

 

Man's technological ascent began in earnest in what is known as the [[Neolithic]] period ("New stone age"). The invention of polished [[stone axe]]s was a major advance because it allowed forest clearance on a large scale to create farms. The discovery of [[agriculture]] allowed for the feeding of larger populations, and the transition to a [[sedentism|sedentist]] lifestyle increased the number of children that could be simultaneously raised, as young children no longer needed to be carried, as was the case with the nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060103114116.htm|title=The First Baby Boom: Skeletal Evidence Shows Abrupt Worldwide Increase In Birth Rate During Neolithic Period|publisher=[[Science Daily]]|date=2006-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204(197204)13%3A2%3C258%3AACTFSA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5|title=Child Transport, Family Size, and Increase in Human Population During the Neolithic|journal=[[Current Anthropology]]|author=Sussman, Robert W. |coauthors= Hall, Roberta L.|volume=13|issue=2| pages=258–267|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|month=April|year=1972|doi=10.1086/201274}}</ref>

 

Continuing improvements led to the [[furnace]] and [[bellows]] and provided the ability to [[smelting|smelt]] and [[forge]] native metals (naturally occurring in relatively pure form).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://neon.mems.cmu.edu/cramb/Processing/history.html | title=A Short History of Metals | accessdate=2007-01-08 | last=Cramb | first=Alan W | publisher=[[Carnegie Mellon University]]}}</ref> [[Gold]], [[copper]], [[silver]], and [[lead]], were such early metals. 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 8000 BC).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VANVAEjBG-QC&pg=PA708&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=fl2NR6ODGYbWiwGW8Zi_BA|accessdate=2008-05-17|author= Chisholm, Hugh|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|year=1910|page=708}}</ref> 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 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys such as [[steel]] dates to around 1400 BC.

 

 

Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailboat.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} The earliest record of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 BC.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} From prehistoric times, Egyptians probably used "the power of the Nile" annual floods to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely-built irrigation channels and 'catch' basins. Similarly, the early peoples of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, learned to use the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for much the same purposes. But more extensive use of wind and water (and even human) power required another invention.

 

According to archaeologists, the [[wheel]] was invented around 4000 B.C. The wheel was probably independently invented in Mesopotamia (in present-day [[Iraq]]) as well. Estimates on when this may have occurred range from 5500 to 3000 B.C., with most experts putting it closer to 4000 B.C. The oldest artifacts with drawings that depict wheeled carts date from about 3000 B.C.; however, the wheel may have been in use for millennia before these drawings were made. There is also evidence from the same period of time that wheels were used for the production of [[Potter's wheel|pottery]]. (Note that the original potter's wheel was probably not a wheel, but rather an irregularly shaped slab of flat wood with a small hollowed or pierced area near the center and mounted on a peg driven into the earth. It would have been rotated by repeated tugs by the potter or his assistant.) More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the Ljubljana marshes of Slovenia.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.angelfire.com/country/veneti/AmerDomoOldestWheel.html | title=Slovenian Marsh Yields World's Oldest Wheel | accessdate=2007-02-13 | publisher=Ameriška Domovina | date=2003-03-27}}</ref>

 

The invention of the wheel revolutionized activities as disparate as transportation, war, and the production of pottery (for which it may have been first used). It didn't take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads and fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery. But it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources.

 

 

Tools include both [[simple machine]]s (such as the [[lever]], the [[screw]], and the [[pulley]]), and more complex machines (such as the [[clock]], the [[engine]], the [[electric generator]] and the [[electric motor]], the [[computer]], radio, and the [[Space Station]], among many others). As tools increase in complexity, so does the type of knowledge needed to support them. Complex modern machines require libraries of written technical manuals of collected information that has continually increased and improved — their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require the mastery of decades of sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these tools have become so complex that a comprehensive infrastructure of technical knowledge-based lesser tools, processes and practices (complex tools in themselves) exist to support them, including [[engineering]], [[medicine]], and [[computer science]]. Complex [[manufacturing]] and [[construction]] techniques and organizations are needed to construct and maintain them. Entire [[industry|industries]] have arisen to support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools.

The discipline studying the impacts of science, technology, and society and vice versa is called Science and technology in society.

 

Generally, [[technicism]] is an over reliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of society.

 

Taken to extreme, some argue that technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will someday be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology. Some, such as Monsma,<ref name="Monsma 1986">{{cite book| last = Monsma | first = Stephen V.| publisher = W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co|location= [[Grand Rapids, Michigan|Grand Rapids]]| title = Responsible Technology | year= 1986 }}</ref> connect these ideas to the abdication of religion as a higher moral authority.

 

{{See also|Extropianism}}

Optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of ideologies such as [[transhumanism]] and [[singularitarianism]], which view [[technological evolution|technological development]] as generally having beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of [[scientism]] and [[techno-utopianism]] and fear the notion of [[human enhancement]] and [[technological singularity]] which they support. Some have described [[Karl Marx]] as a techno-optimist.<ref name="Hughes 2002">{{cite paper| author = Hughes, James| title = Democratic Transhumanism 2.0| year= 2002 | url = http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/DemocraticTranshumanism.htm| accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>

 

{{See also|Luddite|Neo-luddism|Anarcho-primitivism|Bioconservatism}}

On the somewhat pessimistic side are certain philosophers like [[Herbert Marcuse]] and [[John Zerzan]], who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed ''[[A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)|a priori]]''. They suggest that the result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health.

An overtly anti-technological treatise is ''[[s:Industrial Society and Its Future|Industrial Society and Its Future]]'', written by [[Theodore Kaczynski]] (aka The [[Unabomber]]) and printed in several major newspapers (and later books) as part of an effort to end his bombing campaign of the techno-industrial infrastructure.

 

{{See also|Technocriticism|Technorealism}}

The notion of [[appropriate technology]], however, was developed in the 20th century (e.g., see the work of [[Jacques Ellul]]) 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 emerged in part due to this concern.

 

The use of basic technology is also a feature of other animal species apart from humans. These include primates such as [[chimpanzee]]s, some [[dolphin]] communities,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb//anthro2003/origins/hominid_journey/optional3.html | title=Chimpanzee Tool Use | accessdate=2007-02-13 | author=Sagan, Carl; Druyan, Ann; Leakey, Richard}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4613709.stm | title=Sponging dolphins learn from mum. | accessdate=2007-02-13 | author=Rincon, Paul | publisher=[[BBC News]] | date=2005-06-07}}</ref> and [[crow]]s.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2008-05-17|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21135366/|title=Crows use tools to find food|publisher=[[MSNBC]]|date=2007-10-04|author=Schmid, Randolph E.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Rutz, C.; Bluff, L.A.; Weir, A.A.S.; Kacelnik, A.|title=Video cameras on wild birds|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|date=2007-10-04}}</ref> Considering a more generic perspective of technology as ethology of active environmental conditioning and control, we can also refer to animal examples such as beavers and their dams, or bees and their honeycombs.

 

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[[af:Tegnologie]]

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