The history of technology is the history of human invention of tools and techniques. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s. The term technology comes from the Greek words techne, meaning art and craft, and logos, meaning word and speech. It was first used to describe applied arts, but it is now used to describe advancements and changes that affect the environment around us.
New knowledge has enabled people to create new tools. Conversely, many scientific endeavors are made possible by new technologies, such as scientific instruments that allow us to study nature in greater detail than our natural senses can.
Since much of technology is applied science, technical history is connected to the history of science. Since technology uses resources, technical history is tightly connected to economic history. From those resources, technology produces other resources, including technological artifacts used in everyday life. Technological change affects, and is affected by, a society's cultural traditions. It is a force for economic growth and a means of developing and projecting economic, political, and military power and wealth.
Measuring technological progress Many sociologists and anthropologists have created social theories dealing with social and cultural evolution. Some, such as Lewis H. Morgan, Leslie White, and Gerhard Lenski, have declared technological progress the primary factor driving the development of human civilization. Morgan's concept of three major stages of social evolution (savagery, barbarism, and civilization) can be divided by technological milestones, such as fire. White argued that the measure by which to judge the evolution of culture is energy.
For White, "the primary function of culture" is to "harness and control energy." White differentiates between five stages of human development: In the first, people use the energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use the energy of domesticated animals. In the third, they use plant energy (agricultural revolution). In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, oil, gas. In the fifth, they harness nuclear energy. White introduced the formula P = E/T, where P is the development index, E is a measure of energy consumed, and T is a measure of the efficiency of technical factors in using the energy. In his own words, "culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased". Nikolai Kardashev extrapolated his theory, creating the Kardashev scale, which categorizes the energy use of advanced civilizations.
Lenski's approach focuses on information. The more information and knowledge (especially the ability to shape the natural environment) a given society has, the more advanced it is. He identifies four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication. In the first stage, information is passed by genes. In the second, when humans gain sentience, they can learn and pass information through experience. In the third, the humans start using signs and develop logic. In the fourth, they can create symbols, develop language, and write. Advancements in communications technology translate into advancements in the economic system and political system, distribution of wealth, social inequality, and other spheres of social life. He also differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy:
hunter-gatherer, simple agricultural, advanced agricultural, industrial, special (such as fishing societies).
In economics, productivity is a measure of technological progress. Productivity increases when fewer inputs (classically, labor and capital, though some measures include energy and materials) are used to produce a unit of output. Another indicator of technological progress is the development of new products and services, which is necessary to offset unemployment that would otherwise result from reduced labor inputs. In developed countries, productivity growth has been slowing since the late 1970s; however, it has been higher in some sectors, such as manufacturing. For example, employment in manufacturing in the United States declined from over 30% in the 1940s to just over 10% 70 years later. Similar changes occurred in other developed countries. This stage is referred to as post-industrial.
In the late 1970s sociologists and anthropologists like Alvin Toffler (author of Future Shock), Daniel Bell and John Naisbitt have approached the theories of post-industrial societies, arguing that the current era of industrial society is coming to an end, and services and information are becoming more important than industry and goods. Some extreme visions of post-industrial society, especially in fiction, are strikingly similar to visions of near- and post-singularity societies.Daniele Archibugi and Mario Planta. "Measuring technological change through patents and innovation surveys." Technovation 16.9 (1996): 451–519.
By period and geography
The following is a summary of the history of technology by time period and geography:
Lomekwi stone technology, 3.3 million years ago Olduvai stone technology (Oldowan), 2.5 million years ago (scrapers; to butcher dead animals) Huts, 2 million years ago. Acheulean stone technology 1.6 million years ago (hand axe) Fire creation and manipulation, used since the Paleolithic, possibly by Homo erectus as early as 1.5 Million years ago Cooking, 500,000 years ago. Javelins, 400,000 years ago. Glue, 200,000 years ago. Clothing, at least 170,000 years ago. (Homo sapiens sapiens – modern human anatomy arose around 100,000 years ago.) Stone tools used by Homo floresiensis, possibly 100,000 years ago. Harpoons, possibly 90,000 years ago. Bow and arrows, 70,000 years ago. Sewing needles, 73,000 – 70,000 years ago. Flutes, 42,000 years ago. Fishing nets, 43,000 years ago. Ropes, 40,000 years ago. Microliths c. 35,000 – 23,000 years ago Fishing hooks, C. 23,000 years ago. Ceramics c. 18,300 – 15,430 years ago Domestication of animals, c. 15,000 BC Sling (weapon) c. 9th millennium BC Boats, 8,000 years ago. Copper working, 8,000 years ago Brick used for construction in the Middle East c. 6000 BC Agriculture and plough c. 4000 BC Wheel c. 4000 BC Gnomon c. 4000 BC Writing systems c. 3500 BC Bronze c. 2500 BC Salt c. 2500 BC Chariot c. 2000 BC Iron c. 1500 BC Sundial c. 800 BC Glass ca. 500 BC Catapult c. 400 BC Cast iron c. 400 BC Horseshoe c. 300 BC Stirrup first few centuries AD Printing press 1450 – 1455 AD Steam engine 1712 AD Atomic bomb 1945 AD
Prehistory
Stone Age
During most of the Paleolithic – the bulk of the Stone Age – all humans lived with limited tools and few permanent settlements. The first major technologies were tied to survival, hunting, and food preparation. Stone tools and weapons, fire, and clothing were major technological developments during this period.
Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of Homo sapiens approximately 300,000 years ago. The earliest direct evidence of tool usage was found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago. The earliest methods of stone tool making, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago. 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.
To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as flint) was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced sharp edges which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers. These tools greatly aided the early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to perform a variety of tasks including butchering carcasses (and breaking bones to get at the marrow); chopping wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its hide, and even forming other tools out of softer materials such as bone and wood.
The earliest stone tools were irrelevant, being little more than a fractured rock. In the Acheulian era, beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stones into specific shapes, such as hand axes emerged. This early Stone Age is described as the Lower Paleolithic.
The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the prepared-core technique, in which multiple blades could be rapidly produced from a single core stone. The Upper Paleolithic, beginning approximately 40,000 years ago, saw the introduction of pressure flaking, where a wood, bone, or antler punch could be used to shape a stone very finely.
The end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, is taken as the end point of the Upper Paleolithic and the beginning of the Epipaleolithic / Mesolithic. The Mesolithic technology included the use of microliths as composite stone tools, along with wood, bone, and antler tools.
The later Stone Age, during which the rudiments of agricultural technology were developed, is called the Neolithic period. During this period, polished stone tools were made from a variety of hard rocks such as flint, jade, jadeite, and greenstone, largely by working exposures as quarries, but later the valuable rocks were pursued by tunneling underground, the first steps in mining technology. The polished axes were used for forest clearance and the establishment of crop farming, and were so effective that they remained in use when bronze and iron appeared. These stone axes were used alongside a continued use of stone tools such as a range of projectiles, knives, and scrapers, as well as tools made from organic materials such as wood, bone, and antler.
Stone Age cultures developed music and engaged in organized warfare. Stone Age humans developed ocean-worthy outrigger canoe technology, leading to migration across the Malay Archipelago, across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and also across the Pacific Ocean, which required knowledge of the ocean currents, weather patterns, sailing, and celestial navigation.
Although Paleolithic cultures left no written records, the shift from nomadic life to settlement and agriculture can be inferred from a range of archaeological evidence. Such evidence includes ancient tools, cave paintings, and other prehistoric art, such as the Venus of Willendorf. Human remains also provide direct evidence, both through the examination of bones and the study of mummies. Scientists and historians have drawn significant inferences about the lifestyles and cultures of various prehistoric peoples, especially their technology.
Ancient
Copper and Bronze Ages
Metallic copper occurs on the surface of weathered copper ore deposits, and copper was used before copper smelting was known. Copper smelting is believed to have originated when the technology of pottery kilns allowed sufficiently high temperatures. The concentration of various elements such as arsenic increases with depth in copper ore deposits, and smelting of these ores yields arsenical bronze, which can be sufficiently work hardened to be suitable for making tools.