Technology

Technology refers to the application of knowledge, techniques, and skills to achieve practical, reproducible goals. It encompasses both the processes used to create tools, systems, and solutions, and the products or artefacts that result from these processes. In its broadest understanding, technology includes tangible instruments such as machines, tools, and devices, as well as intangible systems such as software and digital networks. It forms a foundational component of science, engineering, industry, and daily life, shaping human civilisation from prehistory to the present.
Technological development has been central to human progress, driving economic growth, enabling communication, improving health, and expanding capacities for exploration and innovation. At the same time, technology has generated environmental pressures, resource depletion, and social challenges including automation-driven unemployment. These realities have contributed to ongoing debates in ethics, politics, and philosophy concerning the appropriate use, regulation, and impacts of technology.

Etymology

The term technology originates from Renaissance-era scholarly vocabulary, deriving from the Greek roots tékhne (craft, art, or skill) and logia (study or systematic treatment). Earlier Greek usage included the related term tekhnologia, meaning knowledge of how to make or do things, particularly in fields such as architecture and craftsmanship.
From the nineteenth century, continental European thinkers used terms such as the German Technologie and French technologie to describe both an academic discipline analysing the methods of arts and crafts and a political discipline concerned with managing them. English adopted the term without distinguishing between these senses. Initially it referred mainly to academic study, exemplified by institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By the twentieth century, particularly after the Second Industrial Revolution, the word came to signify the systematic application of knowledge to practical ends, aligning with its modern meaning.

Prehistoric Technological Foundations

The earliest known technologies emerged in prehistory and developed through observation, experimentation, and adaptation. Around two million years ago early hominins created the first stone tools by striking flakes from pebbles to form sharp implements. By approximately 75,000 years ago pressure flaking techniques allowed more refined stonework.
The controlled use of fire, which archaeological evidence suggests dates back at least 1.5 million years, marked a profound turning point. Fire was used for warmth, protection, and cooking, and the cooking hypothesis proposes that cooked food improved digestibility and contributed to increases in hominin brain size, although this remains debated. Hearths dating to around 790,000 years ago indicate increasingly complex social organisation, potentially linked to the emergence of language.
During the Paleolithic era humans also developed clothing and built shelters. Evidence of clothing use appears between 90,000 and 120,000 years ago, while primitive shelters date to around 450,000 years ago. Improved dwellings by 380,000 years ago and the adoption of animal hides for warmth facilitated early human migrations into colder regions beyond Africa.

Neolithic Advances

The Neolithic Revolution, or First Agricultural Revolution, marked an acceleration of technological and social change. Polished stone axes allowed for systematic forest clearance and the expansion of agriculture. Sedentary life supported larger populations and allowed children to contribute to agricultural work more readily than to nomadic foraging, enabling population growth and labour specialisation.
The rise of agricultural surpluses, social hierarchies, and interregional trade contributed to the emergence of the earliest cities such as Uruk and early civilisations such as Sumer. Writing developed to record transactions and administer increasingly complex societies, laying the foundations for historical record-keeping, libraries, and scientific research. Metallurgical innovation followed, as early furnaces and bellows made it possible to smelt native metals including copper, gold, silver, and lead. By around 4000 BCE the production of metal alloys such as bronze and brass significantly enhanced toolmaking, warfare, and craftsmanship. Ironworking emerged later, around 1800 BCE, providing stronger, more durable materials.

Ancient Technological Developments

Human societies harnessed natural energy sources long before the modern era. The earliest use of wind power is associated with sailing, with Nile boats under sail attested around 7000 BCE. Civilisations such as the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians developed irrigation technologies to manage river systems, using canals, levees, and reservoirs to support agriculture.
The invention of the wheel, independently developed in several regions between 5500 and 3000 BCE, transformed transport, trade, and mechanical design. Evidence of wheeled carts appears around 3500 BCE, and the oldest known wooden wheel, discovered in Slovenia, dates to roughly 5100–5350 years ago. The wheel was soon employed in the potter’s wheel, enabling early mass production of pottery. Later, rotations of wheels would underpin waterwheels, windmills, and treadmills, forming the basis of non-human power generation in pre-industrial societies.
Two-wheeled carts, derived from earlier drag-based conveyances such as travois, emerged around 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia and Iran. Roads and pathways, some paved in stone, facilitated the movement of people and goods and linked early urban settlements.

Significance and Societal Impacts

From antiquity to the modern era, technology has driven transformations in communication, transport, health, and labour. Inventions such as the printing press, telephone, and internet democratised information access and helped shape the modern knowledge economy. Industrial machinery and mechanisation accelerated production and reshaped labour markets, while digital technologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have expanded human capacities for computation, connectivity, and automation.
Despite these benefits, technological change brings challenges, including environmental degradation, increased consumption of natural resources, and social disruption caused by rapid automation. These concerns have prompted sustained philosophical reflection on the role of technology in human life, ethics surrounding innovation and deployment, and the development of policies aimed at minimising harms while fostering innovation.