The Evolution of Technology

History of the Invention of Tools and Techniques

• Technology refers to methods ranging from simple stone tools to complex genetic engineering and information technology.

• The term technology comes from the Greek words techne and logos, meaning art and craft and word and speech, respectively.

• Technology has enabled people to create new things and has allowed for scientific advancements.

• Technical history is connected to the history of science and economic history.

• Technological change affects and is affected by a society's cultural traditions and is a force for economic growth and a means to develop and project economic, political, military power, and wealth.

• Sociologists and anthropologists have created social theories dealing with social and cultural evolution, and some have declared technological progress to be the primary factor driving the development of human civilization.

• Productivity is a measure of technological progress, and productivity increases when fewer inputs are used in the production of a unit of output.

• Bronze was a major advancement over stone as a material for making tools because it was stronger, lighter, and cheaper to make.

• The Iron Age involved the adoption of iron smelting technology, which made it possible to produce tools that were stronger, lighter, and cheaper to make than bronze equivalents.

• Mesopotamia was an early adopter of bronze technologies, and its peoples lived in cities from c. 4000 BC and developed a sophisticated architecture in mud-brick and stone.

• Mesopotamians have been credited with the invention of the wheel, the lever, and the screw, and they were early adopters of pulleys and water power.

• The earliest evidence of water wheels and watermills dates back to the ancient Near East in the 4th century BC, specifically in the Persian Empire before 350 BC, in the regions of Mesopotamia and Persia.Technological Advances in Various Civilizations

• Egyptians invented and used simple machines such as the ramp, inclined plane, wedge, and lever to build pyramids using millions of limestone blocks that weighed approximately 3.5 tons each.

• Egyptians also made writing medium similar to paper from papyrus, which was harvested, cut into thin strips, covered in plant resin, and pressed together until it was dry.

• Egyptians used their knowledge of timekeeping devices, shipbuilding technology, astronomy, anatomy, and mathematics to make significant advances in those areas.

• Ancient Greeks made significant advances in mechanical technology, water-lifting devices, music, time-keeping, and automata such as suspended ink pots, automatic washstands, and doors, primarily as toys.

• The Roman Empire developed an intensive and sophisticated agriculture, expanded upon existing iron working technology, created laws providing for individual ownership, advanced stone masonry technology, advanced road-building, military engineering, civil engineering, spinning and weaving, and several different machines such as the Gallic reaper.

• The Muslim world inherited significant advances in science and technology from previous empires in the region, including the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman empires, and significant advances were made during the Islamic Golden Age (8th-16th centuries).

• The Arab Agricultural Revolution transformed agriculture from the 8th to the 13th century in the Islamic region of the Old World, enabling the diffusion of many crops and farming techniques throughout the Islamic world, as well as the adaptation of crops and techniques from and to regions outside it.

• Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made wide use of hydropower, tidal power, wind power, fossil fuels such as petroleum, and large factory complexes. A variety of industrial mills were employed in the Islamic world, and many of these technologies were transferred to medieval Europe.

• Wind-powered machines used to grind grain and pump water, the windmill and wind pump, first appeared in what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan by the 9th century.

• The spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century and was later widely adopted in Europe, where it was adapted into the spinning jenny, a key device during the Industrial Revolution.

• The crankshaft was invented by Al-Jazari in 1206 and is central to modern machinery such as the steam engine, internal combustion engine, and automatic controls.

• Early programmable machines were also invented in the Muslim world, including the first music sequencer, a programmable musical instrument, and the castle clock, a hydropowered mechanical astronomical clock, which was an early programmable analog computer.

• The Inca and Maya civilizations had great engineering skills, even by today's standards, and were responsible for creating the first pressurized water system in Mesoamerica.Technological Advancements Throughout History

• Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf invented the steam jack in Ottoman Egypt, a device for rotating a spit by means of a jet of steam playing on rotary vanes around the periphery of a wheel.

• Medieval Europe saw significant innovations such as mechanical clocks, spectacles, vertical windmills, pintle-and-gudgeon rudders, lateen sails, dry compass, horseshoe, astrolabe, plate armour, steel crossbows, cannon, Gothic architecture, and papermaking.

• The Renaissance era introduced linear perceptivity, double shell domes, Bastion fortresses, movable cast metal type printing press, and the Scientific Revolution.

• The Age of Exploration was enabled by improved sailing ships, such as the nau or carrack, which led to the European colonization of the Americas, as well as the introduction of civil code.

• The Industrial Revolution was characterized by the development of textile machinery, mining, metallurgy, and transport, including the steam engine and machine tools.

• The Second Industrial Revolution saw rapid innovation and industrialization in chemical, electrical, petroleum, and steel technologies, telegraphy, telephone, incandescent light bulbs, electrification, and mass production.

• 20th century advancements included automobiles, military research and development, nuclear power, rocket development, genetic engineering, and the Information Age.

• The Human Genome Project sequenced and identified all three billion chemical units in human DNA, leading to the identification of genetic roots of disease and developing treatments.

• In the 21st century, research is ongoing into quantum computers, gene therapy, 3D printing, nanotechnology, bioengineering/biotechnology, nuclear technology, advanced materials, the scramjet, and drones.Advancements in Science and Technology

• Advancements in particle physics, with the Large Hadron Collider constructed between 1998 and 2008, and better instruments such as larger particle accelerators and better neutrino detectors being developed to expand the understanding of particle physics.

• Genetic engineering technology improving, and the importance of epigenetics on development and inheritance being increasingly recognized.

• New spaceflight technology and spacecraft being developed, such as Boeing's Orion and SpaceX's Dragon 2, with more capable space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Colossus Telescope, and NASA and ESA planning a human mission to Mars in the 2030s.

• Breakthrough Initiatives planning to send the first ever spacecraft to visit another star, which will consist of numerous super-light chips driven by electric propulsion in the 2030s, and receive images of the Proxima Centauri system, along with possibly the potentially habitable planet Proxima Centauri b, by mid-century.

• First crewed commercial spaceflight taking place in 2004.

• Biotechnology, civil engineering, communication, computing, consumer technology, electrical engineering, energy, materials science, measurement, medicine, military, nuclear, science and technology, and transport are all areas experiencing advancements.