The Nature of Technology

The Nature of Technology PDF Author: W. Brian Arthur
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439165785
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
“More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being,” says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology’s irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology’s origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. The Nature of Technology is a classic for our times.

The Nature of Technology

The Nature of Technology PDF Author: W. Brian Arthur
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439165785
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
“More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being,” says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology’s irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology’s origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. The Nature of Technology is a classic for our times.

The Nature of Technology

The Nature of Technology PDF Author: Michael P. Clough
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9462092699
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
How does technology alter thinking and action without our awareness? How can instantaneous information access impede understanding and wisdom? How does technology alter conceptions of education, schooling, teaching and what learning entails? What are the implications of these and other technology issues for society? Meaningful technology education is far more than learning how to use technology. It entails an understanding of the nature of technology — what technology is, how and why technology is developed, how individuals and society direct, react to, and are sometimes unwittingly changed by technology. This book places these and other issues regarding the nature of technology in the context of learning, teaching and schooling. The nature of technology and its impact on education must become a significant object of inquiry among educators. Students must come to understand the nature of technology so that they can make informed decisions regarding how technology may influence thinking, values and action, and when and how technology should be used in their personal lives and in society. Prudent choices regarding technology cannot be made without understanding the issues that this book raises. This book is intended to raise such issues and stimulate thinking and action among teachers, teacher educators, and education researchers. The contributions to this book raise historical and philosophical issues regarding the nature of technology and their implications for education; challenge teacher educators and teachers to promote understanding of the nature of technology; and provide practical considerations for teaching the nature of technology.

The Evolution of Technology

The Evolution of Technology PDF Author: George Basalla
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316101584
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.

Confluence

Confluence PDF Author: Sara B. Pritchard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674061233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Because of its location, volume, speed, and propensity for severe flooding, the Rhône, France’s most powerful river, has long influenced the economy, politics, and transportation networks of Europe. Humans have tried to control the Rhône for over two thousand years, but large-scale development did not occur until the twentieth century. The Rhône valley has undergone especially dramatic changes since World War II. Hydroelectric plants, nuclear reactors, and industrialized agriculture radically altered the river, as they simultaneously fueled both the physical and symbolic reconstruction of France. In Confluence, Sara B. Pritchard traces the Rhône’s remaking since 1945. She interweaves this story with an analysis of how state officials, technical elites, and citizens connected the environment and technology to political identities and state-building. In the process, Pritchard illuminates the relationship between nature and nation in France. Pritchard’s innovative integration of science and technology studies, environmental history, and the political history of modern France makes a powerful case for envirotechnical analysis: an approach that highlights the material and rhetorical links between ecological and technological systems. Her groundbreaking book demonstrates the importance of environmental management and technological development to culture and politics in the twentieth century. As Pritchard shows, reconstructing the Rhône remade France itself.

Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences

Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080930743
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 1473

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Book Description
The Handbook Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences addresses numerous issues in the emerging field of the philosophy of those sciences that are involved in the technological process of designing, developing and making of new technical artifacts and systems. These issues include the nature of design, of technological knowledge, and of technical artifacts, as well as the toolbox of engineers. Most of these have thus far not been analyzed in general philosophy of science, which has traditionally but inadequately regarded technology as mere applied science and focused on physics, biology, mathematics and the social sciences. - First comprehensive philosophical handbook on technology and the engineering sciences - Unparalleled in scope including explorative articles - In depth discussion of technical artifacts and their ontology - Provides extensive analysis of the nature of engineering design - Focuses in detail on the role of models in technology

The Nature of Engineering

The Nature of Engineering PDF Author: G F C Rogers
Publisher: Palgrave
ISBN: 9781349066858
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description


The Illusory Boundary

The Illusory Boundary PDF Author: Martin Reuss
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813929881
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This compelling new book challenges the view that a clear and unwavering boundary exists between nature and technology. Rejecting this dichotomy, the contributors show how the history of each can be united in a constantly shifting panorama where definitions of "nature" and "technology" alter and overlap.

Intelligence and Technology

Intelligence and Technology PDF Author: Robert J. Sternberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136778055
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In this volume, Robert J. Sternberg and David D. Preiss bring together different perspectives on understanding the impact of various technologies on human abilities, competencies, and expertise. The inclusive range of historical, comparative, sociocultural, cognitive, educational, industrial/organizational, and human factors approaches will stimula

Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life

Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life PDF Author: Albert Borgmann
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226066290
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Part One - The Problem of Technology 1. Technology and Theory 2. Theories of Technology 3. The Choice of a Theory 4. Scientific Theory 5. Scientific Explanation 6. The Scope of Scientific Explanation 7. Science and Technology Part Two - The Character of Technology 8. The Promise of Technology 9. The Device Paradigm 10. The Foreground of Technology 11. Devices, Means, and Machines 12. Paradigmatic Explanation 13. Technology and the Social Order 14. Technology and Democracy 15. The Rule of Technology 16. Political Engagement and Social Justice 17. Work and Labor 18. Leisure, Excellence, and Happiness 19. The Stability of Technology Part Three - The Reform of Technology 20. The Possibilities of Reform 21. Deictic Discourse 22. The Challenge of Nature 23. Focal Things and Practices 24. Wealth and the Good Life 25. Political Affirmation 26. The Recovery of the Promise of Technology Notes Index.

Nature, Technology, and Society

Nature, Technology, and Society PDF Author: Victor Ferkiss
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814726178
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Ferkiss (emeritus, government, Georgetown U.) delves thoughtfully into how various civilizations and cultures, including Western civilization, have historically looked at humanity, nature, and technology. He then looks at the conflicting attitudes of contemporary thinkers, seeking a balance, but maintaining a bias toward reverence for nature and an unwillingness to allow technology and its owners to set all the terms. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR