by While science and technology play an increasingly important role in our daily lives, defining these two terms accurately can be difficult. The vastness of the two subjects can be difficult to bring together in one sentence. What do natural sciences, behavioral sciences, computer sciences, and any other branch of science have in common that could umbrella all of these areas? With all of the technological advances of the past centuries, can we still rely on the same definition of “technology” that has been used for the last two centuries? In chapter 6 of Thomas Khun’s Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, and David Nye’s Technology Matters, evidence of science as an imperfect, yet progressive study and technology as a continuously evolving term supports my initial definition of the two terms: Science can be thought of as the study of the world around us conducted through the use of hypotheses and experiments, while technology is the advancement of knowledge brought upon by the work of various fields of science.
Science, as a discipline, is centered around the goal of forming hypotheses and conducting experiments. This is in an attempt to record findings that could potentially change the way we understand topics that we may have thought that we already had a concrete understanding of. Khun describes the “unknown” factor of science and its importance when he states: “New and unsuspected phenomena are, however, repeatedly uncovered by scientific research” (Kuhn 52). The phenomena that are discovered through controlled, credible experiments shows why the standing definition of science must have the report of experimenting as a basis. Because science itself is not a concrete ideology (due to discoveries and phenomena), the highlight of methodically attempting to innovate in a scientific field shows the need to include the “unknown” in my definition of science. While science can help explain the world that surrounds us, a continuation of the process can reveal more of the ideas that we had previously thought we had known all about.
The definition of technology, like most words, has evolved throughout history. The 1700s viewed technology in a sense that the knowledge of something, rather than a tangible object, was the correct view of technology.In his writings, Nye states that: “By the early eighteenth century, a characteristic definition was ‘a description of the arts, especially the mechanical’” (Nye 11). The mechanical aspect of this statement shows that fields of study that we associate with technology today (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) were still the focal point of technology in the eighteenth century. However, unlike the later definition of the word, there is no mention of the focus of physical inventions in terms of technology. This is because knowledge sources, such as writings and tradesmen who excel at their craft, were seen as technology, as they held the knowledge that allowed the ability to create. A notable shift in the definition came about 30 years ago in the dawn of the computer age. A vastly different focus in the definition of technology exists in this modern time period, as Nye writes: “The word’s meaning was further complicated in the 1990s, when newspapers, stock traders, and bookstores made “technology” a synonym for computers, telephones, and ancillary devices” (Nye 15). Because of the creation of these ultra-modern inventions, a change in definition to focus on them followed suit. As opposed to the “old” version of knowledge and ability, technology became a classification of the gadgets and machines that guided us into the most complex era of mankind.
Science and technology remain difficult to define, but general ideas of each practice are widely accepted. Science as an understanding of the world around us greatly depends on methods of hypothesis and experimentation, leaving the door open for our previous findings in areas of science to be restructured and even rewritten entirely. Science evolves as new information is found, just like how the definition of technology evolves with the world around us. From the idea of knowledge in the 1700s to the tangible, complex inventions of the 21st century, the definition of technology has been reshaped to label the most intricate pieces of machinery that exist today. However, wouldn’t the technology of today (computers, smartphones, etc.) be just as highly valued in the 18th-19th century with historic creations such as the cotton gin, steamboats, and the telephone itself? Despite this claim, technology has gone from the idea of “knowledge” to the physical hardware I am currently typing this blog on. Even extending past physical inventions, new “technology” such as cloud computing/storage, artificial intelligence, and other futuristic technologies may even cause a new shift in the definition of technology in the near future. Whether it comes tomorrow or in 50 years, surely our understanding of both science and technology will continue to evolve.
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Image 1: http://web.colby.edu/st112a-fall20/files/2020/08/gettyimages-50693712.jpg