by Over, the last few hundred years, science and technology have both changed a tremendous amount, and society’s understanding of the two words today is very different than how we used to view them. After reading articles by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and David Nye, it is easier to see the progression of the two terms and how they currently play a role in our lives.
According to Collins Dictionary, science “is the study of the nature and behavior of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them.” In this definition, science is not bounded by the only things that can be proven as fact, and instead, anything we gain from observing nature can be considered science. I tend to agree with this definition, however, scholars like Karl Popper believe that only science that follows the empirical method of testing a hypothesis to see whether or not it is false, is legitimate. I see the importance of creating a replicable experiment in order to fact check a particular hypothesis, but I don’t think we should rule out pseudoscience when thinking about what is actually science and what is not. For example, Popper does not think that Sigmund Freud’s epic of the Id, Ego, and Superego should fall under the umbrella of science because “they contain most interesting psychological suggestions, but not in testable form” (Page 38). I disagree and think that Freud’s theory should still be counted as science because it is still the study of the behavior of natural things. Even Popper himself mentions that science ultimately derives from myths, so I do not think we should ignore an idea in science just because it cannot be replicated perfectly in an experiment.
The way our society has understood the word technology has greatly changed in the last century. According to David Nye, “‘Technology’ remains an unusually slippery term. It became a part of everyday English little more than 100 years ago. For several hundred years before then, it meant a technical description. Then it gradually became a more abstract term that referred to all the skills, machines, and systems one might study at a technical university” (Page 15). Technology once referred to simply the process of creating new inventions. Nowadays, we think of iPhones and electric cars as being technology, rather than their technical descriptions. The Collins Dictionary considers technology to be the “methods, systems, and devices which are the result of scientific knowledge being used for practical purposes.” I completely agree with this definition of technology and consider technology to be all-encompassing of any improvement we’ve made to help our society in any facet of life.
In conclusion, the terms science and technology have varied in exact definition over the years, but looking back on their history, I think they’ve always held the same meaning. Scholars will continue to debate the exact definition of each term, especially science, but in the end, they will always represent the progress our society has made over time and the process we took to get there.