Technology And World Civilization : A Thousand Year History

The novel “Guns Germs and Steel”, by Jared Diamond, discusses the affects that science and technology have on society and politics. His ideas are reflective of almost all societies we know today and his explanations dive deep into our world history to show the patterns that occur as innovation excels in cultures and societies. The topics of Diamond’s novel ranges from the time of hunter-gatherer societies to modern Eurasia.

Today, in our society, most people use our abundance of technology without thinking about where any of it came from. For thousands of years man has been creating technology innovations and through the decades, we have made much progress to make our lives easier. For example, the 1910s brought about stainless steel, the 1920s brought Henry Ford´s automobile, the 1930s yielded the jet engine. But, nothing had a more profound effect on the future than the technology brought about in the 1940s.

The Western nations, around the 19th century, began the period of colonization and capturing different parts of the world and making them fall under their rule. The cultural exchange was quite dominant about this time and the exchange of the goods and services added to this exchange process. As Daniel Headrick argues that the 19th and 20th century revolved around the advancements and new inventions without which the period of Imperialism might not have been such a significant part of history.

Kent Edstrom 5th 11/2/14 Technology DBQ Rome and Han China’s attitude toward technology was similar; both civilizations utilized technology to great effect, however, it was to different regards. Even with technology’s benefits, both civilizations had nobles who dismissed technology’s merits. Technology affected infrastructure positively in both of these empires leading to the average man liking technology, however, government involvement in technology had mixed results, leading to mixed feelings towards technology.

In Ancient times, the Han and the Romans were two of the greatest civilizations to ever exist. Although they excelled in technology, the two civilizations had different attitudes toward it. The Han Civilization’s attitude towards technology was more open and welcoming while the Romans were very strict and believed technology would only be used for necessary tasks. The Han Dynasty were more flexible than the Romans when it came to their point of view of technology.

historical events happening in their time as well as the developing technologies. This paper will

The technological revolution spanned many decades, but for the scope of this paper will be limited to the 1990s through the

Arnold Pacey published Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand Year History in the year 1991. Arnold Pacey was an associate lecturer at The Open University in Britain as well as an author to three additional books: Meaning in Technology, The Maze of Ingenuity, The Culture of Technology. He published all four of his books within a ten-year span. Arnold Pacey was trained as an engineer but is well known as a historian of technology because of the conclusions he drew of society and technology and their relationship. Society is defined as the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Technology influences every aspect of our lives today, but we often forget that it profoundly affected the lives of past generations dating back to the beginning of civilization. Perhaps not to today’s extent, but the impact was still dramatic. New inventions or innovations produced more food, created new processes and tools, made life easier and made war more devastating. This course traces the evolution of technology and its impact on civilization from the creation of elementary tools up to today’s latest devices and even looks into future technologies.

In this part of the text, Giedion focuses on the interconnecting relationship between the political, economic, and sociological trend of our time-particularly between 18th to 20th century (the time of industrial revolution). He questions how they came about, along with the historical events that causes them to exist and develop. He begins with explaining that every object in our daily lives has a crucial impact on our behavior. However, our attitude is the leading cause of invention of those objects; creating a loop of action and reaction processes that drives the development of human history (in this case, mechanization in technological advancement). It seems that Giedion focuses more on the impact from mechanization on basic human needs, such as furniture fabrication and household system, in addition to procreation of plants and animals.

As new advancements in technology have been made, some methods of the old world have faded into history and become obsolete, while others have changed to fit into a different niche amongst the new technology.

Mankind has created countless remarkable inventions throughout their time here on earth. The time at which all these inventions were created has everything to do with the technologies and ideas available to the inventors at the time. For example, the record player has been altered and improved constantly since its invention in 1877.

The third artifact to answer my question is a collage. The collage contains images and quotes about technology. During the creation of this collage I realized that technology isn’t just computers or smartphones. It’s anything that has been invented to make the tasks of life easier. Some of the most notable inventions pictured in the collage are: fire (the containment of), simple machines, the steel plow, the steam engine, the airplane, the light bulb, penicillin, the computer, and the internet (Baxter). The main point of the collage is that we increment technology over time, that we affect technology in a way that allows us to progress the abilities of humanity.

In today's world, the real meaning of technology is not understood and known by all. Technological innovations do not worry people, unless of course, they are done to things we eat or use as medications or ones that affect our lives in any way. Often we do not think of things such as seedless fruits and antibiotics as technology. However, if we look deep into the meaning of technology, it is bought about my human beings and changes the environment so our goals can be met and in such a case even fruits become technology. (Cowan 301-326)

Mokyr continues to examine hypotheses and try to devise a more regular idea based on the narrative of technological development. Presenting a hypothesis based on biology, the author's view is that technological

Human 's life style is changing constantly. What drives the development of human history and makes great changes to human’s life? Obviously, the answer is science and technology. We can see enormous examples from human’s history. For example, the Industrial Revolution which took place in Britain started the age of steam and open the world market. The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, had a large significant impact of the world and began the age of electricity. Lots of inventions were created during this time due to the huge development of science and technology, such as plane, car, telephone, television and electric light, which have become the essential part in human’s life. Since science and technology have connected with our lives deeply, everyone has their own stories and understanding about science and technology. Then, I will share my stories and comprehend about science and technology in my essay.