1 Discuss the most important ideas in The PDF chapter titled The Nature of Technology In this reading the main idea was that technology encompasses many more areas of life than are normally thought of The article broadened the definition from the normal one that most people use today Currently the word technology means object like phones computers cars and other electronics But the article claimed that thought processes techniques and societal developments are also a part of technology While initially being confused this claim does make sense For example many of the great empires of the ancient world started as small farming communities that discovered that by banding together they were much stronger and more powerful thus they had made changes to their society These changes helped some of those societies conquer large portions of the known world resulting in other technological advancements Because of this I feel society is always trying to improve itself and that counts as technology advancements The article also discussed the different motivations of exploring new technology It says that the appeal is at least as much in the sophisticated technologies themselves as in the purposes that they serve An example of this would be the chemists who are trying to create new elements by manipulating electrons in atoms They are just as fascinated in the ability to change matter as the practical uses of these new elements I would expect that this fascination with technology comes from our never ending curiosity as most humans have an impulse to learn about things they are not familiar with Currently I feel that technology is defined a lot by the person or people who create them and use them Whether or not the technological advancements are for good or for evil society will benefit from it This includes learning to block certain types of technology resulting in a safer society 2 Discuss how the readings for this week changed your definition of technology After reading The Nature of Technology my definition of technology my definition of technology has changed from a very narrow area to a much larger area encompassing most of life Based on the information in lesson one I have been convinced that technology is anything beneficial sought after by a society both as individuals and as a whole This could include people working together to fix the homeless people problem helping those people personally and helping the community by creating active members that are valuable On the other hand technology could be a hospital working to find ways to cure deadly illnesses All these areas of technology come together to produce a society that is always moving forward towards something better At times on area may slow down drastically like the live style in the middle ages that lasted for hundreds of years At other times an area of technology may skyrocket in speed like our electrical progress in the past 150 years Along with these concepts I believe that every person who has a job is part of advancing technology If each individual puts all their effort at work into doing the best they can they help facilitate progression With many workers doing this the process of advancing technology increases That is how my view has changed concerning the definition of technology 3 Watch The Evolution of Technology video closely and listen to the ideas that it discusses and then give your reaction to it In this video their main point was that technology is always undergoing an evolution process They said that at times it is peaceful but most of the time it is violent The main material technology example of this is how warfare has changed These battles include when one society developed iron weapons to defeat a society using bronze Another change is when the gun was invented It took many lost wars for certain nations to realize that hand to hand weapons were not feasible anymore This concept makes sense to be because if a new technology item or process has been developed that is clearly superior to the previous one there will be a struggle Some will support the new one while others support the old one Logically in most cases the newer better technology wins but this is often a difficult struggle This is like the concept of survival of the fittest The video made the analogy that like animals technology competes for survival Some technologies will continue while others will fall out of use As a result most of the current technology it at its best point in history Logically it makes sense to me that the better technology survives but I never considered how it is so similar to animal survival as well I have always considered the word technology to represent primarily phones computers and other electronic devices The material presented in the first lesson has redefined this word In The Nature of Technology the articles defines technology as a system created by humans that uses knowledge and organization to produce objects and techniques for the attainment of specific goals I had never thought about the fact that individual techniques used in so many fields could be considered technology because of how they were introduced For example the assembly line technique of assembling components was developed by Henry Ford to increase his car production and that has revolutionized factory efficiency The graph comparing the rate of technological increase vs time also interested me My initial inclinations would be that technology would keep on increasing in complexity and number while the graph showed how eventually it will reach a point where it levels off I assume that one reason for this is that we will eventually reach the limit of our current material abilities to improve For example computer companies will probably reach a point where they cannot make their processors any smaller or more powerful due to the material and electronic properties that apply In conclusion I feel that broadening the definition of technology has opened the door for many more areas of discussion and thought on my part