What Does Technology Want The definition of technology and what it means to me

Ever since I could remember, I was swarmed with technology. It was and still is everywhere that I look, from the tv on wall to the phone in my pocket. And in this generation and beyond, more new ideas will sprout to become more than I could possibly imagine. But with all these new ideas and devices that come out, we tend to think of it more as just an item and not the powerhouse of information that it really is. Especially with my generation of kids, they feel that newer is better and they don’t stop for a moment to think what this piece of technology really is. And trust me, I’m guilty of it too. I can vividly remember when I was in the 5th grade, the new iphone 5 had just come out and it was the talk of the whole school. The problem was that I had just got my first phone which was in fact the iphone 4. Looking back, I was being spoiled saying that this phone was a piece of junk and it's not the one I wanted. But going back to my previous statement, we as human beings don’t ask ourselves what technology means and what does it mean in terms of the things that you own. Recently, being assigned to this topic of technology, I’ve been asking this to myself over and over and more often than not, I catch myself looking more in detail at the objects that we consider to be technology. And again I wonder, what technology really means and how did it form the way the world operates today.

"the best way to predict the future is to invent it." -Alan kay

Throughout the ages, technology has been defined by many different things and people. In short, there is no exact definition of what technology is. Whereas someone today could view a self driving car as amazing, but at the same time 100 years ago, a person could say that the very idea of a car was out of this world. That's why it always amazed me how the term technology and how it could be extremely broad and extremely narrow at the same time. There is however a definition that Allen Kay, a polymath who's worked for many different companies, including Apple, says that “Technology is anything that was invented after you were born.” By stating this, I believe that he correctly sums up the way people feel about the world today. What I mean is that anything from cars, refrigerators, and things of that nature all seem like ordinary everyday objects and for my generation, cd players, and a radio to be sort of out dated. Another thing I'd like to talk about is something that Kevin Kelly said, a well-known writer of the topic of science and technology. He says it is comparable to the evolution of man and the more and more we grow, technology grow as well. And I believe this i best sums up advancement in technology and how it always builds upon itself as time progresses.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." – Arthur C. Clarke
"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." – Thomas Edison

“To truly understand what technology is, we must ask ourselves what technology wants.” These are also the words of Kevin Kelly. He says that we must figure out what is tendency or bias over time. I took this question under much consideration through my quest for an answer. For this question, there is no one specific response I found. Instead, it all comes down to perspective of what you see in the question and how one could interpret it, thusly causing there to be instead multiple ways to answer this. If asked this question up front, my response would be that technology wants to eliminate all human problem and become ubiquitous throughout the state of being. It wants to become an expansion of the human mind and help it grow even further into the world of the discoverable.

There might be new technology, but technological progress itself was nothing new - and over the years it had not destroyed jobs, but created them. - Margaret Thatcher

Technology is a big influence in many different situations. It can affect how people do things, when they do them, and why they do it. As I stated before in my small story, it can also affect people on a social level as well. This new form of social technology has become a very common and popular way of communicating. An article done by producers at MIT says that the internet and social media is connecting the world more and more with a vast amount of information. Many people today say that technology is hurting the young community and that it's ruining their minds. But MIT says that “social relationships are being reconstructed on the basis of individual interests, values, and projects. Community is formed through individuals’ quests for like-minded people in a process that combines online interaction with offline interaction, cyberspace, and the local space.”

Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1 1/2 tons. - Popular Mechanics, 1949

From the things and information that I have gathered and learned, I can confidently say that I know what technology means to me and even what it means in general. To me, technology is an extension of the human mind, ideas that strive to full the creativity of man, and the satisfaction of creating something that benefits not only the creator, but all that use it. Technology wants what to advance until there isn’t anything to advance; much like humans want for advancement as well. I learned to respect the power that it holds and what it can do for mankind. So looking back, I should have respected my first phone, for it held more information that I knew what to do with.

Made with Adobe Slate

Make your words and images move.

Get Slate

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.