Technology focuses on the development and use of tools, processes and systems for accomplishing specific ends. Its purpose is to make human life easier and more efficient.
Technology has many applications and can be found in almost every sector of society, including transportation, communications, medicine, science, manufacturing, construction, and technology transfer. However, many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources, and may cause harm to individuals or groups.
Creating technologies involves ongoing attempts to bring the world closer to the way one wishes it to be, often through an iterative process of discovery and deliberation. Joseph Dunne argues that “the technologist is not calculating efficiency towards a predetermined end, but is choosing what kind of future will materialize from his or her scientific understanding of the present world.”
Technological development requires a systematic step-by-step process. Each succeeding stage validates the underlying ideas, improves the processes and systems involved, and tests them against reality.
The result is a product that is usually more complex and painstaking to design, manufacture and maintain than it would have been if the first idea had been translated directly into a workable solution. This can sometimes lead to seemingly promising early technologies failing to achieve any real success.
The process of creating technology involves the synthesis of scientific findings and engineer’s ideas into practical, usable products or services. In addition, it is often necessary to consider broader ethical issues when applying scientific and engineering knowledge to the creation of new technologies.