Portal:Technology
The Technology Portal
Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia) is the collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings.
The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire and the later Neolithic Revolution increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. Developments in historic times, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale.
Technology has many effects. It has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment. Innovations have always influenced the values of a society and raised new questions of the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar reactionary movements criticize the pervasiveness of technology, arguing that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition.
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In this month
- 7 November 1967 – The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 is signed into law, leading to the creation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service, and National Public Radio
- 15 November 1971 – The first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (pictured), is announced in an advertisement in Electronic News
- 19 November 2006 – Wii Sports, the best selling video game of all time, is released as a launch title and pack-in game for the Nintendo Wii
- 23 November 1993 – National Science and Technology Council established in the US by Executive Order 12881
Did you know...
- ... that the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau produced the Soviet Union's only operational nuclear rocket engine?
- ... that the Persian king Cyrus the Younger invented the scythed chariot (pictured)?
- ... that Mercedes Reaves, a Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist, is responsible for the design of a viable, full-scale solar sail at the NASA Langley Research Center?
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Main topics
Technological aspect of idea concepts and issues – Appropriate technology • Clean technology • Diffusion of innovations in science • Doomsday device • Ecotechnology • Environmental technology • High technology • History of science and technology • History of technology • Industry • Innovation • Knowledge economy • Persuasion technology • Pollution • Posthumanism • Precautionary principle • Research and development • Science, technology, and society • Strategy of technology • Superpowers • Sustainable technology • Technocapitalism • Technocriticism • Techno-progressivism • Technological convergence • Technological evolution • Technological determinism • Technological diffusion • Technological singularity • Technology acceptance model • Technology assessment • Technology lifecycle • Technology transfer • Technology Tree • Technorealism • Timeline of invention • Transhumanism
Technologies and applied sciences – Aerospace • Agriculture, Agricultural science & Agronomy • Architecture • Artificial intelligence • Automation • Automobile • Big Science • Biotechnology • Cartography • Chemical engineering • Communication • Computing (Computer science, List of open problems in computer science, Programming, Software engineering, Information technology, Computer engineering) • Construction • Design • Electronics • Energy development • Energy storage • Engineering • Ergonomics • Firefighting • Forensics • Forestry • Free software • Health sciences • Health Informatics • Industry • Information science • Internet • Library and information science • Machines • Management • Manufacturing • Mass communication • Mass production • Medicine (Unsolved problems in neuroscience) • Military science • Military technology and equipment • Mining • Nanotechnology • Nuclear technology • Packaging and labeling • Processes • Robotics • Space exploration • Technology forecasting • Telecommunications • Tools • Transport • Vehicles • Weapons
News
- October 18: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren releases DNA test results, asks Donald Trump to make promised donation
- October 12: Manned Soyuz space mission aborts during launch
- October 10: UN Report on Global Warming calls for rapid 'unprecedented' changes globally to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degree C
- September 26: Study suggests Mars hosted life-sustaining habitat for millions of years
- September 20: NASA's TESS spacecraft reports its first exoplanet
- August 25: Fossil genome shows hybrid of two extinct species of human
- July 31: Total lunar eclipse occurs in July 2018
- July 21: Cretaceous baby snake fossil found in Myanmar
- July 19: US astronomers announce discovering ten tiny Jovian satellites
- June 10: New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities
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