Technology is the study of anything that modifies the way things work. Technological change is sometimes referred to as the Third Wave that it was a major influence on society. It is something new, it is different, it is an innovation. It has affected almost everything including how we do things at home, work, and communicate with others. Technology has been present since the dawn of civilization, when man started building things that could be used for more complex purposes, such as the wheel, and later used to build the wheeled items we call the computer, television, cell phones, etc.
The study of technology can be divided into two categories: there are those that use it to enhance human interaction and those that use it to improve scientific investigation and scientific process. Technological change has allowed people to communicate faster and improve their efficiency at work by making things such as cars, planes, communication tools, etc. available to the public at very low cost, the result of which is greater social productivity. Technological change can also be associated with increasing levels of scientific research, the impact of scientific research on society, and the results of scientific research.
In order to better understand the relationship between science and technology, we need to know first what is meant by technology. According to Webster’s dictionary, technology is “the application of scientific knowledge to practical ends, the modification of physical machines, processes, and systems for practical purposes.” In other words, technology is defined as a concrete set of procedures and practices for realizing practical knowledge needed in a particular field so as to enable the application of that knowledge to practical ends. Now in order to be able to define this term properly we have to take into consideration some important philosophical underpinnings as well.
Philosophy refers to our fundamental understanding of the world around us. It is the foundation on which all further understandings are grounded. Therefore, in order to be able to fully understand the relationship between science and technology, we first need to be able to understand the philosophy of science and technology. Science is often viewed as a kind of philosophy of technology, since it usually refers to technological objects and techniques as objects of science. The relationship between science and technology then is often seen as a balance or opposition. It is sometimes phrased as opposing philosophies but in a real sense, both are necessary for human understanding.
In a broad sense, science refers to the systematic study of nature and its workings. Philosophy on the other hand, refers to the systematic study of human understanding about nature and its things like technology. Philosophy has often been seen as an antithesis of technology. After all, how can we study the workings of nature without also studying technological objects and systems? Both science and technology are important to human understanding, but at the same time, technology may sometimes supersede and sometimes complement the more rigid aspects of the human knowledge.
A science is a particular branch of natural philosophy that studies specific areas of the natural world. It might deal with the structure and function of living organisms, how they evolved from their ancestors, how they interact with the environment, how they develop diseases and their modes of survival and how they affect their surroundings. At this point, we arrive at a division of knowledge, a hierarchy of sorts. Human beings have an interest in how the world works, how living things develop, how they grow, how they reproduce, how they survive again. In a broader sense, science can be seen as a field of inquiry that uncovers the basic laws of the universe and thus of life on earth.