The Nature of Technology

Technology is the collective application of scientific, technological, organizational, and social practices in order to accomplish a goal. Technology has changed vastly over the years. In the broadest sense, technology is used to advance knowledge, solve problems, create new products or services, or upgrade an existing product or service. In the narrower sense, technology deals with the use of machines, materials, and information processes for particular purposes. The total definition of technology is a combination of the three aspects listed above. The four key technologies that define technology are information technology, physical sciences, engineering, and software/hardware/coder technologies.

Information technology, as the name suggests, is all the science and technology that have to do with the exchange of information throughout the physical and logical environment. Information technology therefore includes programming, architecture, database, networking, protocols, and communication. All these are applied in computer science, which is another term for information technology. It is one of the most important fields and there are more job openings for people who have expertise in this field now than there have been in almost half a century.

Physical sciences, on the other hand, encompasses all the physical science that deals with how science and technology interact with the world around us. Physical sciences include physics, astronomy, geology, and chemistry. Engineering is involved in the design and manufacture of physical products and systems. Software/hardware/coder technologies are those involved in creating computer software, producing and supporting network applications, and implementing hardware and firmware programs for software applications.