Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in

a reproducible way.[1] The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such
efforts,[2][3] including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such
as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.[4]

Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known
technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in
turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during
the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis.[5] The invention of the wheel in the Bronze
Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent
technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have
lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy.

While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity, it can
also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion, and can cause social harms
like technological unemployment resulting from automation. As a result, philosophical
and political debates about the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology, and ways
to mitigate its downsides are ongoing.[6]

Etymology

Technology is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment'
(from Greek Τεχνολογία, from the Greek: τέχνη, romanized: tékhnē, lit. 'craft, art' and -λογία (-
logíā), 'study, knowledge').[7][8] It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek word τέχνη (tékhnē),
used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like
architecture.[9]

Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms Technik (German)
or technique (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as
dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments.[10] At the
time, Technologie (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the
"methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions
of the arts and crafts."[11] The distinction between Technik and Technologie is absent in English,
and so both were translated as technology. The term was previously uncommon in English and
mostly referred to the academic discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[12]

In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial
Revolution, technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on the
meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends.[13]

History
Main articles: History of technology and Timeline of historic inventions

Prehistoric

Main article: Prehistoric technology

A person holding a hand axe

Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error.[14] Around
2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a
pebble, forming a sharp hand axe.[15] This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago)
into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work.[16]

The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made by
man".[17] Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous [human] fire-use" at
least 1.5 Mya.[18] Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food
to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods
that could be eaten.[19] The cooking hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an
increase in hominid brain size, though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive.
[20]
Archaeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to
have intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language.
[21][22]

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter.[23] No
consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archaeologists
have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya[24] and shelter 450 kya.[23] As the
Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early
as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts.[25][26] Clothing, adapted from the
fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began
to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to Eurasia.[27][28][29]

Neolithic

Main article: Neolithic Revolution

 An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe
heads, chisels, and polishing tools

The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution) brought about an acceleration of
technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity.[30] The invention of the
polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance and farming.
[31]
This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was originally used in
the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland.[32] Agriculture fed larger populations,
and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants
no longer needed to be carried around by nomads. Additionally, children could contribute labor
to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in hunter-gatherer activities.[33][34]

With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor
specialization.[35] What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities,
such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the
emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war
among adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental
challenges such as irrigation, are all thought to have played a role.[36]

The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for
history, libraries, schools, and scientific research.[37]

Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time, the
ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead – native metals found in relatively pure
form in nature.[38] The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone and wooden tools were
quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably used from near the
beginning of Neolithic times (about 10 kya).[39] Native copper does not naturally occur in large
amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when
burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery
of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel
dates to around 1,800 BCE.