Reporting on our first course meeting

We sought to ask the question: What is technology? What came up as answers were
a) Technology can be a process.
b) Technology can be a product.
c) Technology can be a concept.
d) Technology can be a framework of thinking, or an attitude.
The point is also what we mean by each of these ... what is a product? Is it the same as commodity?What is a process?
There seemed to be a lot of arguments about the above. Some thought of technology as tangible products like a cell phone, clothes and automobiles. Some thought of it as the very idea of networks of communication. Someone proposed the idea that technology is a meeting of science and engineering. But in that case one would have to define what science and engineering are as well. And once defined one can further ask if engineering is closer to human reality than science is. A further question was can we consider an artisan’s work as technology? A potter for example uses clay and a wheel as well as his knowledge of making a pot to create the final product. Then, is the pot technology? Is the process of making the pot technology? Is the technical knowledge required to make the pot technology?
 A very interesting relationship between science and technology was proposed by one student where technology is the present process that produces something, and this becomes knowledge, i.e. science, when it becomes established, accepted.

Why should one study all of the above? Answers included
a) If I propose to create new technology I must know how to “sell” it.
b) Everyone seems to be excited about technology but how many of them understand it? Should they?
c) I feel it is imperative that in an age when you are obsolete within a day and new technologies are emerging so rapidly that it is almost imperative that one understands how societies at large process technological advances.
Further questions included a) Does our understanding of what is deemed as technology change with time? Something as mundane as clothing/shoes although a product of technology or technology itself does not resonate with the idea of being technology in an age where electronic goods seem to carry more market value.
b) However is a new shoe that Reebok sells to you to perhaps improve your posture new technology?
c) Does technology precede science? One respondent claimed that early technologies became scientific knowledge and thus humans have been creating technologies ever since they have existed.
d) Is technology something I do not understand but I use?
e) If the above is true why is the understanding of technology and its interaction with society important to our discussions?

The course will look at technology from three aspects -
a) From the perspective of tradition, society and history
b) From the perspective of economics, politics and markets
c) As technology itself.

In the next meeting, scheduled for 3 pm, Tuesday, 18th January, we will discuss what happens when these products/ processes 'enter' society. Are they products/ processes that enter society, or are they a part of society? Where are the separations/ connections between technology and its users?
                                                                                                           thanks Ajay for this report