Advanced materials | Air conditioners |
Air purifiers | Aircraft |
Antibiotics | Artificial intelligence |
Augmented reality | Battery systems |
Bicycles | Blockchain |
Business systems | Cameras |
Carbon sequestration systems | Chatbots |
Clocks & watches | Cloud computing |
Cloud platforms | Cloud storage |
Combine harvesters | Computers |
Contact lenses | Cryptography |
Data analytics | Digital currency |
Drones | Electric vehicles |
Electrical grids | Elevators |
Eyeglasses | Fiber-optics |
Gene therapy | Genetic engineering |
Geothermal energy systems | Global positioning system (GPS) |
Headphones & earphones | Hearing aids |
High-speed rail | Holographic displays |
Home automation systems | Hydroelectric power |
Hydroponics systems | Industrial automation systems |
Irrigation systems | Kitchen appliances |
Lights | Medical devices |
Medical imaging equipment | Medical implants |
Medicine | Microchips |
Microscopes | Mobile apps |
Musical instruments | Nanomaterials |
Nanotechnology | Natural language processing |
Networking infrastructure | Nuclear power |
Payment systems | Plumbing |
Quantum computing | Radios |
Record players | Refrigerators |
Robotics | Rockets |
Satellites | Self-healing materials |
Sensors | Ships |
Smart cards | Smart city technology |
Smart glass and windows | Smartphones |
Social media | Software |
Solar panels | Space stations |
Spacecraft | Speakers |
Sports equipment | Streaming media |
Surveillance technologies | Telecommunication networks |
Telescopes | Televisions |
The internet | Tidal energy systems |
Toilets | Tools |
Tractors | Traffic management systems: |
Trains | Vaccines |
Vacuum cleaners | Vertical farming |
Video game consoles | Video game platforms |
Video games | Virtual reality |
Water desalination | Water purification systems |
Weather stations & sensors | Wind turbines |
Wireless technology |
What Qualifies as a Technology?
A technology is any good that could not be produced without scientific or engineering knowledge. This can include tangible things such as a running shoe made with advanced materials and intangible things such as a wifi connection. Most technologies are modern things that have been invented within the past 100 years or so. However, historical things such as an old clock or compass can also be technologies. The following are illustrative examples of technology:Machines
A machine is equipment that performs work using power.A combine harvester is a machine that is used to harvest crops in an efficient way.
Simple Machines
A simple machine is one of six classical mechanical devices: lever, wheel, pulley, inclined plane, wedge and screw. Up until the industrial revolution, it was believed that all machines were some combination of these devices.A bicycle is a simple machine composed of levers, pulleys and wheels.
Equipment
Equipment is a broad term for any physical tool.Sports equipment such as a golf club can be viewed as a technology.
Vehicles
Machines that are used to transport people and cargo.Common vehicles include aircraft, ships, trains, trucks, cars and bicycles.
Computers
Computers are electronic machines that process data.A smart phone is a type of computer that is designed to be portable and network connected.
Software
Computers do little or nothing on their own but are designed to execute instructions known as software.Software has two major types: systems that primarily automate things and applications that are designed to be used by people.
Information Technology
Information technology is a catch-all term for anything that uses computers and software.Information technology is broadly divided into consumer technology that is designed to be used by individuals and enterprise technology that is designed to be used by businesses, governments and other organizations.
Networks
Information technology that is used to communicate and transfer data.Fiber optic cables that are used to transmit data as light.
Sensors
Sensors are a class of device that capture information about the real world.A digital camera is a sensor that captures the properties of light at a point in time.
Robotics
A robot is a machine that is autonomous or semi-autonomous meaning that it can deal with situations without external direction or control.A robot vacuum cleaner that navigates obstacles in a home to clean without any human intervention.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a class of information technology that learns and self-improves.A search engine that learns and improves by processing search queries and information sources.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is any foundational service that is essential to the functions of a society, city or organization.Infrastructure includes hard infrastructure such as a bridge and soft infrastructure such as a stock market.
Energy
Energy production, distribution and storage technologies.Solar panels and related technologies such as residential battery systems.
Materials
Materials that are engineered as opposed to naturally occurring.Ceramics are a category of hard material that are created by heating minerals.
Architecture
Architectural technology includes building materials, components and techniques.Smart windows that automatically let light in or block it out to meet objectives such as heating and cooling a room.
Medical
Medical technology includes information technology, medicines and medical devices.Medicines that are based on medical research are a technology.
Food
Food and food production methods based on scientific knowledge.Artificial foods such as a chemical food additive and technological processes and inputs that are used to grow food such as a pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer or soil conditioner.
Entertainment
Entertaining environments and customer experiences based on technology.A theme park attraction or a video game.
Internet of Things
Products and infrastructure that contain computers that connect to the internet.A pair of running shoes that connect to the cloud to store performance and medical data that can be accessed by a mobile app.
Low Technology
Technology that is relatively simple and inexpensive as compared to popular alternatives.A record player that an individual actively uses as an alternative to modern media such as a streaming music service.
High Technology
Technology that is cutting edge at a point in time. This changes from one year to the next.Cassette tape recorders were high technology in 1963.
Nanotechnology
Any technology smaller than 100 nanometers.Nanotechnology can potentially include materials, machines and information technology such as a very small robot that is used inside the body to attack a disease.
Services
Technologies need not be physical things but can also be services that are completely intangible.A streaming media service that provides music and films on demand.
Space
Spacecraft, satellites and other equipment for use in space or to support space missions from Earth.A space probe is a robotic spacecraft that is used to discover space environments such as planets, moons or comets.
The First Technology
There is evidence that humans had fire control abilities as early as about 1 million years ago. Where some animals use primitive tools such as rocks, no animals control fire in the way humans do. As such, this can be considered the first technology whereby humans applied knowledge gained by systematic observation to transform their environment. Fire control is viewed as a key reason that humans survived history and were able to grow their numbers and expand into new environments.Overview
Technology is more than information technology based on computers and networks. Rather anything that is produced by humans using empirical knowledge can be viewed as technology. Humans are inherently technological beings that produce technology in order to adapt to our environment and thrive.
Summary
Technology is anything that requires science and technology to produce. This can arguably include things like food that is produced with industrial processes using industrial chemicals, machines and materials.
