History of Technology

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of
organization in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. The word technology comes
from Greek τεχνολογία (technología); from τέχνη (téchnē), meaning "art, skill, craft", and -λογία
(-logía), meaning "study of-".[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas:
examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology.

Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and
adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use of technology began with the
conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to
control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans
in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including
the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to
communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all
technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing
destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies,
technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy)
and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-
products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its
environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new
technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of
efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the
challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with
disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-
Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology
in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of
ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological
progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed
that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific
studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools
and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are very grateful to Prof. Shahzad Anwar For teaching us curriculum of Management
Information System (MIS). . His versatile knowledge in marketing field and unique teaching
style has developed our knowledge and cleared many marketing concepts.

We are all the most grateful to him for assigning this project, which has further helped us in
evaluating many interrelated dimensions of (MIS) field.

Definition and Usage of Technology

The use of the term technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th
century, the term was uncommon in English, and usually referred to the description or study of
the useful arts. The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861). "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th
century in connection with the second industrial revolution. The meanings of technology
changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein
Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into "technology." In German and
other European languages, a distinction exists between Technik and Technologie that is absent in
English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology"
referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves. In 1937, the
American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils,
weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills
by which we produce and use them." Bain's definition remains common among scholars today,
especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied
science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study
technology reject this definition. More recently, scholars have borrowed from European
philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of
instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on technologies of the self ("techniques de soi").

Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The Merriam-Webster dictionary
offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular
area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge". Ursula Franklin, in her
1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice,
the way we do things around here". The term is often used to imply a specific field of
technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as
a whole. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the
pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by
the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage,
technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a
far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more
complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not
be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this
definition of technology.

The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it
is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired
products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills,
processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as
"medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's
knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to
humanity in any field.

Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture. Additionally, technology
is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern
example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human
interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has, at its
basis, the development of the Internet and the computer. Not all technology enhances culture in a
creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as
guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which
formalize some aspects of technological endeavor.

Information technology has a significant role in almost all areas of business. In fact, nowadays,
almost every kind of business has IT as one of its main components-- in office applications,
account software and other applications used in specific sectors.IT is used for monitoring areas
of the company that are not utilizing resources efficiently. For instance, Dell made use of real-
time inventory and supply monitoring to produce only that number of computer systems that
were demanded by Dell customers, reducing the cost of overproduction.
 Types of Information System

Information Systems perform important operational and managerial support roles in businesses
and other
organizations. Therefore, several types of information systems can be classified conceptually as
either:

 Operations Support Systems

 Management Support Systems

 Operations Support Systems

Information systems are needed to process data generated by and used in business operations.
Such operation
support systems (OSS) produce a variety of information products for internal and external use.
However, they do
not emphasize producing the specific information products that can best be used by managers.
Further processing by management information systems is usually required. The role of a
business firm’s operations support systems is to:

 Effectively process business transactions

 Control industrial processes

  Support enterprise communications and collaboration

Update corporate databases

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
Focus on processing the data generated by business transactions and operations. Transaction
processing systems
record and process data resulting from business transactions (sales, purchases, inventory
changes). TPS also
produce a variety of information products for internal or external use (customer statements,
employee paychecks,
sales receipts etc.).
TPS process transactions in two basic ways:
Batch Processing
- transactions data is accumulated over a period of time and processed periodically.
Real-time (or online) processing - data is processed immediately after a transaction occurs.
Process Control Systems (PCS) - Process control systems are systems, which make use of
computers to control
ongoing physical processes. These computers are designed to automatically make decisions,
which adjust the
physical production process. Examples include petroleum refineries and the assembly lines of
automated factories.
Enterprise Collaboration Systems - Enterprise collaboration systems are information systems that
use a variety of
information technologies to help people work together. Enterprise collaboration systems help us:
Collaborate- to communicate ideas:

Share resources:
Co-ordinate our cooperative work efforts as members of the many formal and informal process
and project
teams
The goal of enterprise collaboration systems is to use information technology to enhance the
productivity and
creativity of teams and workgroups in the modern business enterprise.
Management Support Systems (MSS) -
Management support systems focus on providing information and support for effective decision
making by
managers. They support the decision-making needs of strategic (top) management, tactical
(middle) management,
and operating (supervisory) management. Conceptually, several major types of information
systems support a
variety of decision-making responsibilities:

o Management Information Systems (MIS) :

 o Decision Support Systems (DSS) :

o Executive Information Systems (EIS):

Management information systems are the most common form of management support
systems. They provide

managerial end users with information products that support much of their day-to-day decision-
making needs. MIS provide a variety of prespecified information (reports) and displays to
management that can be used to help them make more effective, structured types of day-to-day
decisions. Information products provided to managers include displays and reports that can be
furnished:
•
On demand
•
Periodically, according to a predetermined schedule
•
Whenever exceptional conditions occur
Decision support systems provide managerial end users with information in an interactive
session on an ad hoc (as
needed) basis. Managers generate the information they need for more unstructured types of
decisions in an
interactive, computer-based information system that uses decision models and specialized
databases to assist the
decision-making processes of managerial end users.
Executive information systems provide top and middle management with immediate and easy
access to selective
information about key factors that are critical to accomplishing a firm’s strategic objectives. EIS
are easy to
operate and understand.
Other Classifications of Information Systems:
Several other categories of information systems that support either operations or management
applications include:

• Expert Systems :

• Knowledge Management Systems :

• Functional Business Information Systems :

• Strategic Information Systems

 Importance of Technology in today’s business

The technological advances achieved in the past few decades have brought about a revolution in
the business world, affecting nearly all aspects of working life. People can reach others
throughout the world in a matter of seconds, with cost being increasingly irrelevant. Employees
no longer need to be physically with their clients and co-workers; instead they can communicate
effectively at home, at a distant office, across the world, and even in their car or on an airplane.
With technology's penetration into every business function executives have seen first-hand how
it gives them access to well-organized, quality information they can use to make better decisions,
and how it fundamentally supports the day-to-day running of their business. Getting a manager
to accept the new world of information technology is only part of the equation. The other part,
getting employees to sign on to the new technology, requires patience and a deep understanding
of human nature

There's also a fear that new technology will either displace personnel into new and unfamiliar job
functions or replace them altogether for the sake of cutting costs.

The advent of the Information Age has spawned new technologies capable of improving nearly
every aspect of business. The invention of the telephone, fax machine, and more recent
developments in wireless communications and video-conferencing have offered businesses more
flexibility and efficiency, and those willing to embrace these new technologies found they were
more likely to survive and prosper. The result is today's heavily technical workplace, where
"proficiency with complex phone systems, fax machines, and often-networked computers are
basic essentials." (Main) Today, business and management continue to be transformed by high
technology. In order to keep pace with the increased speed and complexity of business, new
means of calculating, sorting and processing information are being...

It is probably an understatement to suggest that technology has changed the way that business is
done in today's world. So many technological advancements have occurred in the last couple of
decades, and even greater innovations seem to be on the horizon. The information age is in full
force and nearly every business or organization has a digital component. Whether this trend is
positive or negative may never be determined but it certainly is different. Here are a few
thoughts on the effects of technology in today's business world.

The medium is the message

What has happened in many realms is that the business itself has become technology. Many large
and influential companies have been built on a platform of technological tools. Cell phones,
computers, and Internet sites are all products, and while they may be used for other things, they
have become a commodity in and of themselves. Whether we "need" certain items is irrelevant to
the general public. People buy technology because it has become a part of the culture, even if it
does not product anything productive. Rather than trading crops or energy, people are trading
technological tools and information.

Daily communication:
Technology has caused communication to change drastically, both on a personal level and a
global level. It seems that everyone today carries a cell phone, and many people almost feel lost
if they forget their phone at home. Email and text messages have also changed the way that
people interact on a daily basis. Sometimes the technology is so entrenched, that people will send
an email to a co-worker who is sitting five feet away. Granted, technological communication has
helped connect distant people in an efficient manner, but critics still worry that people have lost
that "human" touch.

Shrinking world:
Technology has made national and international commerce a much more feasible reality. Today,
people and businesses can buy and sell with people all over the world. In past history it might
have taken months for a letter to go from one party to another. Now, an email can reach someone
in seconds, and a transaction can be completed with the push of a button. While this is terribly
convenient for some businesses, it does make some people impatient when they actually have to
wait for things. Without historical perspective, people can lose touch with how much power and
convenience they have at their fingertips.
Dependency:
Finally, technology has changed business to the point where the technological tools are more
than just mechanisms for doing work. People have grown addicted to their technology, and when
things break or "go down", some individuals literally do not know what to do with themselves. It
will be interesting to see how humanity "develops" over the next decade or two. Technology is
wonderful, but humans are still social creatures.

Software:

Software is an important
part of information technology which relates to computer applications that enable a company to
generate, store, program, and retrieve data as and when needed. There are many softwares
developed for different purposes. All operations in the business sector are carried out by
software that are assigned for executing specific tasks. Without these computer applications the
businesses wouldn't have been able to carry out their functions in a proper and efficient manner.
Operating systems, ERPs, special purpose applications, and web browsers are some examples
of different software’s. There is some software which are exclusively built to contribute to the
proper collaborative working of all sections of the businesses, which are known as Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP). These are complex applications which enable people to efficiently
manage all functions and operations of all processes in the businesses.

These are various computer equipment’s that house the software’s. Devices like
microcomputers, mid-size servers, and huge mainframe systems are some examples of
hardware. Businesses have to maintain a huge collection of important data. For this purpose,
they employ these devices which are responsible for storing confidential company data and
retrieving it back when required. Other hardware devices include network devices that are used
for providing Internet access to the businesses to work and communicate expeditiously. There
are even devices which enable manufacturing tools and equipments to work accurately in the
industrial sector.

Small scale businesses need to buy software packages that would cater to their specific
management, operational, and functional needs. For this purpose, they need to
approach firms and IT manufacturers who deal in such software applications. Other IT
services include Internet marketing and email marketing, web hosting and promotions,
and maintaining client networks. Larger businesses on the other hand have their own
operational and functional employees who develop software applications and work on
several IT needs of the businesses. They usually purchase ERP software’s to
coordinate different processes and functions into a single application, which is actually
more convenient.

Need of technology
We need technology, and yet every new technology places new demands upon us and creates
new forms of stress. We can't live with it, but we can't live without it. There is no turning back to
some pre-technological Eden. Aristotle rightly described man as an animal that lives by
technology. The human race lives by art and reasoning. 1 Other animals come as complete
packages. Their sense powers and instinctive programming are infallible within the limits of their
particular ecological niche. Their organs (their hardware) and their instincts (software) are
tailored to specific activities. As Aristotle said, they sleep with their shoes on.

The other animals have each only way method of defence and cannot exchange it for another.
Whereas the human is physically weaker, by the use of his hands he can create any tool that any
other animal has. 2 Our weakness is our strength, as the lack of any specialized defensive organs
makes us free to be versatile. Likewise, we are poorly equipped with instincts.

When we are born, we are able to breathe and swim by virtue of an

interior program, call it an instinct. At a certain point the breathing
instinct starts to fade and the newborn child must make a conscious
effort to breathe. If he fails to make the transition, so it is thought, the
result is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Our entire behavioral repetoire
is made up of what Aristotle would call "art" or "techne". Interestingly
enough, the child learns with greater ease how to breathe if he sleeps in proximity to his parents,
as has been surmised by the low incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome among cultures
where that is the norm. Thus, even breathing is a piece of know-how passed on culturally.

In a broad sense, then, technology forms our environment. This environment remains
unperceived unless we are separated from it, as a fish does not know what water is until it is
beached. The particular technological environment wherein we are nurtured is incorporated into
our being. It forms who we are. We do not need to make any special effort to learn it. Rather, it
is learned by absorption. Marshall McLuhan noted the ease with which we learn when learning is
put in an environmental context.

We probably all have personal experience relating to how people relate to computer technology.
Some people, children more than adults, jump right in to using the machine. Others view the
machine with apprehension, hitting the panic button every time they cannot make it perform.
Those who adapt to it treat it with the same familiarity as one treats a pet animal, and they learn
quickly by trying different things. The apprehensive despair of learning the theoretical intricacies
of files and directories. The computer, then, is for the first group part of the environment. For the
second group, it is an external irritant in the environment to which they have grown accustomed.

Some may differ, but I think that the telephone is every bit as complex
to use as a computer, or as the internet, but we do not have community
colleges offerring courses on the use of the telephone to the
apprehensive. Neither do we have prominent politicians pushing for a
phone in every classroom, as they presently push for Internet Terminals
in every classroom. The reasoning would be the same. After all, since
you can reach anyone in the world with a phone, wouldn't it enhance the learning process to let
students spend their time calling people and learning? This is the approach some educators take
to the Internet.

The phone is environmental, and we have more or less learned to put it in its place. We use
phones as naturally as a dog wags its tail, and we miss the phone in its absence as if it were part
of our body. Possibly when the Internet is environmental, the childish enthusiasm would subside.
Another consideration is that the Internet technology will change constantly, especially as to the
bandwidth, or the amount of information that can be carried, and to install hardware on a massive
scale in classrooms, such as some politicians have proposed, would be to burden the system with
equipment that would be probably be outdated even while it is being put in place.

Aristotle pointed out that every organ, and organon is simply the
greek word for instrument or tool, can be understood only in
relation to its utility to the organism. Every technology is likewise an
extension of our own natural powers, and can be reduced back to
some natural need. This is to say that technology can be understood in
terms of final cause, or purpose, and that purpose is a purpose of the
living human being. Every instrument or tool has objective effects, in terms of results both
intended and not intended, the work done. The objective effects of technology are easy to study
by conventional methods. Every invention comes from the desire to enhance an existing natural
function, to accelerate it. This implies that the objective effects of technology can be studied in a
quantitative manner. The objective benefits of one car over another can be measured by speed
and fuel consumption. The deaths that result from the use of cars, compared with the time saved
by the use of cars, and the pollution produced by various types of fuel are easily tabulated.

The subjective effects of technology are more difficult to study by

conventional methods. The subjective effects are the many ways in
which the user of a technology is shaped by its use. These effects cannot
be treated simply in a quantitative manner. The assimilation of a new
technology and technological environment creates a new type of human existence, and that is
qualitative. Statistical studies based on what can be counted and measured, the accepted
approach to the impact of technology, are of limited use. A statistical study is a priori limited in
that a decision must be made to measure a certain factor, which means that the investigator must
fix in stone what he is going to find before he finds it, and to reduce the complexity of change to
manageable quantities. Gilbert Keith Chesterton pointed out with gentle sarcasm the self-
imposed blindness of the scholar in the face of real change:

They were not merely mentioning the things they remembered, but remembering the
things they were supposed to mention. Their minds had recorded only the things that were
suited to the records and writing only the records that were suited to the official record
office.

To be attune to the effects of technology, we cannot suppose that when some

activity is accelerated by technology, the result will be simply that the same
things will happen in the same way as before in every aspect except for speed. In
nature, there are no linear processes that go on to infinity. If you continually heat
water, you do not merely get continually hotter water, but at a certain point it
boils. If a tap is dripping with regularity, increased flow does not merely cause it
drip at a faster regularity, but the rhythm changes to non-periodic, and then turns
to a regular flow. Likewise, when the flow of information is increased, you do not
merely have the same people doing the same things with added speed, but there are sudden
qualitative changes in the way people live and perceive. Following past trends is not helpful,
because the changes effected will be in areas that were not accepted as worthy of study.
Chesterton writes of those who trust in official records: "They had not the disinterestedness or
detachment of gossip.
In conclusion, the technology sources available to people greatly influence their lives and on the
other hand people have influence on technology’s development and how it is used.

We have discussed the importance of technology in the various areas of our lives and the
influence of technology sources in each one of them.

I have also countered each good effect of the technology sources with what I think are the
negative effects of the wrong use of technology sources. I am of the opinion that technology is
not harmful to any person on the face of this earth, unless he wants to use it for destructive or
selfish purposes

Reference:

 Google

 Wikipedia

 Answer.com

 Scribd