“Technology within the lengthy-run does not matter”. It is exactly what a person of mine explained after i designed a presentation to him about something new. I used to be speaking concerning the product’s benefits and features and listed “condition-of-the-art technology” or something like that to that particular effect, among them. Then he earned his statement. I recognized later he was correct, a minimum of inside the context of methods I made use of “Technology” within my presentation. However I started considering whether he or she is in other contexts too.

What’s Technology?

Merriam-Webster defines it as being:

1

a: the sensible use of understanding particularly in a specific area: engineering 2 <medical technology>

b: a capacity provided by the sensible use of understanding <a car’s fuel-saving technology>

2

: a way of accomplishing an activity especially using technical processes, methods, or understanding

3

: the specialized facets of a specific field of endeavor <educational technology>

Wikipedia defines it as being:

Technology (from Greek tέ???, techne, “art, skill, cunning of hands” and -???ίa, -logia[1]) may be the making, modification, usage, and understanding of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and techniques of organization, to be able to solve an issue, improve a pre-existing means to fix an issue, acquire a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or execute a specific function. It may also make reference to the gathering of these tools, including machinery, modifications, plans and operations. Technologies considerably affect human along with other animal species’ capability to control and adjust to their natural environments. The word may either be used generally in order to specific areas: these include construction technology, medical technology, and knowledge technology.

Both definitions center around exactly the same factor – application and usage.

Technologies are an enabler

Lots of people mistakenly believe that it is technology which drives innovation. Yet in the definitions above, that’s clearly and not the situation. It’s chance which defines innovation and technology which helps innovation. Consider the classic “Develop a better mousetrap” example trained in many business schools. You may have we’ve got the technology to construct a much better mousetrap, however if you simply don’t have any rodents or even the old mousetrap is effective, there’s no chance and so the technology to construct a much better one becomes irrelevant. However, if you’re overrun with rodents then your chance exists to innovate an item making use of your technology.