---
title: "History of technology"
chunk: 1/10
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_technology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:00:28.072474+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The history of technology is the history of human invention of tools and techniques. Technology includes methods ranging from simple stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s. The term technology comes from the Greek words techne, meaning art and craft, and logos, meaning word and speech. It was first used to describe applied arts, but it is now used to describe advancements and changes that affect the environment around us.
New knowledge has enabled people to create new tools. Conversely, many scientific endeavors are made possible by new technologies, such as scientific instruments that allow us to study nature in greater detail than our natural senses can.
Since much of technology is applied science, technical history is connected to the history of science. Since technology uses resources, technical history is tightly connected to economic history. From those resources, technology produces other resources, including technological artifacts used in everyday life. Technological change affects, and is affected by, a society's cultural traditions. It is a force for economic growth and a means of developing and projecting economic, political, and military power and wealth.

== Measuring technological progress ==
Many sociologists and anthropologists have created social theories dealing with social and cultural evolution. Some, such as Lewis H. Morgan, Leslie White, and Gerhard Lenski, have declared technological progress the primary factor driving the development of human civilization. Morgan's concept of three major stages of social evolution (savagery, barbarism, and civilization) can be divided by technological milestones, such as fire. White argued that the measure by which to judge the evolution of culture is energy.
For White, "the primary function of culture" is to "harness and control energy." White differentiates between five stages of human development: In the first, people use the energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use the energy of domesticated animals. In the third, they use plant energy (agricultural revolution). In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, oil, gas. In the fifth, they harness nuclear energy. White introduced the formula P = E/T, where P is the development index, E is a measure of energy consumed, and T is a measure of the efficiency of technical factors in using the energy. In his own words, "culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased". Nikolai Kardashev extrapolated his theory, creating the Kardashev scale, which categorizes the energy use of advanced civilizations.

Lenski's approach focuses on information. The more information and knowledge (especially the ability to shape the natural environment) a given society has, the more advanced it is. He identifies four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication. In the first stage, information is passed by genes. In the second, when humans gain sentience, they can learn and pass information through experience. In the third, the humans start using signs and develop logic. In the fourth, they can create symbols, develop language, and write. Advancements in communications technology translate into advancements in the economic system and political system, distribution of wealth, social inequality, and other spheres of social life. He also differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy:
hunter-gatherer,
simple agricultural,
advanced agricultural,
industrial,
special (such as fishing societies).
In economics, productivity is a measure of technological progress. Productivity increases when fewer inputs (classically, labor and capital, though some measures include energy and materials) are used to produce a unit of output. Another indicator of technological progress is the development of new products and services, which is necessary to offset unemployment that would otherwise result from reduced labor inputs. In developed countries, productivity growth has been slowing since the late 1970s; however, it has been higher in some sectors, such as manufacturing. For example, employment in manufacturing in the United States declined from over 30% in the 1940s to just over 10% 70 years later. Similar changes occurred in other developed countries. This stage is referred to as post-industrial.
In the late 1970s sociologists and anthropologists like Alvin Toffler (author of Future Shock), Daniel Bell and John Naisbitt have approached the theories of post-industrial societies, arguing that the current era of industrial society is coming to an end, and services and information are becoming more important than industry and goods. Some extreme visions of post-industrial society, especially in fiction, are strikingly similar to visions of near- and post-singularity societies.

== By period and geography ==
The following is a summary of the history of technology by time period and geography:

=== Prehistory ===

==== Stone Age ====