The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves

February 21, 2010 | By In Technology |

Other Related Posts:




5 Comments so far

  1. R. Langari on February 21st, 2010

    Brian Arthur’s books starts off with the premise that there are fundamental principles that underlie technology (in the broad sense of the word.) However, he fails to deliver on this premise beyond some rather superficial notions such as the fact that technological artifacts are “purposed” and that they are constructed from artifacts that themselves incorporate technologies. In the process he recounts the historical development of a number of artifacts (the P&W JT9D engine, the LM’s F35C as well as others.) These do make for interesting reading, I admit. Indeed if the author had intended the book to be an introduction to technology at the junior high school level, the book would be a nice addition to the field. However, this does not seem to be the purpose of the book, which is intended to be a scholarly search for the fundamental principles on which every technology (or technological artifact) is based. Had I had the chance to read the draft manuscript, I would have advised the author to study a few of the textbooks on engineering design that address the issue he is trying to capture in his book. These are written by experts in the field who have spent years deliberating the nature of technology in the context of engineering design (David Ullman’s Mechanical Design Process or Nam Suh’s Axiomatic Design, or the classic German text by Pahl/Beitz: Grundlagen erfolgreicher Produktentwicklung, among others.) Their writings, could well have helped the author step back from the grandiose statements made in the book and leave the issue to those whose profession is development of technologies and not merely to learn about them from texts that are several steps removed from the actual process of developing technological artifacts.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  2. TC on February 21st, 2010

    The author writes “the purpose of this book was to create a theory of technology-”a coherent group or general propositions”-that gives us a framework for understanding what technology is and how it works in the world.”

    The fundamental concept that technology evolves, or as the author describes “combinatorial evolution” is flawed. The engine that propels evolution is random changes that enhance or diminshes the chance of survival. Over time, those with the advantages survive, while those with the disadvantages die out. Design, however, is an active process to identify and improve/optimize key positive characteristics, and to remove undesired characteristics. In today’s engineering world, the design team develops products to meet specific requirements, while optimizing performance, cost, and schedule. (please, this is NOT a reference to Religious Intelligent Design.)

    Perhaps it may have been true in the early years of mankind that technology was advanced by chance happenings, however, the author does a huge dis-service to our modern product development. Engineering is a Science, not an Art. It is not merely re-combining technology B with technology D. Mathematics, and Physics are the fundamental building blocks of Engineering. Prototyping, Computer Simulations, Mathematical Modeling and Analysis, are some of the tools of today’s Engineer.

    Generally speaking, R&D has been the means to invent new technology (Physists, Chemist, Biologist, …), and Engineering has been the engine that improves and “productizes” technology for society. Sadly, due to our shift to short term profits, R&D and Product development budgets are being slashed (and the work has been moving off-shore), and we are seeing a general decline in a science based education when compared to other nations. We have become a Service based economy, and are loosing our ability to compete globally.

    If one were to believe this book, science based education has little to do with in developing and maintaining our technological edge. So the danger going forward, is losing our technological advantage because we do not understand the causal relationship to Science in our Education, R&D, and Product Development.

    Rating: 1 / 5

  3. fg2m on February 21st, 2010

    Arthur has good ideas which point in the correct direction. Technology IS an evolutionary system. It DOES work using his methods of combining existing technologies and recursion. He shows that hierarchical levels of stable building blocks help a system increase in complexity.

    However, I think he is not so clear that when new “domains” – such as electricity – are opened and new fundamental technological building blocks are discovered and added to existing building blocks. These then enter the realm of all existing technologies and all can combine into new technologies. How do these new domains appear?

    Also, he is still incorrect about a fundamental aspect of technology. Arthur makes natural phenomena the genes of technology. But this cannot be, since gene equivalents must mutate or change in order for evolution to occur. Obviously natural laws do not change, so they cannot be the genes. He is at the level of describing biology and its evolution without knowing about what exactly are the genes. Still he is far better than most writing in this field. At least he is on the road to understanding that technology’s evolution must have some sort of genetics. He is just incorrect as to what are technology’s genes. Definitely worth a read.
    Rating: 4 / 5

  4. BizTech Readings on February 21st, 2010

    iPhone brought in host of existing techology together in an elegant way, but didn’t bring a new phenomena into the product. They took the next step in combinatorial technology evolution by combining 100s of technologies in a unique way; it built upon these 100s of technologies built over many decades. Once you have a new technology like this, this (iPhone iteself) will be another tool to be used in combination with numerous other technologies to create even more technologies (eco-system)… This is the avalanche effect this book is explains. There are other technologies which bring to practice nature’s phenomenon in nature or new observation in math (e.g. algorithms) and bring into product. The combination of these two (application of new phenomenon and (new) recombination of existing technologies) applied recursively explain the technology evolution. Given the number of technologies, trillions of combination are possible. The real advances are made when the newer technology meets the economic constraints of the given time. I was working on a new product proposal while I was listening this… I thought, the product was JUST a new combination. Recombination explanation made me realize this was progress too (hopefully).

    This book will help you put technology in an economic context, but unlikely to help you to come up with a new product (combination) or predict if a technology is going to be successful. It’s intended to provide a coherent theory of technology evolution. So, the author is addressing the needs of academicians as well as general business/technology readers(like me). So, it’s a bit long for the core message author wants to present.

    See also: Seeing What’s Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
    Rating: 4 / 5

  5. Timmiley on February 21st, 2010

    This is an outstanding, fresh, new, informational, thought provoking, very interesting book. I read all books having to do with science and technology. I am a science teacher and I love to find new ideas and information. This book is special and will go down as a classic. For the first time an author has studied technology and made it a science to study. Technology is so important to our society, that everyone should read and learn what it is all about. This book gives the answers to the questions about technology that controls everyone’s life. Very seldom do I find a book that has new information instead of compiling other’s work. I have so much respect for the author and wish I could write such a masterpiece.
    Rating: 5 / 5

Leave a reply

CAPTCHA Image
*

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree