Technology
as it shaped history
and was shaped by events,
may be thought of as an existing
set of conditions requiring contingency plans.
- Conditions characterized by tool complexes
of related inventions to fit specific conditions of places.
- Material artifacts and devices
that contribute solutions to the existing conditions to alter their arrangements.
- The associated ideas that enable the techniques employing tools to function effectively
among a society of users.
periods | perceptual psychology | redefining terms | water wheels | conclusion
Chinese waterwheels --undershot, a reproduction of 11th century designs.
According to Gestalt Psychologists, people
perceive the world, especially the technologically altered world in layers.
These three overlapping layers are the umwelt, eigenwelt and the
mitwelt, or within our experience of the world there are three worlds.
Conclusions:
Technological change has reorganized our ideas
of space, time and appropriate behavior, offering humankind a great choice to
either adapt and learn, or remain powerless
and enslaved by our self-satisfied ignorance of nature, history and one another's
needs.
In German gestalt psychology, which deals with how we perceive
whole or related experiences, theorists suggest there are three worlds in which
we reside:
Technology alters all of these worlds:
-
Eigenwelt is the personal world
of our experiences.
-
Mitwelt is the social world in
which we participate with others.
-
Umwelt is the universe, the cosmos,
the earth to which we are tied.
periods | perceptual psychology | redefining terms | water wheels | conclusion
Five eras of technical inventions with the powers to reorganize
our world, historically:
Technological changes have been used to divide our past into
periods.
|
Periods |
approximate start |
dominant tool complexes |
| I |
Stone Age |
10,000 BC |
hand ax, edible plants,domestic cattle,
pigs, fire, bone |
| II |
Bronze
Age |
5000 BC |
copper smelting, wood fuel, forges,
horses |
| III |
Iron
Age |
1000 BC |
charcoal fuels, olive oil, rice wine,
hot metal forges |
| IV |
Mechanical Age |
1543 |
clocks, textiles, steam engines, coal
& coke fuels |
| V |
Information
Age |
1953 |
electricity, radio, telecommunications,
satellites |
periods | perceptual psychology | redefining terms | water wheels | conclusion
Technology is a material
manifestation of dominant ideas, practices and institutions with varied
means and powers to solve problems that serve
a human purpose.
Technology influences our characterization
of appropriate gender roles.
Laws of Technology reveal the power
of certain tools and discoveries to alter the measure of our surrounding world,
experience and values: sundials, clocks, watches, computers.
Technolgy in the contemporary
world, based on a mechanistic view of reality where machines alter our behavior
"aims to remake nature and compel us to live entirely in a technical
milieu."
For example: automobiles, telecommunications, film, automatic
rifles.
periods | perceptual psychology | redefining terms | water wheels | conclusion
"We
are what we use."
