Technology is a term with origins in the Greek "technologia,” "τεχνολογία" -- "techne,” "τέχνη" and "logos,” "λογία.” [1] Techne means art, skill, craft, or the way, manner, or means by which a thing made. Logos means word, the utterance by which inward thought is expressed, a saying, or an expression. So, literally, technology means words or discourse about the way things are.
Lately, technology has come to mean something different. The contemporary definition of technology is “human innovation in action that involves the generation of knowledge and processes to develop systems that solve problems and extend human capabilities.” [2] In other words, when we think of technology in the 21st Century, we think of intricate systems created to make life easier; things such as the Internet, cell-phones, and Smartcars. In one respect, the term has come to mean something narrower -- the traditional definition would admit art or politics, yet though those activities are permeated by technology now, most of us would not consider them to be examples or subsets of technology.
The Greek concept of art (techne) has been at the center of historical discussions of rhetorical pedagogy. Scholars have studied its meaning in different rhetorician’s work (such as Socrates, Plato, and Protagorus) and have also researched its history. Janet Atwill traced the concept of techne back to Homer’s Odyssey, where it signified both implement and boundary, prompting her interpretation that “the accomplishments of art are, paradoxically tied to its boundaries.” [3] She explained that whenever a boundary or limit was recognized, art created a path that transgressed and ultimately redefined the boundary.
Mark L. Greenberg and Lance Schachterle, in a discussion of the etymology of technology as developed by Eric Partridge, state it thus:
"Literature conveys not concepts existing in a void, but concepts worked over to present a richness of felt experience. As Partridge's Origins suggest, 'texts' in literature 'put' ideas 'in hand,' as it were, to frame knowledge within the dramatic fabric of experience, even as the technology of books and book production literally brings ideas 'to hand'.” [4]
The hands are the key. The written word cannot be literally handled, yet words are tools. Among many other writers, Jay Bolter pointed out that writing is a technology; a technology, as Bolter describes it, "for collective memory, for preserving and passing on human experience.” [5]
In earlier cultures, before writing had been "taken in and become a habit of mind" [6] considering it a technology was not so difficult. The Greek root techne included not only crafts we would immediately see as technological--masonry, carpentry, pottery--but also art, epic poetry, sports and other fields requiring specialized, developed skills. It should come as no surprise, then, that tracing techne back to its Indo-European root, tekth--variously defined as to put in hand, to weave, to build--reveals that technology springs from the same source as words for not only such tangible things as textile and texture, but also such seeming abstractions as text and technique.
Remembering the roots of writing, reconceiving it as a technology, as a way of making texts--transgressing and redefining boundaries--is therefore crucial to our constantly changing society. If we forget that technology is not just about tangible objects, but rather the abstract as well, our techne, or mastery of a skill, may become voided; our culture will be bound by limitations and forms. And as the Greeks understood, a sense of form is a sense of one's limits.
- "Definition of technology". Merriam-Webster. http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technology. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
- “Technology.” International Network for SMEs. http://www.insme.org/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=glossary&IDAlphaLetter=T. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
- Atwill, Janet. Rhetoric Reclaimed.
- Greenberg, Mark L., and Lance Schachterle. "Introduction: Literature and Technology." In Literature and Technology. Ed.: Mark L. Greenberg and Lance Schachterle.
- Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space : the Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing.
- Bolter, Jay David. 1991, pp. 36.
2 comments:
The idea that the definition of technology means something different today than it did back in antiquity was intriguing to me. After much contemplation over the two definitions I would like to propose that they are not as different as it may seem at first. It is possible that technology refers to the discourse of how things are. However, one could just as easily describe it as the “art of speaking”. If the latter is the case rather than the former then it is easier to see a correlation to the definition we have today. In our modern definition the key phrase is “the generation of knowledge and processes”. How do we then generate knowledge? The most common way is through the use of words. For the ancient Greeks this would have only been done by speaking until the invention of alphabet. Since that invention we now have many ways/technologies to generate knowledge.
I had a similar take as LeAnn on the ancient and modern understanding of technology. It seems interesting that the Greeks interpreted technology to mean words or discourse about the way things are, when, in modernity we often take up this discourse through technological gadgets. Even for this class, many of us are using this blog site, a recent technological advance to talk about art, skill, and craft. The Sophists were interested in ways people could communicate most successfully. Today, it's becoming increasingly important that individuals master the abilities to communicate through the technological tools we currently have. This aspect of the words meaning seems preserved to me.
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