I have always loved history. There is a deep seeded belief in me that it is vitally important to know where we came from in order to know where we are going. As a person who calls himself a technologist I wanted to understand where the word technology comes from in order to better to understand where technology is going. In this post I examine the origin of the word technology in a hope of better understanding its evolution and thus purpose in my practice as a technologist.
It’s Greek to Me
Technology is not an old word in English. The ancient Greeks used the word techne which meant skill with art, or craft. In fact Plato and Plotinus had an entire hierarchy of knowledge that expanded in an ascending scale from crafts to science and it moved from the physical to the intellectual. Technical art ranked somewhere in the middle of this schema.
Aristotle had a more neutral, simpler and far less value-laden concept of techne, which he described in the Nicomachean Ethics, Book 6, Chapters 3 and 4, where he used architecture as his example. He defined techne as a “rational faculty exercised in making something…a productive quality exercised in combo with true reason.” Aristotle believed that the business of techne is to “bring something into existence which has its efficient cause in the maker and not in itself.” It is also important to note that Aristotle related techne to the crafts and sciences, most notably through mathematics.
To the Greeks, work with the hands was inferior to philosophical speculation and techne was a more restricted term than the capacious modern term of technology that we use today. Since the Greeks use of the word techne was more focused, many classical thinkers believed that the Greeks were just as mistrustful of technological change as they were with political and social change.
When in Rome
By contrast the Romans had a much deeper appreciation for techne than their Greek counterparts. In De Natura Deorum the Roman philosopher Cicero praised the human ability to transform the environment and create a “second nature”. Other Roman poets praised techne as well with the construction of roads and the conveniences of well-built villas.
The Roman poet Statius devoted an entire poem to praising techne and technological progress. The Roman writer Plity the Elder too often praised techne and technological progress with his writings of the skilled laborers of the day.
Medieval Times
The term technology did not exist in the Middle Ages. Writers of the time instead used the word mechanical arts when referencing crafts and art with a physical aspect such as architecture, weaponry, agriculture, commerce and theatre. What we would call technological innovation during the Middle Ages typically took place with little reference to scientific knowledge or information.
The Renaissance
It is during this time period that a full expression of the modern attitude toward technology appeared. In his 1627 book New Atlantis, Francis Bacon imagined a perfect society whose king was advised by scientists and who’s engineers were organized into research groups at an institution that was called Salomon’s House. These scientists and engineers could predict the weather, had invented refrigeration, submarines, flying machines, loudspeakers and conducted amazing medical procedures. Bacon’s vision later served as the inspiration to others to form the Royal Society in London in 1662,
Danke
We own thanks to Germany for their broader definition of words like teknologie and the even broader technik. In fact in the early 20th century the word technik was translated into English as technics. Teknologie, from 1775 , meant a system of classification for the practical arts until it was abandoned in 1840.
In the 1800’s, German engineers made the word technik a central part of their self-definition and elaborated on a discourse that related the word to philosophy, economics and higher culture. In fact the word technik meant the “totality of tools, machines, systems and processes used in the practice arts and engineering.”
Present Meaning
It was somewhere between 1820 and 1910 that the word technology acquired its present meaning. The word, however, remained unstable until the later half of the 20th century where it evolved into vague abstraction that was further complicated in the 1990’s when newspapers, stock traders and bookstores made technology a synonym for computers, telephones and ancillary devices as David Nye argues in his book Technology Matters: Questions to Live With.
The word technology has only be part of the English language for a little over 100 years where it has come to reference all of the skills, machines and systems one might study at a technical university, or a term for complex systems of machines and the techniques in which we use to operate them.
Why This Matters?
Technology empowerment relies on the understanding that the word holds many different meanings to many different people. In some respects the word holds cultural and societal attitudes deeply towards it, its uses and its teachings. In modern times the word is so abstract that if you were to Google “What is Technology?” you would receive over 3 billion results.
It is my belief that the culture in which the technology is going to be used, served and taught should be the one to clearly define it. In order to accomplish this we must look to the past to see how the word’s meaning has evolved over time and then look towards the future to understand how the word will continue to evolve and then prepare ourselves and our learners for those inevitable shifts that are most likely to occur.
References
Nye, D. E. (2006). Technology matters: Questions to live with. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Whitney, E. (2004). Medieval Science and Technology. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Scherrology 
I’ve read “Technology matters” yet still very confused about the word “technology”… For example, are different brands of computers same “technology”, or not?… 0 0?
My comment might sound trivial but I’m going to leave it anyway.
Upon looking into mesoamerican myth and the stories surrounding the God Queatzalcoatl or kukulkan and his expulsion from mesoamerica and his eventual sail east I often wonder did he settle somewhere in Western Europe and take the Aztek language and turn it into English.
If this assumption is proven to be true, the word tech might have its origins in the word Aztek and (AZ) maybe A to Z of tech.
I have explored this idea of the migration of this mesoamerican God and his journey and influence across Europe and have come up with some interesting words which point to a different origin for technology or humanity.
In my opinion the word Aztek can be shaped into several other words to reveal deeper meanings.
The “k or c” in the word tek or tech may have originally been an “s”.
So the word tech may mean “to see” or the “t” may be a cross, meaning across see or sea.
It may signify an awakening where you can see, which would be in the mind or the sixth chakra, hence the rising of the sixth sun in 2012.
Another interesting look at a word which is similar to the word “techy” denoting someone who understands technology, is the word “tiki” and I find it also interesting that tiki heads across Australasia are either wood or stone carvings depicting humanoid beings with elongated heads or skulls.
Does the elongation of these heads signify the growth humanity with have in the head and again the word “tiki” has the same origin as the word “tek or tech” again meaning to see.
Did these ancient cultures already know that humanity would awaken in the mind at some point and they depicted this through their artwork, calling them “tiki heads” or “techi’s”.
Ancient African societies often depict themselves with disks inserted into parts of their bodies.
Disks are often inserted into body parts associated with the throat, in the ears, mouth etc.
Does the insertion of these disks into certain body parts denote the growth associated in that person or culture?.
The insertion of these disks into body parts associated with the throat would signify that this associated culture is going through an awakening in the throat and is therefore becoming more vocal in their approach to life, becoming more social, political etc.
Does it also signify that all of humanity is going through the same awakening simultaneously, and that the reason early occult, spiritual or pyramidal societies say we have enteried the fifth dimension, fifth sun etc is that it is signifying the growth which we all under went in the fifth chakra or throat chakra and that all of humanity has become more awakened in ways associated with the throat.
So to understand as to where technology might be going in the future, with the rise of the sixth sun in 2012 influencing the sixth chakra (mind), we need to look back to earlier societies and their associated myths surrounding the rise and fall of the techi’s or tiki heads.
Evidence
Evidence to support the idea that “c or k” changed to “s” or vice verse can be observed in the word “Celtic or keltoi”.
Where members of this associated culture from Ireland or Scotland debate the true pronunciation of the letter “C” in the word Celtic.
Some pronounce the “c” as if it would sound like an “s”, as in Seltic.
While others pronounce the “c” as if it would sound like a “k” as in Keltic.
The visual change of the letter “c to s” may also be observed in the Ancient Greek language, where the “c” takes on an elongated form, extending down from the bottom of the “c”, almost making the letter “s”.
The true basic origins of language may not be linguistic at all, and their basic roots may instead be geometrical.
Language may have evolved from simple geometric shapes depicting opposites interacting with each other in the nature.
Such shapes include the Celtic cross, where two opposites can be seen interacting (the circle and the straight line).
Celtic languages such as Irish, Scottish, English etc may have evolved from this basic shape, of the Celtic cross.
Letters such as T, E, S etc may have been the first letters to emerge as they are the most obvious shapes which can be drawn from such an image.
T,E,S then may be changed to T.E.C, which may have a spiritual meaning signifying a way of seeing the truth logically or rationally.
The word or name “Seth” may also be derived, and it may be interesting to note that the word “set” has the most amount of definitions in the English language.
The word Set has multiple meanings, words and phrases such as put, set in stone, set down, sunset all use the word set to mean numerous things.
Set theory is also a branch of mathematics.
So the origins of what we think is scientific, logical, rational or technological and which we think we are in control of and can choose, may in fact be spiritual and not in our control at all.
Growing up in the 60s I learned that there was pure science and applied science. Sometime later the word technology became synonymous with applied science.