What is technology? We spend a lot of time talking about it, but the answer is both easy and surprisingly difficult to locate. Merriam-Webster says technology is: “Application of knowledge to the practical aims of human life or to changing and manipulating the human environment. Technology includes the use of materials, tools, techniques, and sources of power to make life easier or more pleasant and work more productive. Whereas science is concerned with how and why things happen, technology focuses on making things happen.” That’s a tidy definition , but there is nothing in it that could not also be construed to apply to the world of mining, for instance. The word technology is a combination of two Greek words, techne and logos . Techne means art, craft, or skill. Logos means “to speak of”. Some have since taken the word logos to imply the practical application of techne , but others say that is stretching its etymological roots.
