Technology relates to the ways knowledge is creatively applied to organised tasks involving people and machines in order to meet sustainable goals. It includes both tangible tools such as utensils and machines and intangible ones such as software.
It also encompasses the organisation of activities to achieve those objectives, including the allocation of resources and the development of human and machine capabilities. It is an ever-changing phenomenon, with new inventions constantly entering the market. It can be challenging to keep up with this fast pace of change, which is why it is essential for all companies to have a reliable technology partner that can help them to understand the new trends and stay ahead of their competitors.
Technological change has always involved a trade-off. A technology prioritizes one low-resistance path towards some end while neglecting others, and this necessarily means deprioritizing pathways that are more difficult, slower or less gratifying. It also involves deliberating about what counts as a good end, which is why a technological choice is inherently a moral one.
It is for this reason that discussions of technology are as much normative as they are analytical – an aim that Schatzberg explicitly identifies and pursues, as he writes, ‘not simply to rehabilitate the concept of technology as an element in history and social theory but to orient it toward more humane ends.’ This is an idealistic and highly ambitious goal, but one that is vital to the future of our societies and the planet.