A Liter of Light

This is beautiful and reminds me of my favorite definition of engineering: engineers design things to make people's lives better.

Review: Wayward Technology

I found Wayward Technology by Ernst Braun in the campus library section I mentioned previously. I've slowly read it and recommend it for anyone thinking about the nature of technology. It's rather difficult to review as it is so wide-ranging. Braun looks at technology from a sociological perspective, showing how technology and its innovation have always been central to the development of society. He defines technology as "the creation and use of artifacts for practical purposes." According to him, technology is pursued and desired for it's ability to grant independence/self-sufficiency and power/self-determination. However, it can also tend to remove creativity and judgment and impose control on us in various ways. He believes we experience a tension when working with technology between our dependence on technology and a fear of submission to it.

Definition from Responsible Technology

In a recent post, I started working through a definition of technology. I dug out the book that has been most significant to my thinking about technology and found a definition there. See what you think:

Technology is a distinct human cultural activity in which human beings exercise freedom and responsibility in response to God by forming and transforming the natural creation, with the aid of tools and procedures, for practical ends and purposes.
-Monsma, Stephen V. (ed.) Responsible Technology, 1986, p. 19

Keep in mind that this is a "normative" definition - what technology ought to be.

My main complaint is the part about "forming and transforming the natural creation." This phrase sounds like it was made by a mechanical or civil engineer, referring to buildings, structures, and machines, not thinking of the myriad digital creations we have today. We can take a very wide view of "natural creation" (and I do) to include electromagnetic waves, bits in a computer, maybe even logic structures and that would make the definition still fit. Still, I'd like to find a better phrase to capture this idea.  Perhaps replace it with "...harnessing and directing the materials and forces of the natural creation..."

I considered trying to include something about design and/or creativity, but I think other parts of the definition cover this.

So, I'm left with:

Technology is a distinct human cultural activity in which human beings exercise freedom and responsibility in response to God by harnessing and directing the materials and forces of the natural creation, with the aid of tools and procedures, for practical ends and purposes.

What do you think? What improvements should we make to this?

Define Technology

Definitions lead to a shared sense of what two or more people are talking about, so I'm going to start by trying to define "technology."