Arthur, W. B. (2011). The Nature of Technology: What It Is And How It Evolves New York, NY: Free Press.

This book is recommended by our CEO Kerry. If you are interested in understanding the first principle of technology (as a general concept, not as a specific technology), this is an incredible book to read.

The author must be really knowledgeable in order to have the courage to take on such topic: technology is one of those concept that when no one asks you to explain what it is, you seem to know exactly what it is but the moment you need to articulate its definition, you start to struggle (think about time and space as another examples). It is this lack of clear definition and theories for technology that prompted Arthur to write this book, and I would say his attempts in filling those gaps are quite satisfactory.

What Is Technology?

According to Arthur, a technology is:

“a phenomenon captured and put to use.”

This may sound too simple. However, this definition captures things way beyond the counts of the words. To truly understand what it means, we pretty much need to dig deep into the meanings behind every single word of this definition. First of all, a phenomenon is a natural effect (e.g.: high-frequency radio waves show a disturbance or echo when they come into contact with metal objects). It exists independently of human and technology and it does not fulfill any human purpose. However, once human understand and harness this natural effect (which is the process of capturing the phenomenon), we see the usage of this natural effect for some human purposes: to detect aircraft by sending out high-frequency radio waves and detecting their echoes, which led to the invention of radar technology (put to use). Arthur specifically terms this artificial part of capturing a natural effect and putting it to use as principle:

“A principle by contrast is the idea of use of a phenomenon for some purpose and it exists very much in the world of humans and of use.”

Secondly, this definition could be expanded to capture the relationship between science and technology. While some people believe that technology is essentially the application of science (which at the most abstract form, is the knowledge and discovery of natural effects), Arthur argues that their relationship is more complex than that:

“Science and technology co-evolve in a symbiotic relationship. Each takes part in the continued creation of the other, and as it does, takes in, digests, and uses the other; and in so doing becomes thoroughly intermingled with the other. ”

To put it more simply: while science captures the insights into natural effects through observation and reasoning, which lead to the invention of technology, technology in return offers better instruments and methods to facilitate more scientific discoveries. And this just goes into an infinite circle.

Where Does Novel Technology Come From?

Once we define what technology is, the next logical question to ask is how it comes into being (how do we invent technology). The technology definition that Arthur comes up with lays the foundation for answering this question:

“They arise from linking, conceptually and in physical form, the needs of some purpose with an exploitable effect (or set of effects). Invention, we can say, consists in linking a need with some effect to satisfactorily achieve that need.”

I really like how Arthur points out that this linkage between purpose and exploitable effect is not only in physical form but in conceptual form as well. For instance, in what we are doing in the company, we very rarely would come up with breakthrough technology from the scratch in physical form. Instead, we focus on creating a process that would assemble and leverage all the appropriate technology to solve business problem for our clients. This process that we create, although not in physical form, fits the framework of linking a need with some effect perfectly, therefore should be viewed as novel technology as well. Going back to Arthur’s idea of principle, novel technology could be using a different effect to achieve the same purpose, or using the same effect to achieve a different purpose. Or in its most common form, using a different effect to achieve a different purpose. As long as one of them change, a novel technology emerges.

How Does Technology Evolve?

Arthur argues that there are two underlying driving forces when it comes to the evolution of technology. The first one is combination:

“Early technologies form using existing primitive technologies as components. These new technologies in time become possible components—building blocks—for the construction of further new technologies. Some of these in turn go on to become possible building blocks for the creation of yet newer technologies. In this way, slowly over time, many technologies form from an initial few, and more complex ones form using simpler ones as components. The overall collection of technologies bootstraps itself upward from the few to the many and from the simple to the complex. We can say that technology creates itself out of itself.”

The second one is what Arthur calls the opportunity niches. The opportunity niches has two aspects. The first aspect is the human needs. When there is an unfulfilled human needs, it calls for technology that could fulfill it. Human needs are not fixed. They change and grow constantly. Therefore, when the existing technology can not meet the changes or growth of the human needs, it again calls for new technology that could fill the gap. The second aspect is one that is not quite on my radar:

“The vast majority of niches for technology are created not from human needs, but from the needs of technologies themselves.”

What Arthur means by that is technology itself has the needs to always optimize itself, looking for cheaper or more efficient way to achieve its purpose. When one technology emerges, it also requires supporting technology. For instance, the invention of the electric cars calls for supporting technology such as the fast-charging station or even an “intelligent highway”. Lastly, technology causes problem, which will require other technology to either replace it or fix it. Such as the invention of Internet brings issues for privacy and security, which in return calls for new technology.

Where Do We Stand With Technology Today?

Arthur’s observation on the dynamics between humans and technology is right on the spot. He argues that in the past, the technology that humans developed is more about the enhancement or extension of ourselves. We created technology that would allow us to move faster (cars, planes or rockets) or work more productively (assembly lines, computers, Internet). However, in our era, we’ve slowly moved from enhancing the nature to interfering with the nature directly (genetic engineering, AI, devices integrated with human bodies) . As he puts it:

“the story of this century will be about the clash between what technology offers and what we feel comfortable with”