Table of Contents
What is Technology?
Technology is a product or solution made up of a set of instruments, methods, and techniques designed to solve a problem.
Generally, technology is related to scientific knowledge and engineering; however, technology is any notion that can facilitate life in society, or that allows a satisfying individual or collective demands or needs, adjusted to the requirements of a specific time.
Regarding its etymological origin, the word technology means “the study of technique.” It comes from the Greek τεχνολογία ( texnology ), which is made up of τέχνη (téjne), which means “technique, art, craft,” and λόγος (lógos ), “study, treatise.”
On the other hand, technology also refers to the scientific discipline focused on the study, research, development, and innovation of techniques and procedures, devices and tools that are used to transform raw materials into objects or useful goods.
It is important to see that the technique is the set of technical knowledge, skills, and rules that are used to obtain a result. For its part, technology is the means. That is, it is the link between the how, which is solved by the technique, and the why.this can be used as synonyms for the word technology: applied sciences, knowledge, techniques, among others.
Currently, the technology is in two categories : hard technologies and soft technologies.
Hard technology
Hard Technology is a classification of technology made by MAX (also used within technology or intermediate), which deals with transforming materials to produce and build objects or artifacts. From the foregoing, it should be noted that ethical and moral considerations are not part of hard technology. However, it cannot exist without the existence of soft technology previously, and both affect the human condition.
By hard technology, it can be understood more specifically as machinery, hardware, etc. which do the most effective work and encourages the generation of products and services with better quality, novelty, and integrity.
Hard Technology based on your production.
Hard technology is classified based on its production. So, there is a classification of two types:
Production based on chemical and biological processes. : these processes play an important role in the use of forest, algal, and agricultural biomass. Within these processes, we find fundamental elements that allow connecting industrial sectors that were previously developed separately, delivering common platforms to satisfy different market applications. Within this type of production, we find:
- Use of tools.
- Use of machines.
- Mechanical and automatic devices.
- It has integrated manufacturing systems.
Production based on physical actions on the matter: The base of this production is to generate physical changes in something to create a different product. Some examples of this type of production are:
- Energy production (the most used are in electrical, thermoelectric, hydroelectric, solar, wind)
- Nuclear technology (the most prominent are nuclear energy, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons)
- Agricultural
- Biotechnology
Soft Technology
The soft technologies are methodologies that deal with human interactions and social processes. They do not constitute tangible objects like hard technologies. A good metaphor is to apply this quality in the context of computing: Soft technologies are “software,” and hard technologies are “hardware.”
These technologies have as a product the improvement of social dynamics in institutions or organizations (formal or not) to achieve a particular objective. These organizations may be industrial, commercial, service companies, foundations, for-profit or non-profit organizations, etc.
The soft technologies or knowledge and methods that these involve are mostly based on so-called “soft sciences.” Some examples of application areas are:
- Administrative
- Organizational
- Accounting disciplines
- Marketing
- Psychology in interpersonal relationships within organizations
- Software development
- Education
- Management control
- Skills workshops
- Teachings
A clear example of the use of soft technology is given in statistics. In which, after having collected data, it allows an interpretation of these by using statistics.
Thus, we have that soft technologies interact with hard technologies to achieve their objectives in many cases, such as, for example, the use of software tools for data hosting that must be used as bases for criteria based on soft sciences such as economics.
