The word technology is a combination of the Greek technē, which means “art, craft,” and logos, which means “word, speech.” It first appeared in English in the 17th century, and it has evolved through several meanings to its present-day sense.
Important Individuals: Robert Solow, William Fielding, Ogburn, and Anthony FC Wallace Frank Hamilton Cushing Edwin Grant Conklin
Related Topics: history of technology computer textile motion-picture technology military technology
On the Web: Social Sciences LibreTexts – Technology (Mar. 20, 2026)
Technology is a vast and sprawling subject treated across articles too numerous to list here. What follows is a highly selective list of examples of how technology has changed our world—and how, in the 21st century, the speed of its development has only accelerated.
For a general overview of what counts as technology from the ancient world to the 21st century, see history of technology.
Do you know what an elastomer is? Think rubber—a crucially important technology.
Articles on nuclear power, coal mining, petroleum production, petroleum refining, and coal utilization are just a few examples of how technology is used to generate energy. Technology is essential to the production of food. Learn more about the origins of agriculture, commercial fishing, dairy farming, fruit farming, intensive animal farming, livestock farming, poultry farming, and vegetable farming. Almost everything we humans consume is made possible by technology, from coffee and tea to ultra-processed foods and soft drinks.
How are stone tools, the Bessemer process, and the Apple II personal computer related? They’re all technological inventions that have changed our world.
Construction technology has transformed Earth for thousands of years through bridges, canals and inland waterways, dams, harbors and sea works, lighthouses, skyscrapers, roads and highways, and tunnels and underground excavations. Engineered materials such as cement and steel have made bigger and stronger versions of these structures possible over time.
Technology enables us to drive, fly, and sail around the world—and to leave Earth behind.
The Internet might be today’s most important communications technology (specifically, it’s a system architecture), but telecommunication and telecommunications media have a long history. Don’t forget that telephones, photography, printing, and paper are forms of communication technology just like smartphones and messaging apps.
Pop music has been dependent on technological advances, from phonographs to Auto-Tune.
Because nanotechnology operates at the scale of atoms, its possibilities are vast.
Manufacturing industries produce just about everything, from semiconductors to fast fashion, using traditional process as well as newer ones, including 3D printing.
The pharmaceutical industry harnesses technology to move the history of medicine forward.
Machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models have all contributed to the advancement of artificial intelligence, which serves as the foundation for numerous technological innovations, such as self-driving cars and virtual assistants and agents. Engineering is, arguably, the practice of technology. It can take many forms: aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical and electronics engineering, humanitarian engineering, military engineering, nuclear engineering, petroleum engineering, and tissue engineering are just a few examples.
