The Past and Future of Technology: Perspectives and Insights

To start with, this is evolution of technology essay in which a comparison on three perspectives of the evolution of technology is revised. Different scholars have varying opinions about the evolution of technology. From their scholarly work, the authors exhibit their views on their aspect of the development of technology on specified grounds. Their views vary from one another for they view the evolution of technology from a different point of view. There also exists some cohesion in the touch of their work such as similar goals in finding solutions to problems and existence of the technology. Humanity interference and attempts to fulfill some specified needs exists in the theories developed by the authors to explain the evolution of the technology. Gerhard Lenski uses the ideology of information to enhance technology for societal survival. He emphasizes that a society with more knowledge will efficiently take in change and evolve and hence it is more likely to survive. In the other hand, Leslie White exhibits his idea of technology evolution, ideology, and sociology to bring about the aspect of cultural evolution. Alvin Toffler uses his theory to analyze the economy and society in distinctive levels known as the 'Waves.' In this essay, a good and unique comparison of the three evolutionary theories by Leslie White, Gerhard Lenski, and Alvin Toffler is given.

Gerhard Lenski views technology as an essential part of the evolution of sociology and cultural society. When focusing on the technology of a community, Lenski dwelled on information. He defines technology as a way to utilize the resources in a given culture and society to give maximization of original materials to provide satisfaction to the desires of a human being. He directly links information to technology and technology to societal survival. According to Lenski, the level of information and knowledge within a society goes hand in hand with the likelihood of the community to evolve, change and survive and hence to become more advanced than the other societies. Information is thus an essential aspect of change from one level of technology development to the other. In his ecological-evolutionary theory, Lenski treats technology as necessary. He uses differences in technology levels to differentiate societies. He further suggested a comparison of technology and societal genes to provide it with new abilities to do and work in ways it could not have done in the past. Basing to his theory, societies that did not survive were not inferior to the survived ones. They were just less efficient in technological progress. According to Lenski, survival of societies has been a well-explored function of society's technology level improvement relative to the communities in which they compete in.

Leslie White view technology as a cultural component in addition to philosophy and sociology, which continually evolve thus resulting in cultural evolution. The technological structure can be either mechanical, chemical or physical components as well as the way humans use these skills. According to Leslie, technology is a significant attempt to solve problems and enhance survival. The effort means acquiring enough energy and diverting it for human needs. The society that earns more power and maximizes its use more efficiently has more merits over other societies. He further argues that there is a high degree of change in culture and the amount of energy that people use per year, thus, it indicates that there is increased conversion of power. He views technology as an aspect that evolves due to human attempts to come up with valid solutions to enhance survival. Although White cannot give assurance that technology is the solution for all the problems that affect humankind, his hypothesis treats the technological issue as the most significant factor in the advancement of society.

Alvin Toffler, Toffler denotes that revolutionary evolution in the society and economy occurred in distinctive stages, which he refers to as “waves.” In his hypothesis, he analyses the economic and societal changes at three distinct levels. He argues that humankind has already passed or gone through the first two stages (waves) and is in the course of entering into the third stage which is believed to be known as the knowledge phase. According to Haller, the way from the first to the current (third) wave was long and arduous, marked by profound changes in all domains as well as at a mental level. Similarly, third stage evolution will be intensive and will be a way to give room to a perspective society. The current transition of the economy and culture has been triggered by the natural and mental alterations of the human being’s brain. Toffler contends that Mankind will control technology and have a rheostat of the main directions of advancement if in the modern society expertise subjugated the economic and social levels. There is the emergence of every kind of society in different dynamics as there are the waves and collision of the whole civilization.

Overall, technology is treated as the main factor that contributes to the evolution of society by evolutionary theories. Each of the authors and scholars uses their hypothesis, which varies from each of them to bring out the concept of technology triggering the evolution of culture, ideology, and sociology in society. Each of the theories defines the human struggle and attempts to compete and survive in communities by the use of technology and information in hand. The desperate to survive in each society calls to human effort to make better ways of survival and hence the best chance to engage in technological evolution to come up with better ways of doing what could not be done before the development. In each case, additional information would bring about change, evolution, and solution to critical problems faced by humankind in the society. The society with more ideologies and information enhance their technology, and hence they survive and get advanced lifestyles. The knowledge of the evolution in the technological aspect leading to a general impact on the nature of society has been triggered by the need to meet the growing needs in community continually. The use of information and technology generally bring about solutions to problems facing humankind; both physical, economic and social issues in the three theories. Advancement in technology lead to societal survival, and more issues meet their solutions. Information is a crucial factor as it behests the degree to which beings persevere with the evolution of technology.

References

• Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J., & Henrich, J. (2013). The cultural evolution of technology: Facts and theories. Cultural evolution: society, technology, language, and religion, 119-142.
• Zakaria, W., & Alyati, W. F. (2012). Alvin Toffler: Knowledge technology and change in future society. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 1, 54-61. 3.
• Haller, A. P. (2011). Alvin Toffler and the economic-social evolution. Agronomy Series of Scientific. Research/Lucrari Stiintifice Seria Agronomie, 54(1).
• Lenski, G. (2015). Ecological-evolutionary theory: Principles and applications. Routledge.
• Calhoun, C. (2004). Gerhard Lenski, some false oppositions, and the religious factor. Sociological Theory, 22(2), 194-204.
• Lowie, R. H. (1946). Evolution in cultural anthropology: A reply to Leslie White. American Anthropologist, 48(2), 223-233.