“The human spirit must prevail over technology”
–Albert Einstein
Technologies play a major role in transforming society and business. The range of technologies is quite vast and difficult to comprehensively list and elaborate. In these pages, an attempt is made to create a landscape of the technologies from multiple perspectives and give pointers to resources which help in learning about the technologies and their business use cases. This page and the pages linked from here will be constantly enhanced.
Introduction
Definition
The word “technology” comes from the Greek roots:
- “techne” (τέχνη) = art, craft, or skill in making things.
- “logos” (λόγος) = word, study, or reasoning.
Technology can thus be understood as:
“The systematic application of knowledge, skills, methods, and tools (techne + logos) to create, use, and manage artifacts and processes that solve human problems or extend human capabilities.”
Key Dimensions of Technology for Managers
From a managerial standpoint, it’s crucial to see technology not just as gadgets and code, but as a multi-faceted system. Understanding its core components, purpose, and dynamic nature is essential for effective strategy and decision-making.
The Core Components of Technology
Technology is a combination of the tangible, the intangible, and the human element. For a complete picture, managers must consider all three.
Embodied Technology (The “Hardware”): This refers to the physical artifacts of technology. It’s the hardware you can see and touch, such as machinery, equipment, servers, and physical products. The robotics on an assembly line are a classic example of embodied technology.
Disembodied Technology (The “Software & Designs”): This is the intangible knowledge behind the physical products. It includes software, patents, process manuals, algorithms, and proprietary designs. The unique code that powers a logistics platform or the patented formula for a new material are forms of disembodied technology.
Know-How (The “Human & Organizational Element”): This is often the most critical component for competitive advantage. It encompasses the skills, knowledge, and infrastructure needed to make technology work effectively. This includes: Skills and Expertise: The practical abilities of your employees to operate, maintain, and innovate. Tacit Knowledge: The unwritten, experience-based wisdom within your team—the intuitive understanding of “how things really get done.” Organizational Infrastructure: The systems, culture, and routines your company uses to manage and deploy technology.
The Purpose and Application of Technology
At its core, technology is a tool designed to solve a problem or achieve a goal. 🎯 It is the practical application of knowledge to meet human and business needs. For a manager, the key question is always about utility:
- Does this technology increase efficiency or reduce costs?
- Does it create a new product or open a new market?
- Does it improve our ability to adapt and compete?
Technology isn’t just about possessing scientific knowledge; it’s about how that knowledge is organized, institutionalized, and applied to create value.
The Dynamic Nature of Technology
Technology is never static; it is constantly evolving. Managers must understand this dynamic to anticipate threats and seize opportunities.
Technological Evolution: Change happens in two primary ways. It can be incremental, involving small, steady improvements to an existing product (e.g., a new smartphone model with a better camera). Or, it can be radical, introducing a groundbreaking innovation that disrupts entire industries (e.g., the emergence of generative AI).
Technological Trajectories and Paradigms: Technologies often improve along a predictable path, or trajectory (e.g., Moore’s Law describing the doubling of transistors on a chip). A paradigm is the dominant technological approach of an era. Understanding these patterns helps in forecasting future capabilities and planning long-term investments.
The Influence of Context: Technology does not evolve in a vacuum. Its development and adoption are heavily influenced by the surrounding social, economic, and environmental context. Factors like customer demand, regulatory changes, competitor actions, and available funding all shape which technologies succeed or fail.
Technology Landscape
While the technologies can be seen from multiple standpoints and for a variety of dimensions, here is an attempt by me to create a landscape for data and information intensive technologies with focus on few areas of applications. This can be widened with more areas. A similar attempt can also be made for technologies which are not information intensive.
Gartner Hype Cycle
Technologies have a lifecycle and this has a bearing on their adoption by businesses. Gartner Hype Cycle is one framework which depicts the technology lifecycle. For a detailed note on this framework, refer Gartner Hype Cycle.
Key Technologies
This section is to elaborate on specific technologies and provide learning resources or pointers to learning resources in each. This will be enhanced on an ongoing basis.
Generative AI and Prompt Engineering
Blockchain
<More technologies to be added here…>
Dr. Selvaraj Vadivelu 