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Engineering -- an endless frontier | ||||||||||||
| home | engineering | branches | engineer | R&D | history | technology | controversy | bibliography | |||||
| productive capacity evolution innovation products risk | |||||||||||||
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Engineering -- an endless frontier | ||||||||||||
| home | engineering | branches | engineer | R&D | history | technology | controversy | bibliography | |||||
| productive capacity evolution innovation products risk | |||||||||||||
| Dynamics of technological progress |
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As a scientific capacity to produce creatively
and efficiently, technology enables activities but lies dormant unless
activated. Among the
results of technological activities, some are plowed back to expand the
technological capacity, providing "supply push" for it.
The bulk, a dazzling variety of goods and services that are
consumed in our everyday life, constitute the chief meaning of
technology to most people. People’s
choices among available products generate differential "demand pull" on
technology. |
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A large literature on specific technologies exist, many of which are included under various branches of engineering. See http://dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Topic/Science/Engineering_and_Technology/ and http://echo.gmu.edu/center/. Most recent works in technology studies concentrate on culture and ideology, dominated by gender, race, and class. The following are some general histories that do not ignore science, engineering, and economics. More are listed in the bibliography. Bauer, Martin, ed. 1995. Resistance to New Technology. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bernal, J. D. 1971. Science in History, 4 volumes. Cambridge, MIT Press. (Emphasizes application of science). Buchanan, R. A. 1985. The rise of scientific engineering in Britain. British Journal for the History of Science, 18: 218-33 Cardwell, D. 1995. The Norton History of Technology. New York: Norton. Helpman, Elhanan, ed. 1998. General Purpose Technologies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Landes, D. S. 1969. The Unbound Prometheus. New York: Cambridge University Press. Landes, Davis S. 1998. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: Norton. Mokyr, J. 1990. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. New York: Oxford University Press. Mokyr, Joel. 2002. The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Musson, A. E. and Robinson, E. 1969. Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Nye, D. E. 1997. American Technological Sublime. Cambridge: MIT Press. Pacey, A. 1990. Technology in World Civilization. Cambridge: MIT Press. Singer, C., Holy, E. J., and Holmyard, E. J., and Hall, A. R., eds. 1954. A History of Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Williams, T. I. 1982. A Short History of Twentieth Century Technology, 1900-1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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