CHAPTER IV - Technology and The Evolution of Human Society
CHAPTER IV - Technology and The Evolution of Human Society
CHAPTER IV - Technology and The Evolution of Human Society
Objectives
At the end of the topic, the students/readers are expected to:
1.) Describe how human society has evolved through time.
2.) Classify the various technologies.
3.) Explain how technologies can be replaced and passed on from individual to individual.
4.) Explain how science and technology serve as keys in the economic development of the country.
KEY CONCEPTS
The First Wave – is the society that replaces hunters and gatherers after the agrarian revolution where people
during this time used small technologies through trial and error.
The Second Wave – occurs where society is on the industrial revolution until World War II. They used
technologies based on mass production, consumption, distribution, and weapons of mass destruction combined
with standardization, centralization, and synchronization. Their foundations came from Newton’s physics,
biology, and chemistry.
The Third Wave – was described as the post-industrialized society after the World War II where people used
modern technologies based on the advent of science including computers, robotics and the like. Associated with
scientific-technological evolution (King, 1994; New Scientist. 1980).
Technologies keep on changing and these changes are through (Schilling. 2009)
Substitution
It happens when technologies which may have been used for a long period of time are replace by the new
and better version especially with the respect to the performance. Technological substitutions such as stereo type
radio to cassette tape recorder, then with component. Video Home System (VHS) to Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)
and another example is the telephones to cellular phones which is gradually replaced by more sophisticated
ones.
Diffusion
It happens when technologies are being adopted by individuals even after innovations come. The more
individuals even after innovations come. The more being adopted to the technology innovation, the greater the
measure of diffusion process and it could affect diffusion of technology in such a way that adaptation increases if
the technology is just within the reach of the individual.
Life has become easier with discovery of tools and gadgets and each sector of society has benefited mush
on S&T. Transportation for example, has been modernized and can take man even faster to its destination.
Communication has been made easier with the development of several brands of cell phones which can open
communication among loved ones even from afar. In the field of medicine, infrastructure. Electricity, and
industry have equipment to be used for modern day people.
Developed countries such as Russia, Japan, Brazil, China and India have a strong foundation of S&T
(Sunami et al., 2013). World Bank estimated that 7 out of 10 largest economies of the world by 2020 would be in
Asia, China, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan. At first, these countries have little
advancement or no advancement at all in S&T but when it was introduced, a boom was evident across the globe.
Life has become easier and better through S&T especially when it comes to medical development and
aside from this, a lift in education, communication, agriculture, industry, etc. has contributed much in the
elevated economic output in the 20th century. But despite the advent of technologies, problems on hunger,
pollution,
poverty and illiteracy still prevail.