An Alternative Conception of Technology: The Systemic-Purposeful Perspective for Technology Analysis

Abstract

The definition and explanation of concepts in science are a vital scientific activity because a scientific field can develop only on the base of new comprehensive concepts and categories of concepts and their applications that enlarge the domain of scientific analyses. The conception technology has been one of the most troublesome and yet one of the most important concepts in science. The goal of this study is to suggest a new conception of technology with a systemic-purposeful perspective for technology analysis. Technology here is a complex system, made and/or used by living systems, that is composed of more than one entity or sub-system and a relationship that holds between each entity and at least one other entity in the system, selected considering practical, technical and/or economic characteristics to satisfy needs, achieve goals and/or solve problems of users for purposes of adaptation and/or survival in environment. Technology changes current modes of cognition and action to enable makers and/or users to take advantage of important opportunities or to cope with consequential environmental threats. Scientists should open the debate regarding the nature of technology based on new perspectives, such as interactive technologies within inter-related systems of technology, which may explain and generalize vital aspects of technology, evolution of technology and technical utilization for adaptation of users in changing environment. This study begins the process of clarifying and generalizing, as far as possible, an alternative conception of technology based on a systemic-purposeful perspective, which it can lay a foundation for the development of more sophisticated concepts and theories to explain technology and technological change in environment and society.

Keywords: Innovation; Technology; Nature of Technology; Complex System; Product Modularity; Product Architecture; Technological Change

JEL Classification: O30; O32; O33