About Technological Development
The process of technology transfer consists of many activities. For instance, in order to create a new technology, one must first understand the existing ones. Next, one implements his understanding in the form of building new tools or techniques. Afterwards, he may try to utilize existing technologies to the maximum extent feasible. Finally, he must distribute his newly-implemented technology throughout the society. All these processes require energy, effort, money, knowledge, and individuals.
Knowledge is the initial source of technology. The knowledge needed to build and implement new technology is called technology knowledge. This knowledge can be general or particular in nature. General technological know-how can be gathered from scientific discoveries, academic study, and from fields such as engineering, physics, medicine, computer science, and computer architecture. Specific technological know-how, on the other hand, can be gathered only by specialization (e.g., in applied research in engineering).
Individuals, too, contribute to technology. They make the technologies that they use better, they devise new ways of using existing technologies, they modify and expand upon the knowledge of others, and they introduce new technology into the market. It is through technology that new goods and services are developed. It is also through technology that people can communicate and interact with each other.
The scope and quantity of technology are measured in terms of the number of goods and services which are made possible by technology and the number of years it takes to develop new goods and services. In a technologically advanced economy, new goods and services are usually developed quickly because they do not need to undergo the usual process of creation and testing. Goods and services, moreover, are usually developed economically, not innovative. This means that, for a given level of technology, the number of innovations is not very large, and the costs of innovation are relatively small.
Technological progress does not always lead to increased knowledge and improved production. Often, technology is developed to fill unfulfilled needs rather than to provide goods and services that have greater value and which would have been available if the technology had not been developed. Innovation is also sometimes used to divert resources to more important endeavors.
One example of this diversionary tactic is the use of technology to create products that are not essential to human life, such as jewelry, clothes, books, cars, etc. Some economists call this unimportant goods creation. But although the technology has been developed to produce these unimportant goods, their producers still do not have access to the knowledge, experience, and talent to make them competitive on the market.
There are many good reasons why we should not be focusing primarily on the creation of new knowledge, but on the development of more useful technology. We should instead be focusing on the expansion of the human knowledge base, so that more people can enjoy the benefits of technology. As people obtain more technical knowledge, they will be able to contribute to the improvement of the society in various ways. For instance, they can become experts on new computer applications, they can design better products, or they can come up with new knowledge based on scientific discoveries.
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