The Nature of Technology

At a time when we are ever more reliant on technological solutions for the world's problems, it is extraordinary how little we actually understand the processes that lead to innovation and invention. W. Brian Arthur's many years of thinking and writing about technology, and his many groundbreaking contributions to the field, have culminated in a unique understanding of his subject. Here, he seeks to answer the fundamental questions- what is technology and how does it evolve?...
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At a time when we are ever more reliant on technological solutions for the world's problems, it is extraordinary how little we actually understand the processes that lead to innovation and invention. W. Brian Arthur's many years of thinking and writing about technology, and his many groundbreaking contributions to the field, have culminated in a unique understanding of his subject. Here, he seeks to answer the fundamental questions- what is technology and how does it evolve?

Giving rare insights into the origin and evolution of specific technologies - from radar beams to laser printers, from aircraft to powerplants - and a new framework for thinking about them all, every sentence points to some further truth and fascination. Arthur shows how technologies capture natural phenomena, how they combine and build on existing technologies, how they deepen and develop and how they revolutionize our understanding of the world and of the possibilities within it. With this new lens through which to understand the subject, he also reveals to us more clearly than ever just how our own role of creative problem solving and imaginative vision can be involved. Arthur shows not only how science itself is a form of technology but also how we can better understand the economy, as it functions and grows as an expression of its technologies.

This will be a landmark book that will re-define its subject, and inspire many people to think about technology in depth for the very first time.