Technology

TECHNOLOGY IS DEFINED as applying science to manipulate or change the human environment. Although it is usually thought to involve some form of machinery or physical equipment, technology can just as effectively be intangible in form, such as with management technology, which provides different ways of understanding how resources, including [Page 951]people, maybe organized for more efficient production or operation. Historically, technology changed and developed very slowly around the world. However in more recent years, the improvements in infrastructure—and particularly in communications—have meant that technological advances have increased at an ever-quicker rate. Meanwhile, the dissemination ofthat technology has spread around the world, although there are still many hundreds of millions of people too poor to benefit from it. Nevertheless, for most people, especially in the ...