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science and technology:
science-a human activity concerned with the acquisition of knowledge. unlike other forms of knowledge it is primarily concerned with the observable, and is not convinced of its own rightness. science is a search for error in theories.
technology- technology is a product of human activity. there are two forms of technology, material and non-material. in the broadest sense technology is all of humankinds creations. technology may also be the dialecitcal antithesis of the earth. humans would be the synthesis. under the assumption that human began to create tool before they developed a symbol system, the symbol system than arose in reaction to a lbaeling of the material alteration of the earth. material technology...chair, television, comb, spear, airplane.
non-material technology...language, time, the american legal system.
also, while technology may be divided into these two categories, they are co-emergent, in other words, if one were to cease existing, the others existence would be greatly hindered. however, material technology is the greatest and final cause of social change...as it is the fundamental attribute of huanity, what seperates us from the other animals, originally...we are able to conciously transform the earth to suit our needs...
Because SCIENCE is dedeuctive and unconvinced of it's own rightness, it is also the most socialized of the knwoledge acquisition process'. The most socialized becasue, by it's very nature scientifically gained knowledge is open to critique. A scientific theory only grows stronger by it's challanges. Because every examination of science includes a critical outlook, attempting to disprove a theory or find errors in it. So in this way science is the most socialized of the knowledges, a scientific community exists, which universally accepts a methodology, which is expected to be followed when conducting research. Unlike religion, which accepts ancient text as the basis of it's knowledge, and faith as the bedrock of it's legitimization, and of course by definition faith cannot be challanged, so religion cannot grow, or expand upon it's knowledge, only reform itself or start a new movement. religion has nothing to offer insofar as the material world is concerned. In my opinon, everything has it's basis in matter, there is no motion without matter, and religion has no interest in gaining new knowledge it is satisfied with the authority of tradition. religion is merely concerned with the symbolic and moral, it may offer gneral giudlines for behavior and a cultural tradition (by coincidence), butin the end when it comes to action, religion is nothing but rhetoric.
Philosophy, is similar to religion in that it has no generally accepted method of gaining knowledge, besides a glance back into the history of philosophy for ideas. It can be based out of the mind of an individual, and needn't be based on observation, to be accepted. simple contemplation and a good sounding (or linguistically confounding) argument are often the basis for philosophy, which again, like religion is mostly concerned with universal truth.
In the broadest sense, technology is everything human. All huamn creations are technology. The two basic forms of TECHNOLOGY are material and non-material. Material is fairly self explanatory. non-material would be systems of organization, methodology, mental constructs, including language, time etc...these are considered technology because they are specifically human creations, the are brought about through huamn interaction and transformation of the natural world. Before huamns were humans, they naturally made sounds which were signals to others of the speices. through human manipulation and creativity, the sounds became language, and a symbolic world was constructed. the fact that we are symbolic creatures, is probably the most distincitve feature of humanity (symbolic interactionism: mead, berger, goffman, blumer...
because we are able to think symbolically, we no longer reply on direct representation or the senses for thought so much. symbols allow a thing to be represented in the imagination by the trigger of a word. Words, language...allow for abstraction. Through abstraction, things are able to be disengaged from their natral habitat, by the mind, and rest in an invented world of imagination. images. the abstract allows for a universal conception, objectivity. animals do not have objectivity or subjectivity because there is no self or other, only is, being. animals are perpetually zen. humans however, through language are able to universalize nature and place it into catagories...such as tree, sky, ocean, people, american...of course these are all labels. language also allows labels, labels form the basis for organiation, by putting in relation things represented by labels in relation to one another, both spatially, temporaly, and on a value system....
again, if i didn't already say it i believe that technology is the antithesis of the earth (not the synthesis!)...on first thought it may seem that technology would be the syntheiss between humans and the earth because humans came first and than interacted with the earth (nature) to create technology.
I believe, on the other hand that technology was created before humans, through the hominid, that nature created technology. technology was simply an expression, extension of the hominid animal, other animals have technology, birds build nests, but for some reason the hominid was able to advance it. i think by actively working at manipulating the physical environment, the hominid brain was stimulated to the point where it was able also to control the signals it sent out, the hominids own creations became a central aspect of its life so signals were designed for each creation, or function of humans creative activity...so that a spear wasn't only a stick with a point used to kill at a particular time...but was part of a category of things that when presented at a certain way made a spear, no matter where they were.
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