Understanding Technology: Hardware, Technique, and Sociotechnical Systems

The concept of technology

Technology is the backbone of modern society; the word technology is used on a day-to-day basis but not
everyone understands all of what this word encompasses. According to Stephen J. Kline the word technology can be broken into four concepts: hardware, sociotechnical systems of manufacture, technique, & sociotechnical systems of use. Hardware represents that which is manmade, it does not come to fruition by itself. Some examples of hardware are screwdrivers, shoes, & painkillers, without human intervention these three examples would never have come to existence. Sociotechnical systems of manufacture refers to all the parts used to create/manufacture a piece of hardware such as the materials, factories, research, and labor. For example, to manufacture a CPU (a computer’s brain) one would need: a facility & team for research and development of the hardware, a facility & group of engineers programming the logic of the CPU through HDL (a programming language for hardware), the raw materials to create a CPU such as plastic, gold, silicon, & copper just to name a few, a place to process these materials, and lastly a factory to assemble and test the processors. To create a CPU at least five elements are needed, all 5 elements require technology, without those 5 elements there is no CPU.

 

A single piece of technology cannot exist by itself, systems of technology exist, \these systems allow other pieces of technology to come to existence.Sociotechnical systems of manufacture allows all pieces of technology to be related to each other, even if it takes many steps a common purpose or origin can be found. Technique refers to the ability, know-how, and capacity to complete a task that utilizes the hardware. For example: students need to know how to use a computer to take an online course. Sociotechnical systems of use regards how all the technology that has been created can be used in conjunction to expand the capacity & abilities of humans. For example, students make use of electricity, computers, and the internet to take an online course, furthermore, each of the 3 examples listed use multiple technological advancements & concepts to come to fruition.

 

When utilizing a piece of technology, the user is not making use of just one single piece of technology, but a
group of them. In his article “WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?” Kline makes a point of referring to technology as four
systems and not just hardware, since hardware is only 25% of what the word technology refers to, and because all four elements are equally as important. All four elements combine and allow humans to expand their abilities. If someone wanted to write a book they would need pen and paper, the author must have the ability to write and articulate their thoughts, if saws did not exist paper would not exist, for pens to exist ink must be manufactured, lastly when writing, the paper the author writes on must hold the ink from the pen.

The previous example shows how all four elements of technology come together to allow an author to put his thoughts and ideas into a book. By themselves humans would struggle to send a message across their country, on the other hand electricity, the internet, & computers allow that same message to be sent across the world in a fraction of a second. All four elements of technology must exist, without technique hardware is useless, without a system of use there would be no need for a system of manufacturing. Having a bicycle is pointless if the owner does not have the knowledge of riding a bicycle. Intel & AMD could create processors that are more than twice as fast as what exists now, but if the processor cannot be used in conjunction with other pieces of tech such as a graphics card, then there is no purpose to this processor’s existence.

Personally, I agree with Klein’s assessment of technology, along with the meaning he gave to the word, I would not remove anything from it. But I would add one thing, and that is how the technology can improve the ability of humans. If it expands it in a negative way then it should not exist, one example would be harmful chemicals such as Agent Orange. In a way, I would have liked it if Klein added ethics to his definition of technology. While it is not the purpose of his article, ethics is something that one must always keep in mind when discussing, creating, & using technology.