A Word from the Wise

For my first source in this search to define technology, I called up an old friend, someone who has been around to see technology change. He was my mentor in high school, and his name is Don Powers. Don Powers grew up during the depression, graduated as an electrical engineer from Texas A&M, and went on to work at Honeywell for many years, building gyros for NASA. I asked Mr. Powers what technology was to him, and this is what he told me. "When I started knowing the world was more than just Minnesota, technology was radio, and starting to automate things in cars." He went on to tell me that although that is what he first knew technology to be, that it constantly changes, from the "basic stuff" like electricity and gas engines, to space travel. "Technology is an evolutionary thing," he told me, "To you it is computer related, but it can pertain to astronomy or space travel." He then told me that technology is a super broad field like education. "Try to define education," he said, "and you will find that it's very difficult because it depends on the time in history you are defining it in." He then said that technology to him, today, is space travel, astronomy, and as far as computers are concerned, the World Wide Web and WiFi. He finished by saying this, "They tame the beast, but taming the beast releases another beast that is bigger, stronger, and different."
What a good opinion. Don Powers is a man I have utmost respect for, and he again gave me a superior answer to my question. He described technology mostly as an evolutionary thing, but he struggled with a tangible definition because he said that it is constantly changes. He described technology as something that is current with the time. I did not go this far, but perhaps these things that were once technology no longer are, they are just artifacts, history, but none the less, things that were technology at one point. He made a great point about "the beast", that it is the invention of technology that paves the way for new technology to make the old obsolete. As someone who has seen it all happen, and has been around for the change, I believe his opinion helps me to decide that technology is something that is current, and perhaps something that makes technology obsolete.