Technological change

Technological change is when the use of technology in a society or culture changes over time. This process is also known as technological development.  Speaking from the point of view of economics, technological change makes it possible to get more output with the same input, or to get the same output, with less input. Technological change also affects the quality of the product, which often improves over time. As an example, the development of the steam engine was linked to the industrial revolution. Technological changes also affect society, society often n changes as a result of technological change. To stay with the example of the industrial revolution: In the industrial revolution, many factories were built, and people were needed to work in those factories. The work of the factory worker was very different from the work people did before. A whole social class of factory workers developed. As technological change improves efficiency, it is also very often linked to unemployment: Fewer people are needed to produce the same output, so some are laid off. 

According to Joseph Schumpeter, there are five different types of technological development:

 The launch of a new product
 The introduction of a new production method
 A new market becomes accessible, or is created
 A new source is made available for the components or parts of a product
 A new form of organizing a company is introduced

Studies have been done on people living in close contact with nature (sometimes called indigenous societies): Very often these people developed complex systems to keep traditions alive, and to avoid technological change if it isn't necessary. Claude Lévi-Strauss used the term "cold cultures" to describe this phenomenon. 

 Criticism 
People have also criticized technological change: Jean-Jacques Rousseau published a work called Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men  in 1755. In it, he writes that before the Industrial Revolution, people were able to live happily, in a state of nature. In it, he also says that private property leads to inequality among humans. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Luddites were opposed to certain technological changes introduced by the Industrial Revolution. In 1968, philosophers of the Frankfurt School became critical of technological change. In his encyclical Laudato si' Pope Francis has an ambivalent position as to technology: He sees technology as  a key contributor to the environmental crisis and human suffering. 

Pope Francis points out, that technology is viewed as "principal key to the meaning of existence" and asks the world to "resist" the "assault" of the technocratic paradigm.

 References 

Category:Technology