Technology is the product of knowledge.

The root of the word and concept of technology is the ancient Greek téchnē, which refers to art, craft, or skill. For Plato, téchnē meant something more than a mere knack or habit. It involved a deep understanding of a domain, and the ability to carry out a rational method for some creative purpose. This ‘rational method’ requires the craftsperson to know why what they do works the way it does; why that way is the best way to do something. In modern times, our concept of this is ‘technique’.

Our concept of technology builds upon this: it is the knowledge and artefacts that allow for techniques to be carried out through mechanisation and automation, and allows these processes to be scaled. A piece of technology is the product of the process of applying deep knowledge and rational methods to produce something that fulfils some purpose.

Consider the process of developing new technologies, whether they’re machines, devices or algorithms. It begins by gathering a pool of knowledge in usually several domains of knowledge. This involves understanding the principles of a field, as well as key problems or questions related to it. Skilled people are hired by a technology manufacturer, and/or they spend a large amount of time in the research phase, building the body of knowledge further. At a certain point, the focus is very much set on problems, and specifically on figuring out the best way of solving them. This may be a particular movement of an object, or a way of processing information. For example, product developers may come to the best methods for moving dirty clothes through water to clean them. This stage is aimed at building the essential techniques that can be used to solve the problems. This stage is an interesting one, because many of these techniques can be carried out by humans: they may be physical, physiological, or mental techniques. However, when building new technologies, once the techniques are decided upon, they are then mechanised, automated, and scaled. Those best techniques­—the ‘rational method’—for moving dirty clothes through water to clean them are programmed into a device that, when a button is pressed, goes through these motions. A customer of a new washing machine—and any technology for that matter—is buying an object that is capable of specific techniques: The techniques are the things that give the object value.

Technology, knowledge and language are also linked in how they are all generative things, meaning that they evolve by combining simple building blocks of themselves into more complex structures, which are then further built upon. Words are built through combinations of other words, new technologies are built by combining existing technologies in new ways, and ideas are built by combining existing ideas. Our ideas in Western civilisation are based on a lineage of ideas tracing back to the ancient Greeks and beyond, into deeper history. In the same ways, our modern technologies are able to be traced back through a lineage.

Knowledge and technology are thus absolutely intertwined and inseparable. Theory provides the basis for action, and technology materialises theory into artefacts. These artefacts are not only commodities but also products of a creative process. The creative process is the medium which the craftsperson moves through to turn their knowledge, understandings and rationality, into physical forms of technology.