INTRODUCTION

Aristotle has defined man as the Homo sapiens whose definition is ‘Man the wise’. However other Anthropologists define man as the Homo Faber, which means ‘Man the maker’. Both the definitions are similar and used often. The name Homo Faber has been given to man because many Authors and Philosophers believe that man control the environment and world through their ability to think and therefore make tools. We will see and understand this deeper as we read on about the era’s, ages and periods that have made the world we live in and its technology what it is today!

1) PALEOLITHIC ERA (‘old stone age’ and ‘middle stone age’)

• 2.6Million years ago to 10000BC
• The people who lived at this time were known as hunters or gatherers
• They were close to nature. Two simple examples to show this would be that when it rained at that time, they would have to start building shelters. Secondly they would also have to make tools such as the axe, arrow or the spear so as to kill animals to feed on. However at this time in age even though the hunters would kill the animals so as to survive, they respected and were close to them thus they would apologise to them. They were close to them because they believed that without the animals they would not be able to survive, as they would have nothing to feed on.
• At this time the social concept of being together came about. They started making family and friends. This was due to harsh living conditions such as killing the animals so as to keep surviving.
• Population densities during this period were low-approximately one human per square mile.
• People had settled almost everywhere except Antartica.
• The oldest prehistoric tool industry was known as the ‘Oldowan tool industry’. This industry was founded in this era and stayed for a very long time after this.
• Basic nutrition began and beast feeding also started in this era
• Technology was very gradual and slow

2) NEOLETHIC ERA (‘New stone age’)

• 10000 years ago
• Neolithic Agriculture Revolution-this was the beginning of agriculture. It is believed that some seeds must have fallen during the migrations of the people and so they started growing more. This revolution caused a dramatic transition in human life.
• Due to agriculture people started mastering over land
• Improved tools for agriculture were made, such as flint sickles, primitive millstones, etc
• Migration began due to overpopulation
• The birth of surplus was also seen in this era due to surplus of crops. They discovered that they could start exchanging there crops (Barter trade). This led to major civilisations. For example, in Egypt, Rome and Greece.
• Some of the civilisations that were founded at this time were writing and record keeping which was brought about by the Sumerians, laws which were brought about by the Babylonions, the Olympics which were brought about by the Greeks and the baths and the sewer which were brought about by the Romans.
• This period was also the beginning to Religions, such as Christianity and Islam.
• Building of settlements also began
• It is believed that many inventions came about during this period of time as the people were now not living ‘hand to mouth’ as the hunters did.
• Lastly this age was also the beginning to disease outbreaks due to people living together and also due to them living close to animals.

3) FEUDAL PERIOD

• 5th to 16th century
• Religions became stronger believed in.God was seen as very strong and was also seen as the well wisher of the people. They also believed in the saying ‘God is to man as man is to nature’
• Classes started emerging (Merchants, peasants). Slavery also began in this period
• A government was formed
• The 7 wonders of the world also emerged in this age, for example the Great pyramid of Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon and many more
• Rivalry began- tools such as guns were invented
• There were several tribes or groups of people that existed in this age and they were believed to come from different parts of the world. Examples:
-Goths and Gepids- Germanic people
-Huns- Turkic tribe
-Avars- Asians
-Slavs- largest European group and believed to live in East Russia

4) RENAISSANCE PERIOD

• 1400-1600CE
• Rise of wealthy city states, for example London and France
• The hierarchy in Christianity was formed (from the top who was the King to the peasants at the lowest position)
• Founded universities in Paris and Oxford
• Global trade began
• People in this period started appreciating art and talent like painting and music. These pieces of art displayed freedom and individualism
• People started travelling
• The PRINTING PRESS came into the picture and was a TURNING POINT to the world- they talked about Religion (was questioned), nation and freedom
• Political and Religious corruption began
• Revolutions were discovered- English revolution, American revolution and French revolution
• Grand theories such as liberalism, communism, capitalism and facism began

5) ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD

• 18th century
• This period was controlled by the printing press
• Many political philosophies were discovered due to people acquiring knowledge, this brought about progress and revolution during this time
• Freedom and independency became very important to people in this time
• Many changes took place for the better of people however criticism also came into the picture which started bringing negative thoughts towards other people

6) INDUSTRIAL AGE

• Also known as the THERMODYNAMIC AGE
• 2 main revolutions brought about at this time
I) English Agrarian revolution
• Between 16th to 19th centuries
• People moved from villages to modern cities
• Crop rotation began
• Mechanisation meaning increased use of technology (improvement in architecture and transport)
• Slums were built in cites for those who were in the city but could not cope up with the city life, however some continents such as Europe discouraged the building of slums
II) Industrial revolution
• There were two major inventions in this revolution- the steam engine in 1769 by James Watt and the flying shuttle in 1733 by John Kay. These impacted the environment and the ways of living highly
• Other inventions such as films, photos, phones, TV, planes, trains and communication also emerged
• People however started realising that they were changeable, replaceable and were also workers thus they started looking at themselves and others as machines. This caused people to respect each other less

7) ATOMIC AGE

• 20th century
• During this time 3 major wars took place (TECHNOLOGY WAS IN CRISIS)
i) World war I (1914-1918)
• Came about due to power and dominance
• It drove technology in speed (bombs, trenches, mustard gas, masks, tanks and more were invented)
• Medicine was also made for the first time due to injuries and diseases caused by the war
• Taking of drugs began (cocaine, heroin)
ii) World war II (1939-1945)
• Technology went on developing fast however massive destruction was also occurring therefore taking the world back a little bit
• Improvement in ships, planes, artillery, medicines, chemical weapons
• ARMS RACE highly helped technology develop as inventions such as the strong atomic bomb was made
iii) Cold war
• Spying began
• More developed technology such as ‘space age satellites’ were made
• Movies were being made on several topics including war
• Started making defence machines

- Due to war and so much destruction caused during it, faith in God and human nature was shaken

- Too much destruction and war caused musicians to start singing songs about peace and love and the media also played a major part in trying to arise peace and love

CONCLUSION

• MAN AND TECHNOLOGY ARE INSPERABLE
• TECHNOLOGY CAME ABOUT AND IS WHAT IT IS TODAY DUE TO MAN BEING DIFFERENT FROM ANIMALS (HAVING THE ABILILTY TO THINK AND MAKE TOOLS)
• WE SHOULD APPRECIATE EVERY STAGE AND AGE OF TECHNOLOGY AS IF IT WAS NOT FOR THAT, WE WOULDN’T BE WHO WE ARE AND HAVE WHAT WE DO TODAY!! WE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY…LET’S FACE IT!!!

REFERENCES:

• Hannah Arenat/Max Fisch (Novel 1957)
• The creative evolution
• Karl Max-Dal Kapital
• 2001-A Space Odssey
• Google.com
• IR WEB INFORMATION PAGE
• About.com (Maritn Kelly)
• IEEE GLOBAL HISTORY NETWORK
• THINK QUEST