Concepts of How Science and Technology has Shaped the Modern World
Science and technology in society. Historical-conceptual perspective
SUMMARY
It is known that science and technology have become branches of activity inseparable from life and the progress of society for several decades. Both concepts are so interrelated today that they have come to be considered as one. The study of their origins reveals, however, notable differences. In order to pragmatically formalize both concepts and delimit their spheres of action, their definitions, characteristics and interdependencies are exposed. Both science and technology justify their existence in the search and development of products, services, media, tools and other entities capable of satisfying human needs and life in general.
Science and technology today constitute a powerful pillar of cultural, social, economic development and, in general, of life in modern society. Its influence reaches such a point that current life has been flooded in all its aspects by a growing avalanche of products from both one sphere and the other, whose systematic use has been imposed as a condition for development in this historical stage.
Science is understood as that sphere of society’s activity, whose essential object is the acquisition of knowledge about the surrounding world. Science is made up of four fundamental components:
The human factor, represented by scientists and by all the personnel who collaborate for the purposes of scientific activity.
The social factor, made up of the set of relationships that, within the framework of work, scientists maintain; Manifestations of these relationships are constituted by societies, work groups and teams, invisible schools, etc.
The cognitive factor, which even when it includes the necessary processes to generate theoretical, methodological, practical or other knowledge, is manifested by informal means (conferences, reprint exchanges, etc.) or formal (scientific journals, manuals, etc.) of the scientific communication, which are the ones that essentially symbolize this component
Laws (stable or probabilistic regularities identified in the behavior of natural, social or other processes) constitute one of the forms adopted by scientific knowledge, which has great significance for society because it allows both objective reality and reality to be transformed. Herself in a conscious (knowing effect) and controlled manner.
The material factor, which includes both the instruments, equipment or other elements that constitute tools that scientists use directly in the cognitive process, as well as the facilities (laboratories, buildings, etc.) within the framework of which this type of activity is carried out .
Many objects taken in isolation from the scientific context contain elements of two or more of the listed components. For example, the management methods of scientific personnel, even when their foundation is provided by different disciplines, their application occurs in the social context of science, that is, in the sphere of relationships between individuals and groups.
Technology, for its part, constitutes that sector of society’s activity committed to modifying the surrounding world.
The transformation of objective reality is carried out through a closed cycle of five moments or stages that includes both the product or service, as well as the processes of its generation. These five phases through which any product or service goes through are: determination of its need; product, service and process design and development; production or provision of the service; evaluation of the supplier and the client and analysis of the improvement of the product or service and the process.
Although somewhat schematically, the cognitive needs of man can be considered as the origin of science and the material needs, as the source of the development of technology. While science deals with knowing and understanding the objectives and phenomena that already exist, technology tries to create products and services that do not yet exist, but that are necessary.
Information institutions, for example, have a double character, scientific and technological in their essential activity because, at the same time that they facilitate the processes of transmission of knowledge, they actively participate in the process of transforming the world through the constant development of products and services aimed at decisively influencing social and material processes, etc.
Technology was developed before science, because it responded to a practical and immediate need. Man learned to produce fire long before wondering about its causes and implications….., to tame animals and build houses without having the general concepts of genetics or balance or stability.
If the essential components that make up technological activity are observed, the four elements previously defined as fundamental when analyzing scientific activity will be found. However, this does not mean that for the technological sector each component does not have its own nuances. For example, regarding the cognitive component, technological activity incorporates, with great emphasis, market information, needs, competitive prices, satisfaction and others, essential for the subsistence of products and companies. Who carry out this type of activity.
Science and technology as productive forces of modern society
Technological products are one of the results of man’s creative activity. They complete and adapt the picture of reality to the needs of society. These products, contrary to what happens with the knowledge provided by science, first have an ideal character and, later, they adopt a specific material form.
Biological systems basically adapt to the surrounding environment; unlike these, human society, with a social essence, manifests itself as a system that modifies the environment - exerts a transforming function on it – to make it habitable and adapt nature to its needs.
The process of transforming science into an immediate productive force is understood to mean its gradual transformation into a necessary factor in the productive process, the growing influence of science on all the material elements of the productive forces.
If knowledge represents the transformation of the material object into an ideal, the movement of science towards the productive sphere represents a process of transformation of the ideal into a material one.
Both science and technology have become an immediate productive force in modern society, that is, a necessary factor in the production process that exerts a growing influence not only on the material -and even spiritual- elements of the workforce. , but also reaches all spheres of human activity.
The systematic use of scientific knowledge and the new material forms generated in the technological sector have been imposed as a condition for social development. Its use constitutes one of the tendencies that most strongly characterizes modern society and exerts an increasingly growing push on it.
The fusion of science with technology and of technology with material production in general, as well as the conversion of science into an immediate productive force, are characteristic features of the radical qualitative change currently taking place in the productive forces. For this reason, the historical progress of science and technology is nothing more than an aspect of the historical development of the human being, as the main productive force of society.
Reference is made not only to scientific knowledge, but also to science in general, the process of converting it into an immediate productive force also consists in the fact that the links of scientific research become important elements of industrial companies, which become they include directly, without any mediation, in the sphere of material production.
Interdependence of the scientific and technological spheres
It is strange, in our days, to find any material activity in society that does not require obtaining certain knowledge through research as a means to achieve particular objectives. All technologies are therefore in the process of generating their own sciences, yet on the other hand, it is also difficult to find any piece of knowledge that is not being scrutinized for potential benefit in material form. All sciences are in the process of generating their own technologies. This process is intertwined on a large scale, from the laboratory and the workshop, to the research council and the industrial firm, as well as in every dimension of interpenetration.
Although in its origins the technological and scientific spheres developed relatively independently, later these sectors of social activity acquired such a degree of interrelation that science and technology have come to be considered as a single sphere.
The functions of science and technology in society are inseparable. These are two aspects of an indivisible activity, the scope of which transcends a variety of social institutions with an essentially instrumental primary function. In the short or long term, they justify their existence through the production of new and humanly relevant know-how, products or techniques that can be put to some use, spanning a broad ethical spectrum ranging from the satisfaction of basic human needs for food, housing and health to those that support the powerful structure of a society with war weapons and lucrative investments.
However, this function can only be effective if an intermediate product – generalized knowledge – is generated that is not immediately practical. Some scientists and technologists specialize in the production of this type of knowledge, while others are mainly dedicated to transforming it into practical forms. These are not separate functions and are often performed simultaneously by the same people in the organization. They may not manifest themselves in the same way as science and technology appeared in the past, but it is the form that they now take from the point of view of society as a whole.
The advancement of scientific knowledge since the emergence of science is based, to a large extent, on the rise of technology that expands the possibilities of observation, experimentation and capture, processing, transmission and use of information. This influence reaches such a point that there are few scientific processes that are not supported by the multitude of available technological tools.
In the same way it happens with technological progress, which, although at first it was not based on a true knowledge of the surrounding world, in the modern era depends more and more on the intense search for new knowledge that allows us to investigate, design and produce objects. Materials more appropriate to the parameters of social needs.
Therefore, there is a constant exchange of products between the scientific and technological spheres, in such a way that the products of one sphere can become the raw materials or the necessary tools of the other to carry out their activity.
