Technology's contribution to development

Abstract

The manner in which technology has contributed to the evolution of social structure is traced from the time when man, first tame grasses to found agri­culture up to the present when the use of energy to control information represents the ultimate extension of the lndustrial Revolution. From the purely tribal society from which we all originated, the path forks to the religio-nation in which there was adequate water and agricultural surplusses were easy to achieve, and to the citysstate in which the absence of water forced the inhabitants to create wealth through trading. Ultimately the city-state became domi­nant, and evolved into the proto-nation by the conquest of transport on land. However, the evolution of metals and explosives threatened even this develop­ment. The true nation only evolved after the Industrial Revolution when for the first time man learnt to control energy. Productivity and wealth creation followed, and we are currently searching for the next phase-in our development as we learn what benefits we can draw from information processing. The lessons from the evolution of the West are set against the stage of development of our own country, and it is con­cluded that, with a combination of lead­ership and vision, we may move forward as a nation, confident that through tech­nology we may overcome presently per­ceived problems and evolve for oursel­ves a society which could prove to be a model for the rest of mankind.