{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,10]],"date-time":"2026-06-10T15:48:10Z","timestamp":1781106490716,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"IGI Global Scientific Publishing","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2012,4,1]]},"abstract":"<p>This paper, a personal view rather than an official HP view, questions what counts as technology given that it has played a significant role throughout human history. It uses a non-technological \u2018human\u2019 situation as a datum point from which technology is explored in terms of how people become subservient to it. It briefly surveys the literature before differentiating between particular instances of technology, such as an airplane, and the collective effect of all technologies. These are termed a \u201cTechnology-Instance\u201d and the \u201cTechnology-Collective\u201d. The collective effect of all Technology-Instances produces emergent properties at the Technology-Collective layer, leading technology to create needs in the form of feedback loops that stimulate the development of more technology. Interdependencies between technological needs create choices available to humans and brings in to question whether notions of being free thinkers is constrained. Technology controls people because people do not acknowledge a systemic effect at the Technology-Collective level of abstract. People\u2019s attention focuses on the control of a Technology-Instance but not on the Technology-Collective and the biases that influence people\u2019s ways of characterising options. The author concludes by arguing people can, and need to, control the Technology-Collective.<\/p>","DOI":"10.4018\/jskd.2012040101","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,4,12]],"date-time":"2012-04-12T16:48:21Z","timestamp":1334249301000},"page":"1-13","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["What is Technology?"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"4","author":[{"given":"Roy","family":"Woodhead","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"HP Enterprise Services ITO, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"key":"jskd.2012040101-0","author":"R. E.Allen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Plato: The Republic"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-1","author":"A.Borgmann","year":"1984","journal-title":"Technology and the character of contemporary"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-2","author":"B.Bryson","year":"2003","journal-title":"A short history of nearly everything"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-3","author":"P.Drucker","year":"1969","journal-title":"The age of discontinuity; guidelines to our changing society"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-4","author":"V.Dusek","year":"2006","journal-title":"Philosophy of technology: An introduction"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-5","author":"J.Ellul","year":"1980","journal-title":"Autonomy, the technological system"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-6","unstructured":"Ellul, J. (2009). The betrayal of technology part 1. Retrieved September 9, 2011, from http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LdogID589Mk"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-7","author":"A.Feenberg","year":"1999","journal-title":"Questioning technology"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-8","author":"F.Ferr\u00e9","year":"1995","journal-title":"Philosophy of technology"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-9","author":"M.Frauenfelder","year":"2005","journal-title":"The computer"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X00071235"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-11","volume":"Vol. 2","author":"J.Habermas","year":"1989","journal-title":"The theory of communicative action: Critique of functionalist reason"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-12","author":"E.Haeckel","year":"1868","journal-title":"The history of creation"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-13","author":"E.Haeckel","year":"1869","journal-title":"Ueber Arbeitsheilung in Natur und Menschenleben"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-14","author":"M.Heidegger","year":"2001","journal-title":"Being and time"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-15","first-page":"67","article-title":"Technological determinism revisited","author":"R.Heilbroner","year":"1994","journal-title":"Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-16","unstructured":"Hicks, J., & Allen, G. (1999). A century of change: Trends in UK statistics since 1900. Retrieved September 9, 2011, from http:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/commons\/lib\/research\/rp99\/rp99-111.pdf"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-17","author":"D.Ihde","year":"2002","journal-title":"Bodies in technology"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/0471773662"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/027046768500500301"},{"issue":"2","key":"jskd.2012040101-20","first-page":"4","article-title":"The dual nature of technical artifacts \u2013 presentation of a new research programme.","volume":"6","author":"P.Kroes","year":"2002","journal-title":"Techne"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-21","unstructured":"Kurzweil's. R. (2005). The singularity is near. New York, NY: Viking Penguin."},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-22","author":"D. S.Landes","year":"1969","journal-title":"The Unbound Prometheus: Technological change and industrial development in Western Europe from 1750 to the present"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/026327602761899246"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-24","first-page":"383","article-title":"Language evolution and human development","author":"B.MacWhinney","year":"2005","journal-title":"Origins of the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and child development"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/392867"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-26","author":"K.Marx","year":"1904","journal-title":"A contribution to the critique of political economy"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-27","author":"K.Marx","year":"1964","journal-title":"Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Micklin, P., & Aladin, N. (2008). Reclaiming the Aral Sea. Scientific American. Retrieved September 9, 2011, from http:\/\/www.sciam.com\/article.cfm?id=reclaiming-the-aral-sea&sc=rss","DOI":"10.1038\/scientificamerican0408-64"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.4018\/978-1-59140-118-6","author":"E.Mumford","year":"2003","journal-title":"Redesigning human systems"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-30","author":"L.Mumford","year":"1963","journal-title":"Technics and civilisation"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-31","author":"A.Pacey","year":"2000","journal-title":"Technology in world civilization"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-32","author":"K. R.Popper","year":"2003","journal-title":"Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-33","author":"C.Rogers","year":"1967","journal-title":"A therapist\u2019s view of psychotherapy: On becoming a person"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-34","author":"J.Schumpeter","year":"1950","journal-title":"Capitalism, socialism, and democracy"},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-35","unstructured":"Seni, D. (2007). The technological theory of value: Towards a framework for value management. Value World, 30(2)."},{"key":"jskd.2012040101-36","author":"L.Winner","year":"1978","journal-title":"Autonomous technology: technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development"],"original-title":[],"language":"ng","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.igi-global.com\/viewtitle.aspx?TitleId=66348","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,1]],"date-time":"2022-06-01T22:23:51Z","timestamp":1654122231000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/services.igi-global.com\/resolvedoi\/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018\/jskd.2012040101"}},"subtitle":[""],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2012,4,1]]},"references-count":37,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2012,4]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4018\/jskd.2012040101","relation":{},"ISSN":["1941-6253","1941-6261"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1941-6253","type":"print"},{"value":"1941-6261","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2012,4,1]]}}}