Question

Does technology shape society or does society shape technology?

Answer 1

Answer:

Both. Society creates needs, these needs have to be met. Innovative people then meet the challenge because society says “we’ll compensate you if you can figure this out” and so the race begins. When that technology is developed, and the need is met, the technology inspires society to develop new wants and needs and so the cycle begins anew. Consider the biggest technologies in Human history: The wheel, created ancient civilization because it allowed for transport; The clock and calendar, allowing societies to develop schedules for all of their activities; Writing, allowing information to be passed down accurately from generation to generation; Farming, eliminating the need for civilization to be nomadic; Education systems, allowing for the standards of professionalism to be raised and specialized people to be created; fast-forward to the Industrial Age with the Steam Engine and Coal power plant; fast-forward again to the development of flight; fast-forward again to the atomic bomb and the first computer; etc.

Explanation: