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A Brief History of Technology Understanding the Internet and the World Wide Web (hereafter, Web) as just one more in a long history of technological developments [3] is to begin to understand the much larger reality of the history of what Jacques Ellul refers to as technique. Man the tool-maker and tool-user is a well-worn metaphor [4 ]. Our history is filled with records of our tools and technologies. Epochs are measured by their most important technological developments. The Stone Age is followed by the Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age which is followed by the Steel Age. Postman (1992), noted that Lewis Mumford preferred the Eotechnic, Paleotechnic, and the Neotechnic while Walter Ong preferred the Oral, Chirographic, Typographic, and Electronic ages (p. 22). Even language is seen as a tool by the likes of McLuhan and Ong (Ong, 1982, chpt. 4). American history is sometimes divided into eras defined by the mode of transportation: horse, railroad, car, and airplane. According to Daniel Chandler (1995), the agrarian age was followed by the industrial age, and now, the information age. Of course the plow, the factory, and the computer are icons which define the age in question. Techno-evolutionists define the times by the prominent technology: the atomic age, the space age, the computer age and so on. Langdon Winner (1984) reminded us that, "it is not uncommon for the advent of a new technology to provide for flights of utopian fancy" (p.
Approximate Word count = 903
Approximate Pages = 3.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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