"Technology"

A young student came to our reference desk looking for information about the technology used by the Ancient Egyptians. I noticed I paused in my answer, thinking to myself, wonder what he will think when we find a book discussing the wheel as a technological advance?... Will automobiles ever advance to being wheel-less? Does anyone except myself remember the car on the "cushion of air" idea?

So many pieces of technology are such an accepted part of everyday life, and with their lack of "movable parts", I am reminded of how difficult it is to find out which came first with a group: the inclined plane or the wheel? does it matter? is one an advance over the other? Is technology always an "advancement"? For whom? For everyone in the society or are there some losers, too? Will a cushion of air someday be an advance over the wheel?

For today, I congratulated the student on his choice of topics and helped him find our books on life in Ancient Egypt, using, of course, the computerized catalog which is one of the biggest advances in our field, and one of the best adaptive technologies I can imagine. I hope there's a good read in the works on this subject. I'll put it right next to a favorite book on my shelves, The Book on the Book Shelf by Henry Petroski, a good read about technology, engineering, and architecture.