Technology enables businesses to develop faster and provide better products, services and experiences for their customers. It can also help them to outperform the competition by allowing them to create a unique selling point and differentiate their offerings from the rest of the market. However, technology can also lead to a number of drawbacks, including the risk of data theft and security breaches.
For example, digital technology makes it easy for people to manipulate images and sounds, which can have negative effects on society. Furthermore, it is difficult to enforce copyright laws, since digital media can be easily copied and altered without permission or detection.
According to Arthur, a key distinction between science and technology is that science focuses on necessity and universality while technology focuses on contingencies and specific circumstances. Therefore, the technologist must decide what to prioritize in order to bring about the desired end, rather than having a clear set of goals handed down to them from above. This explains why it is so important to understand the nature of technology, not just how it works in the present but what its potential is for the future. Moreover, technology is essentially combinatorial, meaning that it is built by combining different technologies, each of which are themselves technological inventions. For instance, a jet engine is made up of technologies like compressors and turbines. Consequently, technology involves the constant choice of which low-resistance means to prioritize and how to combine them in order to accomplish an end.