The Nature of Technology

Arthur’s theory of how technology actually develops. A technology, he argues, is a combination of existing components put to a purpose by exploiting some phenomenon; new technologies are assembled out of old ones, so the stock of available building blocks grows combinatorially and invention is recursive rather than heroic. Whole domains — electronics, then digital, then biotech — open up and reorganise the economy around themselves, which is why technological change arrives in waves rather than smoothly.

Why it’s on the list: It opens the Science, Technology, and Epistemology section — the mechanism of technological change stated as theory, in a part of the list aimed at people who build things rather than only study them.

Where I saw it: On Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Science, Technology, and Epistemology, saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription lives on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Innovation — the process the book gives a mechanism for.
• Complexity — the property of combinatorial systems the argument turns on.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.