Portal:Technology
The Technology Portal
Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia) is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings. Systems (e.g. machines) applying technology by taking an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are referred to as technology systems or technological systems.
The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire and the later Neolithic Revolution increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. Developments in historic times, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale.
Technology has many effects. It has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment. Innovations have always influenced the values of a society and raised new questions in the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics.
Selected article
The optical Talbot effect for monochromatic light, shown as a "Talbot carpet". At the bottom of the figure the light can be seen diffracting through a grating, and this exact pattern is reproduced at the top of the picture (one Talbot length away from the grating). Halfway down you see the image shifted to the side, and at regular fractions of the Talbot length the sub-images are clearly seen.
Did you know...
- ... that minimalist city-building game Islanders deliberately omits features such as resource accumulation and technology research in order to focus on the core mechanic of building placement?
- ... that in 1948 and 1952, nuclear physicist Leslie Shepherd published scientific papers on the use of nuclear technology for interplanetary and interstellar space travel?
- ... that Andrew Niikondo, acting vice-chancellor of the Namibia University of Science and Technology, completed his secondary school education only at age 30?
- ... that Victorian physician and discoverer of arsenic in beer, Ernest Reynolds, did not believe in over-reliance on medical technology?
- ... that the melt-blowing technology used to create N95 respirators was previously used to produce ready-made ribbon bows and bra cups?
- ... that Jill S. Tietjen tries to supply more role models for women in engineering and technology by regularly nominating candidates for awards and halls of fame?
Featured article
Featured article
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear device. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was then the USAAF Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of White Sands Missile Range. The only structures originally in the vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. A base camp was constructed, and there were 425 people present on the weekend of the test. Read more...
Top 10 WikiProject Technology Popular articles of the month
YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.
Musk at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2018
Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate, industrial designer, engineer, and philanthropist. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. Also that year, he was ranked 25th on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. As of October 19, 2020, his net worth was estimated by Forbes to be US$91.9 billion, making him the 5th richest person in the world. He is also the longest tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally.
Google, LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.
Facebook (stylized as facebook) is an American online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, and a flagship service of the namesake company Facebook, Inc. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Netflix, Inc. is an American technology and media services provider and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. The company's primary business is its subscription-based streaming service which offers online streaming of a library of films and television series, including those produced in-house. As of April 2020, Netflix had over 193 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 73 million in the United States. It is available worldwide except in the following: mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to U.S. sanctions). The company also has offices in France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the Netherlands, India, Japan, and South Korea. Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Today, the company produces and distributes content from countries all over the globe.
Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It is considered one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) is an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. It provides videotelephony and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform and is used for teleconferencing, telecommuting, distance education, and social relations. Zoom's business strategy focuses on providing an easier to use product than competitors, as well as cost savings, which include minimizing computational costs at the infrastructure level and having a high degree of employee efficiency.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is considered one of the Big Tech technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.
Tencent Holdings Ltd, also known as Tencent, is a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate holding company. Founded in 1998, its subsidiaries globally market various Internet-related services and products, including in entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other technology. Its twin-skyscraper headquarters, Tencent Seafront Towers (also known as Tencent Binhai Mansion) are based in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen.- Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software ("app"). Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017. Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts.
.svg){kind=logo}
Wikiprojects
Selected picture
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. A joint effort by NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, JAXA, ESA, and CSA, it is the ninth space station to be inhabited.
Categories
Main topics
News
- September 19, 2020 – Internet censorship in the United States, China–United States trade war
- Chinese technology company ByteDance announces a proposed joint deal with American corporations Oracle and Walmart to continue the operation of its video-sharing social networking service TikTok in the United States under the name Tiktok Global. U.S. President Donald Trump recognizes the proposal, having threatened to ban the service in suspicion of Chinese espionage should ByteDance have failed to reach a deal with an American firm. (AFP via The Hindu) (NPR)
- September 1, 2020 –
- American social media service Facebook announces it may block Australian users from sharing both local and international news stories on its platform, should the Australian government enact legislation that would require technology companies in the country to pay local news organisations. (The Japan Today)
- August 28, 2020 –
- American neurotechnology company Neuralink unveils a pig, named "Gertrude", that has been living with a brain-implanted chip for two months at an event in San Francisco. (Reuters)
- August 24, 2020 – Austria–Russia relations
- Austria expels a Russian diplomat following a report accusing the envoy of being involved in economic espionage after an Austrian who works in a technology company confessed that he carried out espionage for years on behalf of the Russian, who was his intelligence handler. (Al Jazeera)
- August 17, 2020 – China–United States trade war, Chinese espionage in the United States, Concerns over Chinese involvement in 5G wireless networks
- The United States Department of Commerce expands its sanctions on Chinese technological vendor Huawei by adding 38 of the company's affiliates to its "entity list", limiting Huawei's access into U.S. integrated circuits and other technology. The Trump administration has viewed Huawei as "an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state." (AFP via The Independent)
- August 6, 2020 – China–United States trade war
- Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, U.S. President Donald Trump issues several executive orders barring firms and American citizens from trading and doing financial transactions with Chinese technology companies ByteDance and Tencent, effectively banning their respective apps TikTok and WeChat within the United States. The orders are set to go into effect in 45 days. (Reuters)
Things you can do
|
|
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
Portals