I love reading and engaging with stories within the fantasy genre because they all provide a unique twist on the way in which the world and society operates. The fantasy and sci-fi genres provide an outlet for authors to consider how the world would be different in an unlimited number of scenarios with the best worlds feeling as real and alive as our own. Fantasy worlds are typically defined by magic and monsters, but I want to start my series on worldbuilding with a discussion about something that is far from imaginary. Today we will be discussing broad categorizations for technological advancement to help better understand not only our own world, but to help spark ideas for new ones.
I will discuss the four preliminary groupings of technological advancement with examples for each category drawn from the real world. I encourage you to pause in each section and try to identify other technologies that fall under this category. Imagine what the world would be like without a type of technology or advancement.
If you are interested in worldbuilding, imagine different taboos about the use or adoption of a technology for religious, economic, or political reason. If your world has magic, in what ways does magic adjust the need for each of these types of technology? Does your world include a new magical advancement or fantastical discovery, if so, consider finding real world examples of technology from that category and how people responded to them prior to their adoption. Worldbuilding is all about imagining how slight changes or new ideas would radically change the world and there is nothing that has changed our world more than technology.
What is Technology?
But first, everyone’s favorite exercise, what do words actually mean! The Encyclopedia Britannica defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human environment.”1 More simply, technology is the creation of anything which aims to change human life or the human environment.
When I use the term technology throughout the remainder of this post it will include far more than the technology that we typically may envision. Look around you and consider how many of the items in your room are created using the application of human knowledge to manipulate the environment around you. Sure, your cell phone or computer is technology, but so is the desk or chair you are sitting in, the light sources allowing you to see, the construction methods used to build the building that you are sitting within. We are constantly interacting with technology and regardless of if the device was invented a 10 years ago or 10,000 years ago, it remains a technological advancement.
Now that we have a working definition for technology, lets break down the different types of technology using the aspects of the natural or human worlds that they are designed to change. The categories below are drawn from Nicholas Carr’s work, The Shallows2, however the examples and analysis of the categories are my own.
1) Physical Technologies
The first category we will look at, physical technologies, is the most basic but wide ranging of the categories. Physical technologies exist in order to supplement, enhance, or adjust the physical abilities that we posses. This category of technology will include most of the tools that we use to handle tasks or jobs that our bodies are quite simply not capable of handling on their own. Some examples:
Human hands are not well designed to dig up large amounts of soil from the ground, but a shovel can help leverage force to get the job done. Humans have a maximum speed in which they are able to move unassisted, wheels, carts, cars, and even airplanes all function to increase our physical ability to travel or move goods. Humans lack the claws and teeth typically seen in nature to wound or kill prey or enemies, weapons and hunting tools serve to enhance our physical abilities to hunt or fight.
Physical technologies tend to enhance the existing abilities of humans to physically interact with the material world and other beings. These types of technologies are responsible for the vast majority of human advancements ranging from the agricultural to industrial revolutions and are likely the technologies (or their direct byproducts) which we encounter the most on a day to day basis.
2) Sensual Technologies
The next category is technology that interacts with our 5 primary senses or which seek to measure natural phenomenon in ways that our unassisted senses could not. This group of technology is less helpful in directly changing the world, but it often can provide a greater depth of understanding for how the world around us actually works.
This is the category with the easiest examples to classify: Microscopes magnify our vision to previously unimaginable levels. Barometers can measure with accuracy changes in atmospheric pressure that went unnoticed before their use. Geiger counters are able to observe and quantify levels of radiation. Thermometers measure the temperature with exacting accuracy.
These devices don’t fundamentally change the world around us in any way. It is 95 degrees outside regardless of if you have a thermometer and radiation was equally capable of giving you cancer before it was measured. What these technologies however are able to achieve is far greater.
Sensual technologies serve a unique purpose in how they are able to shift our perception of our senses. Think about it, prior to having the tools to directly measure the world or phenomenon around us human beings simply settled for categories or details that were close enough. It wasn’t 70 degrees outside, it was warm. Pause and consider how many aspects of your life today are measured or broken down into finite pieces in a way that is only achievable because we have technology that can keep track for us.
3) Natural Technologies
The next category is natural technologies, the methods that humans have invented in order to directly manipulate or change the biological nature around us. This category includes any tools or devices which interact at a deeper level with the biological function of life. Medicines that can influence how our body responds to illness or disease, biological engineering and genetic manipulation of plants or animals to better fit human needs, and selective breeding of traits into domesticated animals all fall within the category of natural technologies.
This category is uniquely responsible with changing the innate biological realities and characteristics of life and accordingly is one of the most controversial types of technology. Think about the discussions surrounding birth control, GMO’s, and vaccines and how deeply people feel about changing natural biological processes.
It is important to take religion into account when discussing natural technologies because critiques of these technologies are far more likely to be religious in nature. Regardless of how directly beneficial a technology is, if someone believes that it goes against Gods will there is unlikely going to be much that you can say to persuade them. If your religion believes that things are the way they are due to a grander natural order or plan, then often times natural technologies can appear as “playing god.”
4) Intellectual Technologies
The final and arguably most impactful type of technology directly influences how our very patterns of thought and intellectual pursuits are handled. Sociologists Jack Goody and Daniel Bell coined the term “intellectual technologies” to mean all the tools we use in order expand our mental abilities. These technologies adjust how we find, classify, and present information and ideas with one another. As you can imagine, the technological advances that shift the very way that human beings think about the world are often some of the most controversial.
Many of the tools which have become synonymous with daily modern life are intellectual technologies. Writing allowed human beings to store and record knowledge to pass from one generation to another. General mathematical principles allow for a level of prediction and analysis that would be impossible without their existence. Maps change the very way in which human beings are able to conceptualize the greater world around them and visualize geography. Clocks create a constant awareness of the passage of time. Computers present and process information in so many ways that would be impossible on our own.
Intellectual technologies are the most complex and wide sweeping in terms of their impact on the world and the ways in which they can shift entire paradigms of thought. Take a moment and try to imagine a world without clocks to tell you the time of day or without writing to record or learn new information. For most of human existence those were simply the realities of the world.
Intellectual technologies change the culture and trajectory of entire societies. The simple use of letters is controversial enough to be featured as a debate in Plato’s Phaedrus as concerns abounded about its effect on human memory. The invention of the printing press led to widespread revolutions and overhauls of political systems throughout Europe. The use of the clock revolutionized how we measure productivity from the amount accomplished the time spent accomplishing. When you hear complaints about how our current intellectual technologies are warping our brains or culture you can rest assured that the complaints are part of a long opposition to intellectual technologies themselves.
Conclusion
The tools and ideas that we adopt change the world around us in ways that can be hard to identify. If this has sparked an interest for you, I encourage you to look deeper into history to see how technologies have been integrated throughout time. Not only is envisioning the ways which society would be different with a different technological history an excellent activity for improving creativity or to brainstorm ideas, but it helps form empathy with cultures that are unlike our own.
In the future I would love to dive deeper into the types of technology and provide my favorite case studies from fantasy about the worldbuilding surrounding them, but this will be enough for today.
