106-593: Gartner, Inc. is an American technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut , that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients include large corporations, government agencies, technology companies, and investment firms. In 2018, the company's client base consisted of over 12,000 organizations in over 100 countries. As of 2022, Gartner has over 15,000 employees located in over 100 offices worldwide. It
212-424: A bearing , and is where the spokes meet. A hubless wheel (also known as a rim-rider or centerless wheel) is a type of wheel with no center hub . More specifically, the hub is actually almost as big as the wheel itself. The axle is hollow, following the wheel at very close tolerances . A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting
318-639: A circumalpine type of wagon construction (the wheel and axle rotate together, as in Ljubljana Marshes Wheel), and that of the Baden culture in Hungary (axle does not rotate). They both are dated to c. 3200–3000 BCE. Some historians believe that there was a diffusion of the wheeled vehicle from the Near East to Europe around the mid-4th millennium BCE. Early wheels were simple wooden disks with
424-482: A mixer which helped them to hide their cryptocurrency exchanges, to launder over $ 20.5 million in cryptocurrency, from Axie Infinity , and steal over $ 600 million worth of cryptocurrency from the game's owner. Because of this, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, which marked the first time it has taken action against a mixer, to try to crack down on North Korean hackers. The privacy of cryptocurrency has been debated. Although many customers like
530-526: A 2.2 m wide door was constructed for wagon entry; this barn was 40 m long with three doors, dated to 5000 BCE, and belonged to the neolithic Linear Pottery culture . Surviving evidence of a wheel-axle combination, from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia ( Ljubljana Marshes Wooden Wheel ), is dated within two standard deviations to 3340–3030 BCE, the axle to 3360–3045 BCE. Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known:
636-433: A Canadian truck shop owner. While wheels are very widely used for ground transport, there are alternatives, some of which are suitable for terrain where wheels are ineffective. Alternative methods for ground transport without wheels include: The wheel has also become a strong cultural and spiritual metaphor for a cycle or regular repetition (see chakra , reincarnation , Yin and Yang among others). As such and because of
742-475: A computer industry analysis-focused unit of McGraw-Hill , in 1997; that in turn had once been Datapro Research Corporation of Delran Township, New Jersey . It has also acquired a number of direct competitors: Meta Group in 2005, AMR Research and Burton Group in early 2010, and Ideas International in 2012. In March 2014, Gartner announced that it had acquired the privately held company Software Advice for an undisclosed amount. In 2014, Gartner also coined
848-445: A deformation loss. It depends on the nature of the ground, of the material of the wheel, its inflation in the case of a tire, the net torque exerted by the eventual engine, and many other factors. A wheel can also offer advantages in traversing irregular surfaces if the wheel radius is sufficiently large compared to the irregularities. The wheel alone is not a machine, but when attached to an axle in conjunction with bearing, it forms
954-443: A hole for the axle. Some of the earliest wheels were made from horizontal slices of tree trunks. Because of the uneven structure of wood , a wheel made from a horizontal slice of a tree trunk will tend to be inferior to one made from rounded pieces of longitudinal boards. The spoked wheel was invented more recently and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest known examples of wooden spoked wheels are in
1060-590: A number of toys, very similar to those found throughout the world and still made for children today ("pull toys"), the wheel was never put into practical use in Mesoamerica before the 16th century. Possibly the closest the Mayas came to the utilitarian wheel is the spindle whorl , and some scholars believe that these toys were originally made with spindle whorls and spindle sticks as "wheels" and "axes". Aboriginal Australians traditionally used circular discs rolled along
1166-410: A rise in extremism, while others see it as an opportunity to usher in a post-scarcity economy . Some segments of the 1960s hippie counterculture grew to dislike urban living and developed a preference for locally autonomous , sustainable , and decentralized technology, termed appropriate technology . This later influenced hacker culture and technopaganism . Technological utopianism refers to
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#17328377202771272-411: A rise in social media's cultural prominence, with potential repercussions on democracy, and economic and social life. Early on, the internet was seen as a "liberation technology" that would democratize knowledge, improve access to education, and promote democracy. Modern research has turned to investigate the internet's downsides, including disinformation, polarization, hate speech, and propaganda. Since
1378-517: A role. The invention of writing led to the spread of cultural knowledge and became the basis for history, libraries , schools, and scientific research. Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time, the ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead – native metals found in relatively pure form in nature. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper
1484-509: A source of ideas. Futures research methodologies include survey research , modeling, statistical analysis , and computer simulations . Existential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse, and look for ways to build resilience against them. Relevant research centers include the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk , and
1590-510: Is a member of the S&;P 500 . Gideon Gartner founded Gartner, Inc. in 1979. Originally private, the company launched publicly as Gartner Group in 1986 before Saatchi & Saatchi acquired it in 1988. In 1990, Gartner Group was acquired by some of its executives, including Gartner himself, with funding from Bain Capital and Dun & Bradstreet . The company went public again in 1993. In 2000,
1696-614: Is a symbol of progress, seen in many contexts including the coat of arms of Panama , the logo of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the State Railway of Thailand . The wheel is also the prominent figure on the flag of India . The wheel in this case represents law ( dharma ). It also appears in the flag of the Romani people , hinting to their nomadic history and their Indian origins. The introduction of spoked ( chariot ) wheels in
1802-466: Is always beneficial, that scientific openness is always preferable, or that they can afford to wait until a dangerous technology has been invented before they prepare mitigations. Emerging technologies are novel technologies whose development or practical applications are still largely unrealized. They include nanotechnology , biotechnology , robotics , 3D printing , blockchains , and artificial intelligence . In 2005, futurist Ray Kurzweil claimed
1908-499: Is an interdisciplinary subfield of ethics that analyzes technology's ethical implications and explores ways to mitigate the potential negative impacts of new technologies. There is a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology, from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. Prominent debates have surrounded genetically modified organisms ,
2014-731: Is creating both new opportunities and new obligations for us, opportunity for greater productivity and progress; obligation to be sure that no workingman, no family must pay an unjust price for progress." upon signing the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress bill. With the growing reliance of technology, there have been security and privacy concerns along with it. Billions of people use different online payment methods, such as WeChat Pay , PayPal , Alipay , and much more to help transfer money. Although security measures are placed, some criminals are able to bypass them. In March 2022, North Korea used Blender.io ,
2120-408: Is described as wheelbuilding . A tire ( American English and Canadian English ) or tyre ( Commonwealth English ) is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground. The word itself may be derived from the word "tie", which refers to
2226-410: Is founded upon the "continued evolution of human life beyond its current human form" through science and technology, informed by "life-promoting principles and values." The movement gained wider popularity in the early 21st century. Wheel A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle bearing . The wheel is one of the key components of
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#17328377202772332-573: Is no evidence of Halafians using either wheeled vehicles or pottery wheels. Potter's wheels are thought to have been used in the 4th millennium BCE in the Middle East. The oldest surviving example of a potter's wheel was thought to be one found in Ur (modern day Iraq ) dating to approximately 3100 BCE. However, a potter's wheel found in western Ukraine , of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture , dates to
2438-408: Is no longer at the surface that the vehicle is traversing, but in the bearings . In the simplest and oldest case the bearing is just a round hole through which the axle passes (a " plain bearing "). Even with a plain bearing, the frictional work is greatly reduced because: Example: Additional energy is lost from the wheel-to-road interface. This is termed rolling resistance which is predominantly
2544-545: Is the sailing ship ; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to around 7,000 BCE. From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from
2650-502: Is the stone tool , used during prehistory , followed by the control of fire —which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age , according to the cooking hypothesis . The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including
2756-483: Is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals , especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines , and intangible ones such as software . Technology plays a critical role in science , engineering , and everyday life . Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology
2862-481: Is the largest cause of long-term economic growth. Throughout human history, energy production was the main constraint on economic development , and new technologies allowed humans to significantly increase the amount of available energy . First came fire, which made edible a wider variety of foods, and made it less physically demanding to digest them. Fire also enabled smelting , and the use of tin , copper, and iron tools, used for hunting or tradesmanship . Then came
2968-562: The Ancient Greek word [[[τέχνη|tékhnē]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like architecture. Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms Technik (German) or technique (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments. At
3074-588: The Information Age and the birth of the Internet . The Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and later the launch of crewed missions to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence have used radio telescopes to detect signs of technology use, or technosignatures , given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis ( CT , PET , and MRI scanning), treatment (like
3180-545: The Minoans on the Greek island of Crete built a 50 km road leading from the palace of Gortyn on the south side of the island, through the mountains, to the palace of Knossos on the north side of the island. Unlike the earlier road, the Minoan road was completely paved. Ancient Minoan private homes had running water . A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at
3286-600: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation. Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq ), the Northern Caucasus ( Maykop culture ), and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE. The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE. More recently,
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3392-602: The World Economic Forum 's "The Future of Jobs Report 2020", AI is predicted to replace 85 million jobs worldwide, and create 97 million new jobs by 2025. From 1990 to 2007, a study in the U.S. by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu showed that an addition of one robot for every 1,000 workers decreased the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2%, or about 3.3 workers, and lowered wages by 0.42%. Concerns about technology replacing human labor however are long-lasting. As US president Lyndon Johnson said in 1964, "Technology
3498-412: The cogwheel (see also antikythera mechanism ), the spinning wheel , and the astrolabe or torquetum . More modern descendants of the wheel include the propeller , the jet engine , the flywheel ( gyroscope ) and the turbine . A wheeled vehicle requires much less work to move than simply dragging the same weight. The low resistance to motion is explained by the fact that the frictional work done
3604-864: The dialysis machine , defibrillator , pacemaker , and a wide array of new pharmaceutical drugs ), and research (like interferon cloning and DNA microarrays ). Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire industries have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education – their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science ; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture. Technological change
3710-402: The lever , the screw , and the pulley ) were combined into more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow , windmills , and clocks . A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge . The Renaissance era produced many innovations, including the introduction of the movable type printing press to Europe, which facilitated
3816-445: The printing press , telephone, and the Internet , have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy . While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity , it can also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion , and can cause social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation . As a result, philosophical and political debates about
3922-399: The smelting of ores, along with the use of a wind-drafted clay kiln , which released lead into the atmosphere and the sediment of rivers. Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created." It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since
4028-491: The wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines . Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ship's wheel , steering wheel , potter's wheel , and flywheel . Common examples can be found in transport applications. A wheel reduces friction by facilitating motion by rolling together with
4134-404: The wheel and axle , one of the simple machines . A driven wheel is an example of a wheel and axle. Wheels pre-date driven wheels by about 6000 years, themselves an evolution of using round logs as rollers to move a heavy load—a practice going back in pre-history so far that it has not been dated. The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire". It makes up the outer circular design of
4240-571: The wheelwright 's work, than to the materials used. The rims of wire wheels (or "wire spoked wheels") are connected to their hubs by wire spokes . Although these wires are generally stiffer than a typical wire rope , they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads. Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and still used on many motorcycles . They were invented by aeronautical engineer George Cayley and first used in bicycles by James Starley . A process of assembling wire wheels
4346-406: The 1970s, technology's impact on the environment has been criticized , leading to a surge in investment in solar , wind , and other forms of clean energy . Since the invention of the wheel, technologies have helped increase humans' economic output. Past automation has both substituted and complemented labor; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs (for example in agriculture), but this
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4452-429: The 1970s. The humanities philosophy of technology is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture". Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties. Marx framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believed that technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it
4558-530: The Middle Bronze Age appears to have carried somewhat of a prestige. The sun cross appears to have a significance in Bronze Age religion , replacing the earlier concept of a solar barge with the more 'modern' and technologically advanced solar chariot . The wheel was also a solar symbol for the Ancient Egyptians . In modern usage, the 'invention of the wheel' can be considered as a symbol of one of
4664-605: The Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland. Agriculture fed larger populations, and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by nomads . Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in hunter-gatherer activities. With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization . What triggered
4770-662: The Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets, which emptied into an extensive sewage system . The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima ; construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today. The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts , which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct
4876-465: The Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter. No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archaeologists have found archaeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya and shelter 450 kya. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from
4982-488: The Stanford Existential Risk Initiative. Future technologies may contribute to the risks of artificial general intelligence , biological warfare , nuclear warfare , nanotechnology , anthropogenic climate change , global warming , or stable global totalitarianism , though technologies may also help us mitigate asteroid impacts and gamma-ray bursts . In 2019 philosopher Nick Bostrom introduced
5088-603: The academic discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial Revolution , technology stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on the meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends. Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error . Around 2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make
5194-493: The agricultural revolution: humans no longer needed to hunt or gather to survive, and began to settle in towns and cities, forming more complex societies, with militaries and more organized forms of religion. Technologies have contributed to human welfare through increased prosperity, improved comfort and quality of life, and medical progress , but they can also disrupt existing social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups. Recent years have brought about
5300-460: The alteration of matter at the atomic and molecular level in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. And engineering ethics deals with the professional standards of engineers, including software engineers and their moral responsibilities to the public. A wide branch of technology ethics is concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence : it includes robot ethics , which deals with ethical issues involved in
5406-461: The atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect . This continues to gradually heat the earth, causing global warming and climate change . Measures of technological innovation correlates with a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Pollution, the presence of contaminants in an environment that causes adverse effects, could have been present as early as the Inca Empire . They used a lead sulfide flux in
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#17328377202775512-490: The belief that technological development is a moral good , which can and should bring about a utopia , that is, a society in which laws, governments, and social conditions serve the needs of all its citizens. Examples of techno-utopian goals include post-scarcity economics , life extension , mind uploading , cryonics , and the creation of artificial superintelligence . Major techno-utopian movements include transhumanism and singularitarianism . The transhumanism movement
5618-557: The city-state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE, and even older fragments of wheel-thrown pottery have been found in the same area. Fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery, but it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels , windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources. The first two-wheeled carts were derived from travois and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE. The oldest known constructed roadways are
5724-519: The communication of knowledge. Technology became increasingly influenced by science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of steam power set off the Industrial Revolution , which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of agriculture , manufacturing, mining, metallurgy , and transport, and
5830-634: The context of the Sintashta culture , dating to c. 2000 BCE ( Krivoye Lake ). Soon after this, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens . Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around
5936-444: The design, construction, use, and treatment of robots, as well as machine ethics , which is concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of artificially intelligent agents . Within the field of AI ethics, significant yet-unsolved research problems include AI alignment (ensuring that AI behaviors are aligned with their creators' intended goals and interests) and the reduction of algorithmic bias . Some researchers have warned against
6042-415: The difficult terrain, wheeled vehicles were forbidden in old Tibet . The wheel in ancient China is seen as a symbol of health and strength and used by some villages as a tool to predict future health and success. The diameter of the wheel is indicator of one's future health. The Kalachakra or wheel of time is also a subject in some forms of Buddhism , along with the dharmachakra . The winged wheel
6148-553: The first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe . This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking , enabling much finer work. The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made by man". Archaeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous [human] fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal , allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening
6254-517: The fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to Eurasia . The Neolithic Revolution (or First Agricultural Revolution ) brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity. The invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance and farming. This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in
6360-477: The ground for target practice. Nubians from after about 400 BCE used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels . It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven. It is also known that Nubians used horse-drawn chariots imported from Egypt . Starting from the 18th century in West Africa, wheeled vehicles were mostly used for ceremonial purposes in places like Dahomey . The wheel
6466-425: The ground-contact area flat. Examples include: Truck and bus wheels may block (stop rotating) under certain circumstances, such as brake system failure. To help detect this, they sometimes feature "wheel rotation indicators": colored strips of plastic attached to the rim and protruding out from it, such that they can be seen by the driver in the side-view mirrors . These devices were invented and patented in 1998 by
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#17328377202776572-400: The hub with the round traction surface. The term originally referred to portions of a log which had been split lengthwise into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. A spokeshave is a tool originally developed for this purpose. Eventually, the term spoke was more commonly applied to the finished product of
6678-441: The hypothetical risk of an AI takeover , and have advocated for the use of AI capability control in addition to AI alignment methods. Other fields of ethics have had to contend with technology-related issues, including military ethics , media ethics , and educational ethics . Futures studies is the systematic and interdisciplinary study of social and technological progress. It aims to quantitatively and qualitatively explore
6784-482: The introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization. Communication improved with the invention of the telegraph , the telephone, the radio, and television. The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission in the Atomic Age led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power . Analog computers were invented and asserted dominance in processing complex data. While
6890-504: The invention of vacuum tubes allowed for digital computing with computers like the ENIAC , their sheer size precluded widespread use until innovations in quantum physics allowed for the invention of the transistor in 1947, which significantly compacted computers and led the digital transition. Information technology, particularly optical fiber and optical amplifiers , allowed for simple and fast long-distance communication, which ushered in
6996-534: The invention of the wheel, and that unlike other breakthrough inventions, the wheel cannot be attributed to a single nor several inventors. Evidence of early wheeled carts has been found across the Middle East , in Europe , Eastern Europe , India and China . It is not known whether Chinese, Indians, Europeans and Mesopotamians invented the wheel independently. The invention of the solid wooden disk wheel falls into
7102-404: The issue more thoroughly; others fear that directed evolution could lead to eugenics or extreme social inequality. Nanotechnology will grant us the ability to manipulate matter "at the molecular and atomic scale", which could allow us to reshape ourselves and our environment in fundamental ways. Nanobots could be used within the human body to destroy cancer cells or form new body parts, blurring
7208-421: The last two both meaning ' circle ' or ' wheel ' . Archaeological artifacts demonstrate a slow development over centuries in many locales. Mesopotamian civilization was credited with the invention of the wheel by several, mainly old sources. Some recent sources either suggest that the wheel was invented independently in both Mesopotamia and Eastern Europe or credit prehistoric Eastern Europeans with
7314-459: The late Neolithic , and may be seen in conjunction with other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age . This implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia after the invention of agriculture and of pottery , during the Aceramic Neolithic . The Halaf culture of 6500–5100 BCE is sometimes credited with the earliest depiction of a wheeled vehicle, but there
7420-690: The line between biology and technology. Autonomous robots have undergone rapid progress, and are expected to replace humans at many dangerous tasks, including search and rescue , bomb disposal , firefighting , and war. Estimates on the advent of artificial general intelligence vary, but half of machine learning experts surveyed in 2018 believe that AI will "accomplish every task better and more cheaply" than humans by 2063, and automate all human jobs by 2140. This expected technological unemployment has led to calls for increased emphasis on computer science education and debates about universal basic income . Political science experts predict that this could lead to
7526-583: The middle of the 4th millennium BCE onward, the evidence is condensed throughout Europe in the form of toy cars, depictions, or ruts, with the oldest find in Northern Germany dating back to around 3400 BCE. In Mesopotamia , depictions of wheeled wagons found on clay tablet pictographs at the Eanna district of Uruk , in the Sumerian civilization are dated to c. 3500–3350 BCE. In
7632-530: The middle of the 5th millennium BCE which pre-dates the earliest use of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia. Wheels of uncertain dates have been found in the Indus Valley civilization of the late 4th millennium BCE covering areas of present-day India and Pakistan . The oldest indirect evidence of wheeled movement was found in the form of miniature clay wheels north of the Black Sea before 4000 BCE. From
7738-504: The name was simplified from Gartner Group to Gartner . In 2000, Gartner coined the term Supranet . Gene Hall has been the CEO of the company since August 2004. In the course of its growth, Gartner has acquired numerous companies providing related services, including Real Decisions—which became Gartner Measurement, now part of Gartner's consulting division—and Gartner Dataquest , a market research firm. It acquired Datapro Information Services,
7844-417: The next technological revolution would rest upon advances in genetics , nanotechnology , and robotics , with robotics being the most impactful of the three technologies. Genetic engineering will allow far greater control over human biological nature through a process called directed evolution . Some thinkers believe that this may shatter our sense of self, and have urged for renewed public debate exploring
7950-419: The notion of a vulnerable world , "one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default", citing the risks of a pandemic caused by bioterrorists , or an arms race triggered by the development of novel armaments and the loss of mutual assured destruction . He invites policymakers to question the assumptions that technological progress
8056-443: The number of foods that could be eaten. The cooking hypothesis proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size , though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive. Archaeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language . Other technological advances made during
8162-500: The oldest-known wooden wheel in the world as of 2024 was found in the Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia ; Austrian experts have established that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old. The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads. The ancient Sumerians used a potter's wheel and may have invented it. A stone pottery wheel found in
8268-498: The outer steel ring part of a wooden cart wheel that ties the wood segments together (see Etymology above). The fundamental materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber , natural rubber , fabric, and wire, along with other compound chemicals. They consist of a tread and a body. The tread provides traction while the body ensures support. Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Today,
8374-553: The privacy of cryptocurrency, many also argue that it needs more transparency and stability. Technology can have both positive and negative effects on the environment. Environmental technology , describes an array of technologies which seek to reverse, mitigate or halt environmental damage to the environment. This can include measures to halt pollution through environmental regulations, capture and storage of pollution, or using pollutant byproducts in other industries. Other examples of environmental technology include deforestation and
8480-490: The privately held company SCM World , headquartered in London , U.K. On January 5, 2017 Gartner announced it had reached an agreement to acquire CEB, Inc. in a cash and stock deal worth about US$ 2.6 billion. On March 7, 2017 Gartner announced that it has agreed to buy New York–based L2 Inc , which specialises in benchmarking the digital performance of brands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Technology Technology
8586-417: The progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk , and the first civilizations, such as Sumer , is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war among adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation , are all thought to have played
8692-409: The range of plausible futures and to incorporate human values in the development of new technologies. More generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of humankind". It relies on a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of past and present technological trends, and attempts to rigorously extrapolate them into the future. Science fiction is often used as
8798-401: The reversing of deforestation. Emerging technologies in the fields of climate engineering may be able to halt or reverse global warming and its environmental impacts, although this remains highly controversial. As technology has advanced, so too has the negative environmental impact, with increased release of greenhouse gases , including methane , nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide , into
8904-450: The role and use of technology, the ethics of technology , and ways to mitigate its downsides are ongoing. Technology is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment' (from Greek Τεχνολογία , from the Greek : τέχνη , romanized : tékhnē , lit. 'craft, art' and -λογία , 'study, knowledge'). It is predated in use by
9010-521: The second half of the 4th millennium BCE, evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared near-simultaneously in the Northern ( Maykop culture ) and South Caucasus and Eastern Europe ( Cucuteni-Trypillian culture ). Depictions of a wheeled vehicle appeared between 3631 and 3380 BCE in the Bronocice clay pot excavated in a Funnelbeaker culture settlement in southern Poland . In nearby Olszanica ,
9116-523: The stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to c. 4,000 BCE , and timber roads leading through the swamps of Glastonbury , England, dating to around the same period. The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE, spanned 2,400 km from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea , but was not paved and was only partially maintained. In around 2,000 BCE,
9222-454: The term "Digital BizOps" and further developed the early philosophy for digital business operations. In July 2015, Gartner acquired Nubera , the business app discovery network that owns properties like GetApp (a peer review site), AppStorm , AppAppeal , and CloudWork . Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In September 2015, it acquired the privately held peer review site (PRS) Capterra . In June 2016, Gartner announced that it had acquired
9328-471: The time, Technologie (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts." The distinction between Technik and Technologie is absent in English, and so both were translated as technology . The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to
9434-693: The use of axles . In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, either by way of gravity or by the application of another external force or torque . The English word wheel comes from the Old English word hwēol , from Proto-Germanic * hwehwlaz , from Proto-Indo-European * k ék los , an extended form of the root * k el- ' to revolve, move around ' . Cognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól ' wheel, tyre ' , Greek κύκλος kúklos , and Sanskrit chakra ,
9540-527: The use of robotic soldiers, algorithmic bias , and the issue of aligning AI behavior with human values. Technology ethics encompasses several key fields. Bioethics looks at ethical issues surrounding biotechnologies and modern medicine, including cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. Computer ethics focuses on issues related to computing. Cyberethics explores internet-related issues like intellectual property rights , privacy , and censorship . Nanoethics examines issues surrounding
9646-506: The value judgments that shape technology. Cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies", societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views. Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health. The ethics of technology
9752-591: The vast majority of tires are pneumatic inflatable structures , comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and generally filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as cars , bicycles , motorcycles , trucks , earthmovers , and aircraft . Extreme off-road conditions have resulted in the invention of several types of wheel cover, which may be constructed as removable attachments or as permanent covers. Wheels like this are no longer necessarily round, or have panels that make
9858-571: The west. In Britain, a large wooden wheel, measuring about 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter, was uncovered at the Must Farm site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1,100 to 800 BCE, represents the most complete and earliest of its type found in Britain. The wheel's hub is also present. A horse's spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have been part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel
9964-635: The wheel in the 1st millennium BCE. In China , wheel tracks dating to around 2200 BCE have been found at Pingliangtai, a site of the Longshan Culture . Similar tracks were also found at Yanshi , a city of the Erlitou culture , dating to around 1700 BCE. The earliest evidence of spoked wheels in China comes from Qinghai , in the form of two wheel hubs from a site dated between 2000 and 1500 BCE. Wheeled vehicles were introduced to China from
10070-513: The wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals that could be used to pull wheeled carriages. The closest relative of cattle present in Americas in pre-Columbian times, the American bison , is difficult to domesticate and was never domesticated by Native Americans; several horse species existed until about 12,000 years ago, but ultimately became extinct. The only large animal that
10176-399: The wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles . For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube. In the 1st millennium BCE an iron rim was introduced around the wooden wheels of chariots . The hub is the center of the wheel, and typically houses
10282-412: The wheel to be both stiff and light. Early radially-spoked wire wheels gave rise to tangentially-spoked wire wheels, which were widely used on cars into the late 20th century. Cast alloy wheels are now more commonly used; forged alloy wheels are used when weight is critical. The invention of the wheel has also been important for technology in general, important applications including the water wheel ,
10388-527: The widespread application of the factory system . This was followed a century later by the Second Industrial Revolution which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including sewage systems , electricity, light bulbs , electric motors , railroads, automobiles , and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, chemistry , physics , and engineering. They were accompanied by consequential social change, with
10494-529: Was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture", arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like Don Ihde and Albert Borgmann represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology. Early scholarship on technology
10600-492: Was barely used for transportation, with the exception of Ethiopia and Somalia in Sub-Saharan Africa well into the 19th century. The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire-spoked wheels and pneumatic tires were invented. Pneumatic tires can greatly reduce rolling resistance and improve comfort. Wire spokes are under tension, not compression, making it possible for
10706-560: Was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km, but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches. Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with the introduction of silk production (in Asia and later Europe), the horse collar , and horseshoes . Simple machines (such as
10812-513: Was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs. Studies have found that computers did not create significant net technological unemployment . Due to artificial intelligence being far more capable than computers, and still being in its infancy, it is not known whether it will follow the same trend; the question has been debated at length among economists and policymakers. A 2017 survey found no clear consensus among economists on whether AI would increase long-term unemployment. According to
10918-517: Was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, the llama , a pack animal, was not physically suited to use as a draft animal to pull wheeled vehicles, and use of the llama did not spread far beyond the Andes by the time of the arrival of Europeans. On the other hand, Mesoamericans never developed the wheelbarrow , the potter's wheel , nor any other practical object with a wheel or wheels. Although present in
11024-493: Was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland, indicating that the settlement had some sort of link to dry land. Although large-scale use of wheels did not occur in the Americas prior to European contact , numerous small wheeled artifacts, identified as children's toys, have been found in Mexican archeological sites, some dating to approximately 1500 BCE. Some argue that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of
11130-536: Was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 10 kya). Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE. After harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power
11236-649: Was split between two arguments: technological determinism , and social construction . Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes. It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented. Social constructivists argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of sociotechnical systems , "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at
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