The Beginning of Technology - Essay Example

The paper "The Beginning of Technology" is a good example of an essay on technology. Technology has often had its association with science rather than religion, and many have taken the assumption that religion and science are often incompatible. In defining both terms, technology refers to a collection of tools, modifications, procedures, and even machinery used by man to ease his daily operations. Religion refers to an organized set of beliefs that connotes the basis, nature, and rationale of the universe often having a superhuman relation.

Judging from the definitions, it is understandable why many would draw little or no compatibilities between technology and religion. Cline (2014) notes that unnoticed premises will prevent religion and technology from being compatible (Para 2). Daniel Headrick in his book "Technology: A World History" takes the reader through a chronological overlay of the development of technology as part of world history. Though the other creates no relationship between religion and technology, the book offers the reader a view of world history from a technological perspective.

Headrick notes that the Australopithecines who were on a gradual development to the homo-Erectus used the first tools, which were large pebbles and stone cobbles (Headrick p1). The ancient tools used by the Australopithecines were found in the grassland areas far away from the riverbeds, which is their origin. Human beings are not the only creatures adept in using tools for survival, as other creatures such as sea otters, chimpanzees and vultures will often pick a stone or twig while reaching for their food (Headrick p1).

Even as other creatures use tools, it has been unavoidable for humans to survive without tools and as such, human beings have been shaped by the tools they use. The ability by the Australopithecines to manipulate objects, manufacture tools, and walk upright did not only change their nature but also their anatomy. It is their anatomical change after millions of years that brought forth the Hominid referred to as human ancestors (Headrick p2). Most tools came from the stone and rarely changed in a span of thousands or even millions of years marking the transition from one species to another evolved species.

In about 70000 years ago, the rate of change transformed as innovations in different aspects of life exploded to bring about art, ocean navigation, and religion. technology or tools took a different turn as humans made them for practical reasons rather than the need to survive, and also for no known practical application but rather for religious, aesthetic or magical reasons. Human beings may have devised tools to help them in their survival, but these tools also aided in their natural and anatomical transformation.

This gradual transformation brought about the man and his need for an ever-changing technology. Technology may have incompatibilities with religion, but it is evident that as technology (tools) evolved so did the human beings and their need for religion. The interaction with tools brought about changes in the different aspects of life, postulating that religion was not the only outcome. From hunting and gathering by Australopithecines and Neanderthals, farming and animal keeping became accepted as a way of survival in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.

As farming began settling in, these ancestors started living in villages and adopting a more organized way of life (Headrick p10). Such developments show how technology gradually transformed life for human beings whose structured way of life brought a void that only religion could fill. Christianity and its spread throughout the world can also have its relation to technology as it enabled people to engage in trading and interaction with other people with different religions and cultural beliefs.

As such, technology and the evolving of human beings is an interconnected aspect that brought about changes in the world, including the development of religion and its spread throughout the world.