The meanings of the terms
science and technology have changed significantly from one generation to
another. More similarities than differences, however, can be found between the
terms.
Both science and technology imply a thinking process, both are concerned with
causal relationships in the material world, and both employ an experimental
methodology that results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by
repetition (see Scientific Method). Science, at least in theory, is less
concerned with the practicality of its results and more concerned with the
development of general laws, but in practice science and technology are
inextricably involved with each other. The varying interplay of the two can be
observed in the historical development of such practitioners as chemists,
engineers, physicists, astronomers, carpenters, potters, and many other
specialists. Differing educational requirements, social status, vocabulary,
methodology, and types of rewards, as well as institutional objectives and
professional goals, contribute to such distinctions as can be made between the
activities of scientists and technologists; but throughout history the
practitioners of “pure” science have made many practical as well as theoretical
contributions.
Indeed, the concept that science provides the ideas for technological
innovations and that pure research is therefore essential for any significant
advancement in industrial civilization is essentially a myth. Most of the
greatest changes in industrial civilization cannot be traced to the laboratory.
Fundamental tools and processes in the fields of mechanics, chemistry,
astronomy, metallurgy, and hydraulics were developed before the laws governing
their functions were discovered. The steam engine, for example, was commonplace
before the science of thermodynamics elucidated the physical principles
underlying its operations.
In recent years a sharp value distinction has grown up between science and
technology. Advances in science have frequently had their bitter opponents, but
today many people have come to fear technology much more than science. For these
people, science may be perceived as a serene, objective source for understanding
the eternal laws of nature, whereas the practical manifestations of technology
in the modern world now seem to them to be out of control.