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The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves Hardcover – Bargain Price, August 11, 2009

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W. Brian Arthur (Author)
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W. Brian Arthur (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars 43 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Free Press (August 11, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416544054
  • ASIN: B00381B7YG
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsClear thinking on how technology evolves and shapes the economy
By Steven Forth on September 7, 2009
Format: Hardcover
An engaging and thought provoking book, Arthur provides a powerful framework for understanding how technologies evolve and are a key driver of productivity growth. According to Arthur (and he does a good job of demonstrating his case), technologies are based on interactions with natural phenomena that are composed into modular systems of components that grow into domains with their own conceptual languages. Because the systems are modular, they can leverage the combinatorial explosion and once a certain technology reaches a critical mass of components and interfaces it can evolve rapidly, entering new domains and exposing new natural phenomena to interact with. Arthur provides many examples that are interesting in their own right - from the evolution of airplanes and turbojets to genetics and even gearing systems or sorting algorithms.

One test of a book is if it draws you towards additional reading that you might not have otherwise discovered. Arthur's book caused me to run out (to Amazon) and order Colum Gilfillan's 1935 book Inventing the Ship and decide to finally read Donald McKenzie's book Knowing Machines. Thank you.

I do have a few quibbles. I think Arthur makes a serious conceptual error in making natural phenomena the `genes' of his system. I understand the temptation, but I think the metaphor is based on a misunderstanding of how genes actually function in living systems (see for example Lenny Moss' book What Genes Can't Do). The primitive elements in technology evolution can not be natural phenomena themselves but how humans (and other species) interact with these phenomena.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsA coherent theory of the development of technology
By Jay C. Smith on November 12, 2009
Format: Hardcover
W. Brian Arthur, who is both an engineer and an economist, has thought a lot about the logic of technology. The strength of this book resides in how he pulls his observations together into a clear and coherent theory of how technology evolves. Arthur repeats himself to some degree throughout (one could read just the preface and the last chapter to grasp the main elements of his theory), but the prose is relatively jargon-free and straight-forward.

All technologies, as Arthur defines them, (1) entail a means to fulfill a human purpose and (2) involve an assemblage of practices and components (both devices and methods). "Technology" can also mean the entire collection of devices and engineering practices available to a culture.

The essence of technology, Arthur suggests, is a phenomenon or set of phenomena captured and put to use, a programming of one or more of "truisms of nature" to our purposes (for example, burning certain fuels produces energy we can employ in many ways). The history of technology, he proposes, is one of capturing finer and finer phenomena, enabled by earlier technology.

As he sees it, technology provides a "vocabulary" of elements that can be put together in endlessly new ways for novel purposes. Technology is "autopoietic," or self-creating, Arthur believes. It creates new opportunity niches and new problems, which call forth still more new technology. The economy is in a state of perpetual novelty, unsatisfied, roiling constantly.

According to Arthur, technologies often group together into "domains" based on the natural effects they exploit.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsMildly interesting...
By DJR on August 16, 2010
Format: Hardcover
The author proposes what he calls "combinatorial evolution" which follows from Joseph Schumpeter's work in the field of economics. In a nutshell, the theory is that primitive technologies are used as building blocks for newer technology. Over time, the new technologies become modular components of succeeding technologies and over time technology becomes increasingly complex. "Technology creates itself out of itself." Sudden change or innovation arises because new environments arise and technology has the ability to capture the latest discoveries of natural phenomena. An interesting point is made about how complex technologies are created using subsystems. The author contends that modularity is essential for all complex systems because cognitive psychologists have found that, by necessity, humans understand complex situations by breaking a problem into chunks and repeating the process until the fundamental components are obvious.

The value of any theory is in the insight that it generates. In the concluding section of the book, the author makes a series of predictions in light of previous discussions. None of them are particularly impressive. For example, one prediction is that the economy is moving from one that values the ownership of resources to one that values the ownership of scientific and technical expertise. That would have been an insightful observation had it been made before the era of Microsoft and Google. Now it is simply a tenet of the Information Age.

Throughout the book, it is clear that the author enjoys discussing technology and at times digresses into discussions of particular technologies to elaborate his point. For the layperson, these examples will likely be informative.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsProvidence

One of the best
A much needed perspective and appreciation

Published 11 days ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsTwo Stars

A rather dull attemt

Published 4 months ago by S Devlin
3.0 out of 5 starsEehh!

The first half of the book outlines how I think technology evolves: A marriage of basic technologies and applications where the current solution is a compromise relative what could... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThis work is remarkable!!!! it is ...

This work is remarkable!!!! it is a must. If you want to know something about technology... you must read it. I am waiting for the next Brian Arthur's book on the subject...

Published 11 months ago by german bula
4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting read

Interesting read

Published 12 months ago by Jim
5.0 out of 5 starsA fascinating but abstract analysis of a most important aspect of our...

In many respects, this is a book of propositions about what technology is and how it
develops or evolves. For example: (1) Technology uses phenomena, i.e. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Dave Kuhlman
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Great for my class

Published 14 months ago by Monty Jones
2.0 out of 5 starsmakes it obvious that the printer made a bad mistake. I haven't read...

My copy arrived without a table of contents or title page. The book's first page, numbered 9, makes it obvious that the printer made a bad mistake. Read more

Published 17 months ago by William E. Loges
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

too simple too naive

Published 20 months ago by littleboy112008
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Better than expected, Arthur's book offer a solid and precise frame for evolutionary technology history.

Published 20 months ago by Gregorio Núñez Romero Balma

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