Technology involves the use of tools. Human beings have been set apart from the animals for several reasons, one of which has been that human beings use tools while animals do not. However, some animals do use tools--certain primates make use of found objects as tools--but only human beings create tools, use them, and pass the knowledge of their construction and use from one generation to the next.
Volti states that gaining an understanding of the meaning of a word is the beginning of knowledge. The word itself dates only from the 1820s and was derived from the Greek word "techne," meaning art, craft, or skill:
The capacity of human beings to employ technologies sets us apart from other creatures . . . [for] no other animal comes close to humans in the ability to create tools and techniques, and no other creature is so dependent on them (Volti 4).
Technology is thus not only tools but techniques, both passed from one generation to the next.
Trevor I. Williams says that technology is viewed as being synonymous with applied science and offers a definition: "This is technology, which in the broadest sense can be taken to mean the application of knowledge to practical purposes" (Williams 10). Here, again, the definition indicates the development of techniques and tools and the use of those tools to solve problems.
Technology can be simple or complex, and over the centuries the range has increased. There is a moment in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) which depicts one version of the beginning of technology as the ape-like ancestors of today's human beings discover how to use tools. In this case, the tool becomes a weapon, though tools were likely used for a variety of purposes once human beings learned how to reshape objects in their world for more useful applications. A link is established in the film between the earliest tool and the latest--the ape triumphantly throws his weapon into the air, and as it ...