SO245 Social Impact of Technology: Comparing Perspectives Essay

This essay provides a comparative analysis of three distinct perspectives on the evolution of technology, focusing on the viewpoints of Gerhard Lenski, Leslie White, and Alvin Toffler. Lenski emphasizes the role of information and communication in driving technological progress through stages like hunter-gathering, horticulture, agriculture, and the industrial revolution. White views technological advancement as the control and harnessing of energy, outlining five stages from human muscle power to the use of domesticated animals, agricultural surpluses, and the exploitation of natural resources during the industrial revolution. Toffler identifies three waves of societal development: agrarian, industrial, and post-industrial, highlighting key inventions and the growth of the service sector. The essay concludes by assessing these perspectives, noting similarities in their focus on food and industry, and arguing that White's theory offers the most comprehensive insights into technological evolution. Desklib provides access to this essay and many other resources for students.

Running head: APPROACHES TO MEASURING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
Approaches to Measuring Technological Progress
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1APPROACHES TO MEASURING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
A Comparison of Three Perspectives on the Evolution of Technology
[Name of the Student]
Many of the anthropologists, sociologists, intellectuals and the scholars have
developed their own way of approach to the understanding of the nature of the technical
progresses. In this essay we will discuss about three different perspective on the topic of
technological evaluation. For discussing the technological evaluation perspectives the chosen
authors are the Gerhard Lenski, Leslie White and Alvin Toffler. All the three perspective are
on relationship between the development of the technology and the social world of us. In the
last stage of this essay all the perspective of the authors will be compared and which author
offers most useful insights will be evaluated.
According to the sociologist Gerhard Lenski, the progress of the technology is the
main reason behind the evolution of the human civilization. He stated that the key of this
progressive success is the information and to gather this information essential communication
is required. The first perspective of the technological development by the Gerhard Lenski are
the development at the hunter-gathering level. At the next level he stated that part of the food
supply gathered from the horticulture amount. The next perspective of the Gerhard Lenski is
organized agriculture. In this agriculture, complex division of labours and social class
inequality leaded to technological advancements in civil engineering, crafts and architecture.
The last perspective of the author is industrial revolution. Social class revolutionary and
inequality advances are replacing the food based economy in the means of production.

2APPROACHES TO MEASURING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
The anthropologist Leslie Alvin White describing the technology progress in the
sense of control and harnessing the energy. According to him controlling the energy is main
target of any culture. He also stated five stages of the human development. In first stage he
stated that the source of the energy is in the human muscle. In second stage the humans
gathered energy from the domesticated animals. Livestock animals is used as a source of
energy while some animals used for transportation purpose. In the third stage, revolution in
agriculture helped to surplus the energy provided by the food. Stage four is the industrial
revolution where human harnessed natural resources like the natural gas, oil and coal.
Social critic and journalist Alvin Toffler identified a total number of three stages for
technological development of society. These three stages are the agrarian, industrial and the
post-industrial. On the stage one, he has stated that it is a Neolithic period in which the
humans invented the agriculture. As per him the stage two started in England with the
industrial revolution. The Toffler pointed out the best inventions in this time for the industrial
revolution which are the steam engines and machine tools. The stage three began in the
second half of the twentieth century. This stage is actually associated with the exponential
growth of the service sector.
In this essay three perspective of the different authors has been taken on the evolution
of the technology. In the first paragraph short introduction about the essay has been given.
The second, third and the fourth paragraph cover the perspective of the authors Gerhard
Lenski, Leslie White and Alvin Toffler respectively. From this essay it can be concluded that
measuring the technological progress is very much useful in the assessment of the
technological evolution. All of these three perspective are similar in the sense that all of this

3APPROACHES TO MEASURING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
contains the perspective of human development related with the food and industry. Main
difference is that the theory of these perspectives are different. On the evolution of the
technology the best theory is presented by Leslie White as the discussion of him is wide and
clear.

4APPROACHES TO MEASURING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
References:
Elwell, F. W. (2013). Lenski’s Evolutionary Theory. Retrieved from
http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Essays/Lenski2.htm
Fretwell, J. (2015, January 07). The Keys to Student Engagement in the Future Shock Classroom.
Retrieved April 28, 2016, from https://thebluereview.org/student-engagement-future-shock-
classroom/
White, L. A. (1943). Energy and the evolution of culture. American Anthropologist, 45(3), 335-356.
Retrieved from:
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1943.45.3.02a00010