TECH Signal 362
Ursula K. Le Guin: A Rant About "Technology" (2005)
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For engineers, this reframes technology beyond software and electronics to include the full spectrum of human tool-making and material problem-solving. It challenges the tendency to overlook simpler or older technologies that may be more appropriate or sustainable than complex solutions, and reminds builders that all infrastructure rests on layers of technology we treat as natural rather than manufactured.
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Le Guin defines technology as the active human interface with the material world—how societies handle food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and other physical needs—not just digital or industrial systems.
She argues that equating "technology" only with recent high-tech inventions while treating older tools as natural objects is a misuse that desensitizes people to the sophistication of everyday objects.
She contends that even supposedly "simple" technologies are highly sophisticated, noting that most people cannot make a fishhook or a pair of shoes from scratch.
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