ABSTRACT
The relationship between technology and economics is so fundamental that it can be bypassed and neglected both by technologists and economists only at the risk of seriously distorting the nature of their respective problems and subject matters. It is therefore no accident that the physical and technological basis of production has always attracted a certain amount of attention, at least among economists; general discussions and definitions of the technical dimensions of economics abound in the literature. Economic theory treats the physical basis of production as given: production functions are designed to handle the technological dimension of economic processes, and they do this in an essentially static manner, although the dynamic character and effects of technical change have not remained unrecognized. The increased efficiency and productivity that technological change has brought to economic development have attracted the attention of economists, just as social scientists, under the influence of the last phase of the industrial revolution, have concerned themselves with the far-reaching and varied effects of science and technology on society in general. Most of the studies which have been performed in these areas have been impact studies that have traditionally seen a one-way relationship from technology to economics. Additionally, their approach has more often than not been teleological, in that the outcome and direction of the process are assumed to be known as a rule, and to be more or less beneficial in terms of some notion of productivity and welfare.
