ABSTRACT
The developed countries, capitalist and socialist, provide a rich store-house of technological transformations experienced over the last 100 years. The changes they have witnessed are vast. These countries, with one-fourth of the world population, now constitute the industrial or technological centre. Several descriptive terms, each with its own flavour, are used. They are called industrial countries, developed countries, first and second world, or simply the North. The rest of the world, the periphery of technological development, embraces a collection of countries called less developed, developing, the third world, or simply the South.
