ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a definition of technology as an activity satisfying a human purpose and a new technology is seen as a combination of pre-existent technologies able to exploit or not new phenomena discovered by science. A technology may be modeled as a set of technological operations that may be represented in a technological space and, taking account of efficiency, in a technological landscape. Technologies with the same purpose may be represented in a technology space in which the distance among technologies represents their respective degree of radicality. Search of optimal conditions of operation of a technology may be seen as an exploration of the technological landscape in search of a maximum of efficiency. In the space of technologies, an initial radical technology may evolve forming a ramification of technologies of lower radical degree constituting diversifications or alternatives to the initial technology and forming the bulk of its socio-economic impact. The technology innovation process may be seen as a sequence of steps: the generation of innovative ideas, the feasibility, development and industrialization steps, finally the use of the technology that may be also considered a generator of further new technologies.
