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‘Technology’ is doubtless one of the keywords of our world , yet it's also some of the confused. As an analytical category it appears essential for our understanding of all of humanity’s historical past, and indeed past. We are in all probability comfy with asserting that people have had applied sciences since the Palaeolithic, and a menagerie of animals, from crows to chimps, have even been identified as device users. As an actors’ category ‘technology’ is of surprisingly latest vintage, although cognate terms – techne, arts, and so on – have a for much longer historical past. The mechanical arts remained subordinated, whilst their standing was considerably revised. Francis Bacon’s works, similar to The New Organon and New Atlantis, exemplified the flip by students to ‘reject the categorical separation of science and material practice [ … ] with out rejecting the existing hierarchy of head over hand’ (pp. 48, 50). Technicians, as we know from the arguments of Steven Shapin, hav