Technology

Technology is the practical application of scientific knowledge, tools and skills to meet human needs. Because it changes how people work, live, communicate and earn, it slowly changes what they value, how they behave (culture) and which customs they keep (tradition).

How technology changes values

• From collective to individual: In farming villages people depended on each other (e.g. parma labour exchange in Nepal). Machines, wage work and money make people more self-reliant, so individualism and personal success become important values.
• Time and efficiency: Clocks, factories and offices made punctuality, speed and productivity valued; earlier, life followed seasons and festivals.
• Education and merit: In an industrial and information economy, skills and degrees decide income, so education is valued more than inherited land or caste.
• Consumerism: Mass production and advertising make people value owning goods (phones, bikes, branded clothes).

How technology changes culture

• Family structure: Jobs in cities and abroad break joint families into nuclear families; many Nepali villages now have mostly elderly people and children because youths have migrated.
• Communication and language: Mobile phones, social media and TV spread English and Nepali-English mixed language, Western dress, food (fast food) and music.
• Role of women: Household appliances, contraception, education and paid jobs give women more independence and change gender roles.
• Leisure: Traditional evening gatherings, folk songs and deuda/dohori sessions are replaced by TV, YouTube and online games.

How technology changes tradition

• Ceremonies: Weddings are booked in party palaces, invitations sent on Messenger, and rituals shortened; video calls let relatives abroad "attend".
• Traditional occupations: Machine-made goods displace traditional crafts (potters, blacksmiths, weavers), so caste-based occupations and the bali-ghare system weaken.
• Medicine: Modern hospitals reduce dependence on dhami-jhankri (faith healers).
• Agriculture: Tractors and threshers replace oxen and communal harvesting festivals linked with them.

Positive and negative sides

Technology itself is neutral; the change in values depends on how a society adopts it. Nepal needs to use technology for development while documenting and preserving its own languages, festivals and crafts (e.g. digital archives, cultural tourism).

Technology often does not create a social problem; it exposes (unmasks) problems that already existed but were hidden, accepted as normal, or not measurable. When a new technology is introduced, it changes who benefits and who loses, and the hidden inequality, discrimination or weakness becomes visible.

How technology unmasks old problems

1. Gender discrimination – ultrasound (USG): Ultrasound was introduced to check the health of the foetus. It was misused for sex-selective abortion in South Asia. This revealed the deep son preference already present in society, which is why Nepal and India had to make sex determination illegal.
2. Unequal access – digital divide: During COVID-19, schools moved online. Children of poor and rural families without smartphones, internet or electricity could not study. Online classes did not create poverty; they exposed the gap between rich and poor, urban and rural.
3. Corruption and bad governance: Social media, CCTV and online public procurement (e-bidding) expose bribery and misuse of power that existed earlier but was hidden.
4. Caste and social exclusion: When drinking water taps or community services are built, disputes over "untouchable" groups touching the tap show the caste discrimination that still exists.
5. Unemployment and lack of skills: Mechanization (tractors, excavators, automated machines) shows that a large part of the workforce is unskilled and that the economy cannot absorb them; this drives foreign labour migration.
6. Domestic violence and abuse: Mobile phones and social media allow victims to report abuse and let the public see cases that were earlier kept "inside the house".
7. Health problems: Modern diagnostic tools reveal diseases such as diabetes, cancer and malnutrition that were previously undiagnosed.

Why this matters for engineers

• Before introducing a technology, its social impact must be assessed: who will gain, who may be excluded, how it can be misused.
• Technology should be combined with laws, awareness and policy (e.g. the ban on sex-selective abortion, subsidised internet for schools) to solve the problem it has exposed.

In short, technology works like a mirror: it reflects existing inequality, discrimination and weakness in a society so that they can be recognised and addressed.

Technological advancement changes the type, number and location of jobs. Some jobs disappear because machines do them faster and cheaper, while new jobs appear that need new skills. This movement of workers from old jobs to new jobs is called a shift in employment.

How the shift happens

1. Mechanization replaces manual labour: Tractors, threshers and rice-planting machines reduce the need for farm labour. Excavators and road rollers replace hundreds of labourers on road projects.
2. Shift between sectors: Historically, workers moved from agriculture (primary) to industry (secondary) after the Industrial Revolution, and then to services and information (tertiary) in the information age.
3. Automation and computers: ATMs reduce bank tellers, online ticketing reduces counter clerks, robots replace assembly line workers.
4. New jobs are created: Software developers, data analysts, network engineers, mobile repair technicians, digital marketers, solar technicians and delivery riders did not exist a few decades ago.
5. Change in skill demand: Demand falls for unskilled and routine work and rises for skilled, technical and creative work. Lifelong learning becomes necessary.
6. Change in work location and form: The internet allows remote work, freelancing (Upwork, Fiverr) and IT outsourcing; platforms like Pathao and Foodmandu create gig jobs.

Examples

Nepalese context

• Agriculture's share of employment is falling as youths move to cities, foreign employment and service work.
• Nepal's IT export and outsourcing sector is growing and employs many young engineers.
• Traditional crafts (pottery, hand weaving, blacksmithing) are declining because of factory goods.

Effects

• Positive: higher productivity, safer and less tiring work, higher wages for skilled workers, new industries.
• Negative: temporary unemployment for unskilled workers, income inequality, migration, loss of traditional skills.

To manage the shift, governments must invest in technical education, skill training (CTEVT), re-skilling and social protection, and in poor countries like Nepal use labour-based technology where labour is cheap and plentiful.

Conflict of technology means a disagreement or clash that arises because a technology brings benefits to some people or purposes and harm to others, or because two needs compete for the same resource or technology. Every technology has trade-offs, and these lead to social, economic, environmental and ethical conflicts.

Types with examples

• Development vs environment: A hydropower dam gives electricity but floods land, displaces villagers and blocks fish migration (e.g. local protests over reservoir projects in Nepal).
• Machine vs labour: Excavators make road building fast, but reduce jobs for local labourers who earlier earned from the work.
• Benefit vs misuse: Nuclear technology gives power and medicine but also atomic bombs; ultrasound helps maternal care but is misused for sex-selective abortion.
• Modern vs traditional: Chemical fertilisers increase yield but degrade soil and conflict with organic farming and traditional knowledge.
• Privacy vs security: CCTV and mobile tracking help catch criminals but intrude on personal privacy.
• Rich vs poor (access): Advanced medical or digital technology is available only to people who can pay, widening inequality.
• Upstream vs downstream: Irrigation diversion upstream reduces water for farmers downstream.

Managing conflicts

• Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (EIA/IEE) before projects.
• Participation of affected people, fair compensation and benefit sharing.
• Choosing appropriate technology suited to local needs.
• Laws and ethical codes to prevent misuse.

Technology is the application of knowledge, tools and skills to solve human problems. It has both positive and negative impacts on society and on the environment.

Impact on society

Impact on environment

Example

Motor vehicles connect villages to markets and hospitals (social benefit), but in Kathmandu they are a major source of PM2.5 and noise (environmental harm). Electric vehicles powered by Nepal's hydropower are a technology that keeps the benefit while reducing the harm.

Technology should therefore be chosen and used wisely, with impact assessment and sustainable practices, so that benefits are maximised and damage minimised.

"Technology is irreversible" means that once a technology is invented and accepted by society, people cannot go back to the earlier way of living, even if the technology has bad effects. Knowledge cannot be "un-invented"; the technology can only be improved, regulated or replaced by a better one.

Reasons:

• Society becomes dependent on it; daily life, jobs and economy are built around it.
• It is more efficient and convenient than the older method.
• The old skills, tools and systems disappear after some time.
• Once knowledge is spread, it cannot be erased.

Examples:

• Electricity: After using electric light, nobody returns to oil lamps by choice.
• Mobile phones and the internet: People cannot go back to letters and telegrams; banking, education and business depend on them.
• Nuclear weapons: Despite their danger, the knowledge cannot be removed; the world can only control them through treaties.
• Motor vehicles and plastics: They cause pollution, but society cannot abandon them; it can only move to electric vehicles and recycling.
• Chemical fertilisers: Farmers find it hard to return fully to traditional farming because yields drop.

Implication: Since we cannot reverse a technology, its social and environmental effects must be studied carefully before adopting it (impact assessment, regulation, appropriate technology).

Appropriate technology (AT) is technology that suits the economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions of the place where it is used. It is usually small-scale, low-cost, labour-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and can be operated, repaired and managed by local people using local materials and skills. The idea was popularised by economist E. F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful (1973).

Characteristics:

• Low capital cost and affordable to local people
• Uses local resources, materials and skills
• Labour-intensive; creates local employment
• Simple to operate and maintain locally
• Small-scale and decentralised
• Environmentally sound and uses renewable energy
• Culturally acceptable and meets real local needs

Examples in Nepal:

• Improved water mill (ghatta) and micro-hydro plants
• Biogas plants and improved cooking stoves (ICS)
• Solar home systems and solar dryers
• Rainwater harvesting and gravity-flow drinking water schemes
• Suspension trail bridges and tuin replacement
• Drip irrigation and treadle pumps

Importance: It reduces poverty, creates jobs, reduces dependence on imports, protects the environment and makes rural communities self-reliant. A technology is "appropriate" only relative to a place: a nuclear plant is appropriate in a rich industrial country, but a micro-hydro plant is appropriate for a remote Nepali village.

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is technology that fits the local economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions. It is low-cost, small-scale, uses local materials and skills, is easy to operate and repair locally, creates employment and is environment friendly (concept popularised by E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful, 1973).

Examples: micro-hydro, biogas, improved cooking stoves, solar home systems, rainwater harvesting, improved water mills.

Intermediate technology

Intermediate technology is technology that lies between traditional (primitive) technology and modern (advanced, capital-intensive) technology. Schumacher described it as much more productive than the traditional tool but much cheaper than the sophisticated technology of rich countries (his "£1 tool vs £1000 tool" idea: an intermediate tool costs around £100).

Every intermediate technology is usually an appropriate technology for LDCs, but appropriate technology is a broader idea (a modern technology can also be appropriate in a rich country).

Labour-based / labour-intensive technology

• Labour-intensive technology uses a high proportion of human labour and little capital/machinery to produce output.
• Labour-based technology uses labour as the main resource, supported by light equipment only where labour cannot do the job efficiently or to the required quality (e.g. compaction by roller), without compromising quality and cost.

Why it is necessary for LDCs like Nepal

1. Abundant labour, scarce capital: Nepal has many unemployed and under-employed people but little capital and foreign currency. Using labour matches the country's resources.
2. Employment generation: Road, irrigation and trail projects using local labour give cash income to poor rural families and reduce forced foreign migration.
3. Poverty reduction and equity: Money spent on wages stays in the local economy instead of going abroad to buy machines and fuel.
4. Low import dependence: Fewer imported machines, spare parts and fuel save foreign exchange.
5. Suits difficult terrain: In hills and mountains, heavy machines are hard to transport; manual work is practical.
6. Environment friendly: Less cutting, less dumping of spoil, less fuel use; works like "green roads" in Nepal cause fewer landslides.
7. Local ownership and skill: People who build a structure learn skills and feel ownership, so maintenance is better.
8. Low operation and maintenance cost: Local people can maintain the asset without expensive equipment.

Nepal's Local Infrastructure Development Policy, 2061 (2004) promotes the labour-based, environment-friendly and participatory (LEP) approach for rural roads, trails, irrigation and water supply for these reasons.

The industrial age (about 1760 to 1970s) was the period in which machines, factories and fossil fuel energy were the main source of production and wealth. The information age (from about the 1970s, with the microprocessor, computers and the internet) is the period in which information and knowledge, processed by digital technology, are the main source of production, power and wealth.

Differences

Knowledge (information) is power and wealth

In the information age, the person, company or nation that has the right information at the right time can make better decisions, innovate faster and control markets.

Information is wealth:

• The world's most valuable companies (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Meta) earn mainly from software, data, patents and platforms, not from land or heavy machinery.
• Knowledge creates intellectual property (patents, copyrights, software) that can be sold again and again at almost zero extra cost.
• A skilled software engineer in Kathmandu can earn foreign currency by outsourcing work without any factory.
• Data about customers is used for targeted advertising and product design, generating huge profits.

Information is power:

• Governments with better intelligence and cyber capability gain political and military advantage.
• Market information (prices, weather forecasts) lets farmers sell at the right time and place.
• Social media and access to information empower citizens to question governments (Right to Information Act, 2064 in Nepal).
• Knowledge of new technology lets a company dominate a market; lack of it makes a company fail (e.g. Kodak lost to digital cameras, Nokia to smartphones).
• Countries that lead in research and technology dictate global standards and trade.

Hence, in the information age, education, research, data and digital infrastructure have replaced land and machines as the main sources of power and wealth. For Nepal, investing in IT education and internet access is the way to benefit from this age.

The industrial age (late 18th century to about the 1970s) was based on machines, factories and fossil fuel; the information age (since about the 1970s) is based on computers, the internet and knowledge.

Similarities (comparison)

• Both were started by a technological revolution (steam engine; microprocessor and internet).
• Both increased productivity and shifted workers from one sector to another.
• Both changed family structure, culture and lifestyle and caused urbanisation.
• Both created new inequalities (factory owners vs workers; digital divide).

Contrast

Example: a textile mill employing thousands of workers is typical of the industrial age, while an online platform such as an e-commerce or ride-sharing app, run by a small team of engineers, is typical of the information age.

Technology is the systematic application of scientific knowledge, tools, techniques, skills and organisation to produce goods and services and to solve practical human problems. It includes not only machines (hardware) but also methods, know-how (software) and the organisation needed to use them. Examples: plough, wheel, electricity, mobile phone, vaccine.

Technology has four elements: technique (tools/machines), knowledge, organisation and product.

How technology changes culture and tradition

1. Family and social structure: Industrial and urban jobs, vehicles and foreign employment break joint families into nuclear ones. Mutual help systems like parma and guthi are weakening.
2. Communication: Mobile phones and social media replace letters and village gatherings; people stay connected globally but face-to-face interaction falls.
3. Language, dress and food: TV, internet and travel spread Western clothing, fast food and English words; local languages and dresses are used less, especially by youths.
4. Festivals and rituals: Greetings are sent online, weddings happen in party palaces with DJs, and rituals are shortened. Relatives abroad join ceremonies by video call.
5. Occupation and caste: Factory goods displace traditional crafts of potters, tailors (damai), blacksmiths (kami), weakening caste-based occupations and the hereditary link between caste and work.
6. Status of women: Education, household appliances, birth control and jobs give women independence and change gender roles.
7. Health beliefs: Modern medicine reduces faith in dhami-jhankri and superstitions; average life expectancy rises.
8. Agriculture and festivals: Tractors and threshers replace oxen and communal planting/harvesting songs (e.g. ropain songs in Asar).
9. Values: Money, time, speed, education and individual success become more valued than community, religion and inherited status.
10. Entertainment: Folk music, dohori and local games give way to TV, films, YouTube and mobile games.

Assessment

Technology can also preserve culture: digital archives of old scripts, recording of folk songs, online promotion of festivals and tourism. A society should adopt technology selectively so that development does not destroy its identity.

Technology

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge, tools, skills and organised methods to make goods and services and to solve practical problems of human life. It includes hardware (tools, machines) and software (knowledge, methods, organisation). Examples: irrigation canal, hydropower plant, computer, vaccine.

Impacts on society

Positive:

• Health: vaccines, diagnostic machines and medicines have increased life expectancy and reduced child mortality.
• Communication: mobile phones and the internet connect people across the world instantly.
• Education: online learning, e-libraries and digital classrooms widen access.
• Economy and employment: higher productivity, new industries and jobs (IT, telecom, tourism).
• Transport: roads, vehicles and airlines connect remote areas to markets and hospitals.
• Empowerment: awareness, women's empowerment and transparency in governance.

Negative:

• Unemployment of unskilled workers due to mechanisation and automation.
• Inequality and digital divide between rich and poor, urban and rural.
• Cultural erosion, breakdown of joint families, consumerism.
• Health problems: sedentary life, screen and social-media addiction.
• Crime and war: cyber crime, weapons of mass destruction.

Impacts on environment

Positive:

• Renewable energy (hydro, solar, wind, biogas) reduces fossil fuel use.
• Water and wastewater treatment, recycling and waste-to-energy plants.
• GIS, remote sensing and early-warning systems help monitor forests, glaciers and floods.
• Energy-efficient devices (LED, electric vehicles) reduce emissions.

Negative:

• Air pollution from vehicles, brick kilns and industries (e.g. PM2.5 in Kathmandu valley).
• Water pollution from industrial effluents, pesticides and sewage.
• Deforestation and land degradation from roads, mining and urban expansion.
• Climate change from greenhouse gas emissions; glacier melting in the Himalaya.
• Solid waste and e-waste, plastic pollution, ozone layer depletion by CFCs.
• Loss of biodiversity due to habitat destruction.

Summary

Technology is a double-edged tool; its net effect depends on choosing appropriate, clean technologies and controlling harm through EIA, regulation and public awareness.

Technology and its impact on societies

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge, tools, skills and organisation to produce goods and services and solve human problems.

Positive impacts:

• Higher productivity, economic growth and new jobs
• Better health care and longer life
• Fast transport and communication; global connection
• Access to education and information; empowerment of women and marginalised groups

Negative impacts:

• Unemployment of unskilled workers due to automation
• Income inequality and digital divide
• Erosion of culture and traditional values; breakdown of joint families
• Pollution, deforestation and climate change
• Misuse: weapons, cyber crime, privacy loss

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is technology suited to the local economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions: low-cost, small-scale, labour-intensive, simple to operate and repair, based on local materials and skills, and environmentally friendly (E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful, 1973).

Examples: micro-hydro, biogas, improved cooking stoves, improved water mills, solar home systems, rainwater harvesting.

Relevancy to LDCs (like Nepal)

1. Low capital requirement: LDCs lack capital; AT is cheap to install.
2. Employment: it is labour-intensive and uses the large unemployed labour force.
3. Local resources and skills: uses local materials and can be repaired by local technicians, reducing import dependence.
4. Rural development: decentralised technologies (micro-hydro, solar) reach remote villages where the national grid or heavy machines cannot.
5. Environment friendly: renewable energy reduces deforestation and pollution.
6. Self-reliance and ownership: communities can build, own and maintain it.
7. Poverty reduction: saves time and fuel (e.g. biogas saves women's time collecting firewood), raising income.

Thus appropriate technology helps LDCs develop in a sustainable and equitable way.

Technological innovation often reveals old social problems that were hidden in a society. At the same time, Mahatma Gandhi listed "science without humanity" as one of the Seven Social Sins. It means that scientific and technical knowledge used without moral values, compassion and concern for people becomes harmful.

How innovation reveals old social problems

• Ultrasound was meant for maternal health, but its misuse for sex-selective abortion revealed deep son preference and gender discrimination.
• Online education during COVID-19 revealed the digital divide and poverty in rural Nepal.
• Mechanisation revealed the lack of skills and the unemployment problem, pushing youths to foreign employment.
• Social media revealed hidden caste discrimination, violence against women and corruption.
• Community water taps revealed untouchability when certain castes were stopped from using them.

Why "science without humanity" is a sin

1. Weapons of mass destruction: The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) showed science used to kill civilians.
2. Unethical experiments: Nazi medical experiments and other abuses show knowledge without ethics.
3. Environmental destruction: Industries polluting rivers and air for profit, e.g. the Bhopal gas tragedy (1984), ignore human life.
4. Exploitation: Technology used only for profit widens the gap between rich and poor and displaces workers without support.
5. Misuse of diagnostics and data: sex-selective abortion, data theft, surveillance, cyber crime and deepfakes.
6. Genetic engineering and AI raise serious ethical questions if used without human values.

Discussion

Science and technology are neutral tools; the problem is the intention and values of the user. When innovation reveals a social problem, the humane response is to solve that problem (e.g. laws banning sex determination, subsidised internet for the poor), not to exploit it. Engineers and scientists must therefore:

• follow professional ethics and codes of conduct (e.g. Nepal Engineering Council's code),
• assess social and environmental impacts before introducing a technology,
• put human welfare, safety and justice above profit,
• design technology that includes the poor and marginalised.

Science should serve humanity; without humanity it becomes a threat to humanity.

Characteristics of the information age

The information age (from about the 1970s) is the period in which information and knowledge, processed and shared by computers and the internet, are the main sources of production, power and wealth.

• Information as key resource: knowledge, data and ideas create wealth more than land or machines.
• Digital technology: computers, internet, mobile phones, cloud, AI.
• Knowledge workers: most jobs need education and ICT skills.
• Globalisation: instant worldwide communication, global markets and e-commerce.
• Networked, flat organisations: decentralised decision making, remote and flexible work.
• Fast change: short product life, continuous learning needed.
• Service-based economy: IT, banking, education, entertainment dominate.
• New problems: digital divide, cyber crime, privacy loss, information overload.

Technology unmasks old social problems

Technology does not always create new problems; it often makes existing hidden problems visible.

1. Gender bias: ultrasound, introduced for prenatal care, was misused for sex-selective abortion, exposing deep son preference.
2. Inequality: online classes during COVID-19 exposed that poor and rural students lacked devices, internet and electricity.
3. Corruption: e-procurement, CCTV and social media expose bribery and misuse of public funds.
4. Caste discrimination: new public services (water taps, schools) exposed untouchability practices still present.
5. Unemployment: mechanisation exposed the lack of skills in the workforce and drove foreign migration.
6. Violence and abuse: mobile phones let victims report domestic violence that was earlier hidden.

These examples justify that technology acts like a mirror, revealing the weaknesses of a society so that laws, awareness and policy can address them.

Technology

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge, tools, skills and organised methods to produce goods and services and solve practical problems. Educational technology is its use for teaching and learning.

Benefits of technology in the education sector

1. Access to education anywhere: online classes, MOOCs (Coursera, edX, Khan Academy) and video lectures reach students in remote villages and abroad. During COVID-19 lockdowns, schools and universities in Nepal continued through Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom.
2. Vast learning resources: e-libraries, e-journals, Wikipedia and open textbooks give free and up-to-date material.
3. Interactive and visual learning: animations, simulations, virtual labs and multimedia make difficult concepts (e.g. circuits, anatomy) easy to understand.
4. Personalised learning: students learn at their own pace; adaptive software and AI tutors adjust to each learner.
5. Distance and lifelong learning: working people can upgrade skills through online courses and open universities.
6. Better teaching: teachers use projectors, smart boards, presentation software and learning management systems (Moodle) to plan and deliver lessons.
7. Efficient administration: online admission, fee payment, result publication and attendance systems save time (e.g. results published online by universities).
8. Assessment and feedback: online quizzes, plagiarism checkers and automatic grading give quick feedback.
9. Collaboration: students and researchers communicate and work together through email, forums and cloud tools across countries.
10. Skill development: students learn ICT, coding and digital literacy needed for jobs in the information age.
11. Inclusive education: screen readers, audio books and Braille devices help students with disabilities.
12. Research: computers and software enable data analysis, simulation and fast publication.

Limitations

• Digital divide: poor and rural students lack devices, internet and electricity.
• Distraction, screen addiction and less face-to-face interaction.
• Risk of plagiarism and over-dependence on AI.

Overall, technology has made education more accessible, interactive and efficient; the challenge for Nepal is to provide equal access through school ICT labs, internet in rural areas and teacher training.

Shifts in employment

Technological advancement replaces some jobs and creates new ones.

• Mechanisation and automation reduce manual jobs: tractors replace farm labourers, ATMs replace bank tellers, excavators replace road labourers.
• Sector shift: workers move from agriculture to industry and then to services/IT.
• New jobs: software developers, network engineers, digital marketers, solar technicians, delivery riders.
• Skill demand: demand rises for skilled and educated workers; unskilled workers face unemployment or migrate abroad.
• New work forms: remote work, freelancing and gig jobs.

Exposing old social problems

Technology makes hidden problems visible:

• Ultrasound misuse exposed son preference and gender discrimination.
• Online learning during COVID-19 exposed the rich–poor digital divide.
• Mechanisation exposed lack of skills and unemployment.
• Social media exposed corruption, caste discrimination and domestic violence.

Influence on culture, tradition and social values

• Joint families break into nuclear families due to urban and foreign jobs.
• Western dress, food and language spread through TV and internet.
• Festivals and rituals are modernised (party palaces, online greetings).
• Caste-based occupations decline; women gain independence.
• Values shift from community and religion toward individualism, money, time and education.

Technology is a tool. It opens opportunities for growth and welfare, brings challenges that society must manage, and leads to conflicts because its benefits and costs are not shared equally. The statement is justified as follows.

Opportunities

• Economic growth and jobs: IT outsourcing, e-commerce, digital payments (e.g. mobile wallets in Nepal) and tourism create new businesses and employment.
• Health: vaccines, telemedicine and modern diagnostics increase life expectancy; remote health posts consult specialists by video.
• Education: online learning and digital libraries reach remote students.
• Energy and infrastructure: hydropower, solar and roads improve living standards; Nepal now exports electricity to India.
• Agriculture: improved seeds, irrigation, weather and market price information on mobiles increase farmers' income.
• Governance: online services, e-procurement and the right to information improve transparency.

Challenges

• Unemployment of unskilled workers due to automation.
• Digital divide between urban and rural, rich and poor.
• Environmental damage: air pollution, e-waste, plastic, climate change.
• Cultural erosion and changing family values.
• Cyber crime, privacy loss, misinformation and social-media addiction.
• Dependence on imported technology and foreign experts.

Conflicts (with examples)

Managing the balance

• Environmental and social impact assessment (EIA/IEE) before projects.
• Participation of affected communities, fair compensation and benefit sharing (e.g. local shares in hydropower projects).
• Appropriate and labour-based technology where suitable.
• Laws and ethics to prevent misuse; skill training to handle job shifts.

Hence technology brings both opportunity and challenge, and because people gain and lose differently, conflict is natural. Good policy and ethical engineering can turn these conflicts into shared benefits.

Labour-based and labour-intensive technology

• Labour-intensive technology: a production method that uses a large amount of human labour relative to capital and machines. Labour is the dominant input; machines are hardly used. Example: digging canals entirely by hand.
• Labour-based technology: a method that uses labour as the main resource, supported by light equipment only where labour alone cannot achieve the required quality or is uneconomic (e.g. using a roller for compaction), while keeping quality and cost comparable to machine-based methods. Example: rural roads and trails in Nepal built by local workers under the LEP approach.

Both are suitable for countries like Nepal where labour is plentiful and capital scarce.

Technology is irreversible

Once a technology is invented and accepted, society cannot return to the old way of life, even if the technology has harmful effects. It can only be improved, regulated or replaced by a newer technology. Reasons: dependence, convenience and efficiency, disappearance of old skills and tools, and knowledge that cannot be erased.

Examples:

1. Electricity: After electric lighting, nobody chooses kerosene lamps; the economy runs on electricity.
2. Mobile phone and internet: Banking, education, business and social life depend on them; returning to letters and telegrams is impossible. Even the dangers (cyber crime, addiction) are handled by regulation, not by abandoning the internet.
3. Nuclear technology: After 1945 the knowledge of atomic bombs could not be erased; the world can only limit it through treaties (e.g. the Non-Proliferation Treaty).
4. Motor vehicles and fossil fuels: Despite pollution and climate change, society cannot go back to animal carts; it shifts to electric vehicles instead.
5. Plastics: Plastic causes pollution but is now built into packaging and products; the solution is recycling and bans on specific items, not total removal.
6. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides: Farmers who adopt them find it difficult to return fully to traditional farming because yields drop.
7. Computers in offices: Typewriters and manual ledgers have disappeared.

Because technology is irreversible, its social and environmental effects should be studied before adoption through impact assessment and careful policy.

Technology is a double-edged tool. The same technology can improve human life (blessing) or harm people and the environment (curse), depending on how it is used.

Technology as a blessing:

• Medical technology (vaccines, X-ray, surgery) has increased life expectancy.
• Electricity, transport and communication make life easier and connect the world.
• Mechanisation and IT increase productivity, income and jobs.
• Online education and information empower people, including women and rural people.
• Renewable energy and early-warning systems help protect the environment and lives.

Technology as a curse:

• Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons can destroy humanity (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945).
• Industrial pollution, deforestation and greenhouse gases cause climate change.
• Automation causes unemployment of unskilled workers.
• Misuse such as sex-selective abortion, cyber crime, privacy loss and fake news.
• Addiction to mobile phones and social media, sedentary life.
• Industrial accidents (Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984; Chernobyl, 1986).

Example: Nuclear energy can light cities or destroy them; the internet can educate or spread misinformation.

Conclusion point: Technology is neutral; it is a blessing when used ethically, with impact assessment, regulation and concern for people and nature, and a curse when used only for profit or power.

Appropriate technology is technology that fits local economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions: low-cost, small-scale, labour-intensive, easy to operate and repair locally, using local materials and renewable resources.

Significance in Nepal:

1. Suits rural and mountain geography: many villages are far from roads and the national grid; decentralised options like micro-hydro, solar home systems and improved water mills work there.
2. Low capital, abundant labour: Nepal is capital-poor but labour-rich; AT creates local jobs and reduces foreign migration pressure.
3. Uses local resources: water, sunlight, biomass and local materials reduce imports and save foreign currency.
4. Environment protection: biogas and improved cooking stoves reduce firewood use, deforestation and indoor air pollution.
5. Health and women's welfare: less smoke in kitchens, less time collecting firewood and water.
6. Self-reliance and ownership: communities can build, run and maintain the system (e.g. community-managed micro-hydro).
7. Rural income: improved water mills, solar dryers and agro-processing add value to farm products.

Examples: micro-hydro, biogas plants, improved cooking stoves, improved water mills, solar dryers, rainwater harvesting, gravity-flow water supply, trail bridges, drip irrigation. Nepal's Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) promotes many of these technologies.

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology (AT) is technology designed for the specific economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions of the community that uses it. The idea was popularised by E. F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful (1973).

Features:

• Low capital cost; affordable to local people
• Small-scale and decentralised
• Labour-intensive; creates local employment
• Uses local materials, energy and skills
• Simple to operate, repair and maintain locally
• Environmentally friendly, often using renewable energy
• Culturally acceptable and meets a felt need of the community

Examples:

• Micro-hydro plants for lighting and agro-processing in remote hill villages of Nepal
• Biogas plants using cattle dung for cooking gas and slurry fertiliser
• Improved cooking stoves reducing smoke and firewood use
• Solar home systems and solar dryers
• Rainwater harvesting and gravity-flow drinking water schemes
• Drip irrigation and treadle pumps for small farmers

AT is relative: a large thermal power plant may be appropriate for an industrial country, while a micro-hydro plant is appropriate for a remote Nepali village.

Intermediate technology

Intermediate technology is technology that lies between simple traditional technology and expensive modern, capital-intensive technology. Schumacher explained it with the idea that if a traditional tool costs £1 and a modern one £1000, an intermediate tool costing about £100 is far more productive than the first but affordable for poor people. The Intermediate Technology Development Group (1966, now Practical Action) works on this, including in Nepal.

Features: more productive than traditional tools, cheaper and simpler than modern machines, can be made or repaired locally.

Examples:

Relation between the two

In LDCs like Nepal, intermediate technology is usually the most appropriate technology because it matches scarce capital, plentiful labour and local skills.

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is technology that suits the economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions of the people who use it: low-cost, small-scale, labour-intensive, based on local materials and skills, simple to operate and repair, and environmentally friendly. Examples: micro-hydro, biogas, improved cooking stove.

Characteristics of technology

1. Application of knowledge: technology is the practical use of science. Example: knowledge of electromagnetic induction is used in generators of hydropower plants.
2. Purposeful (problem solving): it is developed to satisfy a human need. Example: water filters solve the problem of unsafe drinking water.
3. Has four components: technique (tools/machines), knowledge, organisation and product. Example: a hydropower plant needs turbines (technique), engineers' know-how (knowledge), a company to run it (organisation) and electricity (product).
4. Dynamic and cumulative: it keeps changing and builds on earlier inventions. Example: telegraph → telephone → mobile phone → smartphone.
5. Irreversible: once adopted, society cannot go back. Example: nobody returns from electric light to oil lamps.
6. Transferable: it can be transferred from one place or country to another, though it must be adapted. Example: biogas technology adapted from China and India to Nepal.
7. Value-neutral but value-laden in use: the same technology can help or harm. Example: nuclear energy for power or bombs.
8. Has social and environmental impacts: it changes culture, employment and nature. Example: mobile phones changed communication and family life; vehicles cause air pollution.
9. Interdisciplinary and systemic: needs many fields and support systems. Example: an electric vehicle needs batteries, charging stations, a grid and trained mechanics.
10. Context-dependent (appropriateness): a technology good for one place may not suit another. Example: combine harvesters suit large flat farms but not small terraced hill farms of Nepal.
11. Creates dependency and specialisation: users depend on suppliers and experts. Example: imported machines need imported spare parts.
12. Economic dimension: it has costs, increases productivity and can create or remove jobs. Example: ATMs reduced bank counter jobs but created IT jobs.

These characteristics show why technology must be chosen carefully to match local needs and resources, which is the core idea of appropriate technology.

Participatory approach

The participatory approach is a development approach in which the local people (beneficiaries) take part actively in all stages of a project: identifying needs, planning, decision making, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and operation and maintenance. It treats people as partners, not as passive receivers.

Key features:

• Bottom-up planning based on felt needs
• Local knowledge and resources are used
• Users' committees and community groups manage the work
• Transparency (public hearing, public audit)
• Cost sharing in cash, labour or materials
• Inclusion of women, poor and marginalised groups

Tools: Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), focus group discussion, social and resource mapping, transect walk, wealth ranking, seasonal calendar, Venn diagram.

Example: In Nepal, community forestry user groups manage local forests, and drinking water users' committees build and maintain village water schemes with their own labour.

Benefits: sense of ownership, better maintenance, lower cost, empowerment, transparency, project matches real needs.

Appropriate technology

Appropriate technology is technology that suits the local economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions. It is low-cost, small-scale, labour-intensive, simple to operate and repair, uses local materials and skills and is environmentally friendly (E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful, 1973).

Examples: micro-hydro, biogas, improved cooking stoves, improved water mills, solar home systems, rainwater harvesting.

Importance for Nepal: suits remote areas, uses local resources, creates jobs, reduces imports and protects the environment.

Labour-intensive technology

Labour-intensive technology uses a large proportion of human labour and relatively little capital or machinery. (Closely related, labour-based technology uses labour as the main resource but adds light equipment where needed for quality.)

Examples: building rural roads, trails, irrigation canals and terraces by hand with local workers; hand-made paper (lokta) and handloom weaving.

Why suitable for Nepal:

• Abundant labour and scarce capital
• Creates local employment and income; reduces poverty
• Low import of machines and fuel; saves foreign currency
• Suits steep, roadless terrain
• Causes less environmental damage
• Builds local skills and ownership

Limitations: slower for large projects, needs good management, and quality control can be difficult.

The three ideas work together in Nepal's LEP (Labour-based, Environment-friendly, Participatory) approach for rural infrastructure.

Characteristics of the information age

The information age (from about the 1970s) is the era in which information and knowledge, handled by computers and the internet, are the main sources of production, power and wealth.

• Information and knowledge are the main economic resources.
• Digital technology (computers, internet, mobile, cloud, AI) is everywhere.
• Knowledge workers dominate; education and ICT skills decide income.
• Global connectivity: instant communication, global markets, e-commerce.
• Networked, decentralised organisations, remote and flexible work.
• Rapid change and innovation; lifelong learning is needed.
• Service economy: IT, finance, education and media lead.
• New issues: digital divide, cyber crime, privacy, misinformation.

Digital technology in the fight against COVID-19

1. Online education: schools and universities (including in Nepal) used Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and learning management systems during lockdowns; radio and TV lessons reached students without internet.
2. Work from home: video conferencing, cloud storage and collaboration tools kept offices, banks and IT companies running.
3. Telemedicine: doctors consulted patients by phone and video, reducing hospital crowding and infection risk.
4. Contact tracing and tracking: mobile apps and data were used to trace contacts of infected people (e.g. apps in India, South Korea, Singapore).
5. Data dashboards and information: governments, including Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population, published daily case data online; WHO and other dashboards showed global spread for planning.
6. Awareness and communication: SMS, caller tunes, social media and websites spread health messages about masks, hand washing and distancing.
7. Digital payments and e-commerce: mobile wallets, mobile banking and online delivery reduced cash handling and crowding in markets.
8. Vaccine research: computing, genome sequencing and data sharing helped scientists develop vaccines in record time (e.g. mRNA vaccines).
9. Vaccination management: online registration, QR-code vaccination cards and digital certificates for travel.
10. Screening technology: thermal scanners at airports, AI-assisted analysis of chest CT/X-ray images.

Limitations seen: the digital divide left poor and rural students and patients behind, and misinformation also spread quickly on social media.

COVID-19 showed that digital technology is now essential infrastructure in the information age.

In the information age, information and knowledge have replaced land, labour and physical capital as the main source of wealth and power. Whoever has the right information at the right time can make better decisions, innovate and control markets and people.

Information is wealth

• Knowledge-based companies are the richest: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Meta earn mainly from software, data, patents and platforms, not from land or heavy factories.
• Intellectual property: patents, copyrights and software can be sold repeatedly at almost no extra cost.
• Data as an asset: customer data is used for targeted advertising and product design; it is often called "the new oil".
• Skilled individuals: a software engineer in Nepal can earn foreign income through outsourcing and freelancing with only a laptop and internet.
• Market information: farmers who know market prices through mobile apps or SMS get better prices.

Information is power

• Decision making: governments and firms with accurate data plan better (e.g. weather forecasts for agriculture and disaster preparedness).
• Political power: control of media and social media shapes public opinion and elections.
• Military and security power: intelligence and cyber capabilities give nations advantage.
• Citizen power: the Right to Information Act, 2064 (Nepal) and social media let citizens question authorities and expose corruption.
• Competitive advantage: companies that ignore new information fail (Kodak with digital photography, Nokia with smartphones).

Consequences

• Countries that invest in education, research and digital infrastructure grow fast; those without access fall behind (digital divide).
• Misuse of information (fake news, data theft) is also a source of harmful power.

Hence, information is truly wealth and power in modern society, and education and ICT are the keys to development for countries like Nepal.

In the industrial age, power and wealth came from owning physical capital: land, factories, machines, raw materials and energy (coal, oil). In the information age, the main source is information and knowledge: data, ideas, software, patents and networks.

How the shift happened

1. Computers and the internet (from the 1970s–90s) made information cheap to store, process and send globally.
2. Value moved to intangibles: the richest firms today (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta) are knowledge and data companies, while old heavy-industry firms have lower value.
3. Knowledge creates products at near-zero copy cost: software or a digital service, once made, can be sold to millions without new factories.
4. Data is used as capital: platforms earn by analysing user data for advertising and services; Uber and Airbnb own few cars or hotels but control information networks.
5. Workers' value depends on knowledge: skilled knowledge workers earn much more than manual workers; education became the main asset.
6. Power through information: governments and companies that control information, media and cyber tools gain political and economic power.

For Nepal, investment in education, IT skills and internet access is now more important for wealth creation than heavy industry alone.

Why knowledge is important in the information age

In the information age, knowledge and information are the main resources of production, power and wealth, just as land was in the agricultural age and machines in the industrial age.

1. Source of wealth: knowledge creates software, patents, designs and services that earn far more than raw materials. Knowledge-based firms are the world's richest.
2. Employability: jobs need education and ICT skills; knowledge workers (engineers, analysts, doctors, designers) earn high incomes, while unskilled jobs are automated.
3. Innovation and competitiveness: new products and services come from research; firms and nations that do not keep learning fall behind (e.g. Kodak, Nokia).
4. Better decision making: accurate data on markets, weather, health and finance lets people, companies and governments decide wisely.
5. Power: control of information gives political, economic and military advantage.
6. Rapid change: technology changes quickly, so continuous (lifelong) learning is required to stay relevant.
7. Empowerment: knowledge of rights, health and markets empowers citizens, women and farmers.
8. Global opportunities: with knowledge and internet, a person in Nepal can work for clients worldwide through IT outsourcing and freelancing.

Characteristics of the information age

• Information as the main resource and economic product.
• Digital technologies: computers, internet, mobile phones, cloud, AI and big data.
• Knowledge workers form a large part of the workforce.
• Service-based economy: IT, banking, education, health and media dominate over manufacturing.
• Globalisation: instant worldwide communication, global markets and e-commerce.
• Networked and flat organisations: less hierarchy, teamwork and remote collaboration.
• Flexible work: work from home, freelancing and gig work.
• Customisation: products and services tailored to individuals using data.
• Rapid change and short product life cycles.
• Lifelong learning and online education.
• New social issues: digital divide, cyber crime, privacy loss, information overload, misinformation.
• Less dependence on physical location: a company can operate anywhere.

Human society has passed through three main stages of economic development (Alvin Toffler's "three waves"): the agricultural age, the industrial age and the information age. Each is defined by its main resource, technology and way of life.

Agricultural age (about 10,000 years ago to mid-18th century)

• Main resource: land and human/animal labour.
• Technology: simple tools (plough, sickle, hoe), irrigation canals, animal power, water mills.
• Economy: subsistence farming; barter and local trade.
• Settlement: small villages; most people lived in rural areas.
• Society: joint families, strong community ties, caste/feudal hierarchy; landlords held power.
• Work: seasonal, family-based; children worked on farms.
• Knowledge: traditional, passed orally from generation to generation; low literacy.
• Environment: low pollution; local deforestation for farmland.

Industrial age (about 1760 to 1970s)

• Main resource: capital, machines, raw materials and fossil energy (coal, oil).
• Technology: steam engine, electricity, railways, internal combustion engine, assembly lines.
• Economy: mass production of standard goods; factories; national markets; capitalism.
• Settlement: rapid urbanisation around factories.
• Society: nuclear families, working class and capitalist class, trade unions.
• Work: fixed hours, wage labour, division of labour, blue-collar jobs.
• Knowledge: formal schooling spread; engineering and science grew.
• Environment: heavy air and water pollution, resource depletion, start of greenhouse gas build-up.

Information age (about 1970s to present)

• Main resource: information and knowledge.
• Technology: computers, microprocessors, internet, mobile phones, satellites, AI.
• Economy: service and knowledge economy; e-commerce; global markets.
• Settlement: urban but less tied to location; remote work possible.
• Society: networked society, individualism, social media communities.
• Work: knowledge workers, flexible hours, freelancing, lifelong learning.
• Knowledge: instant access to global information; high literacy needed.
• Environment: cleaner production possible, but e-waste and energy demand of data centres.

Summary

Nepal is still largely agricultural, with some industry and a fast-growing information sector (IT outsourcing, digital payments), so it shows features of all three ages at once.

The information age (also called the digital or computer age) is the period, from about the 1970s, in which information and knowledge processed by computers and the internet are the main sources of production, power and wealth. It followed the industrial age and was triggered by the microprocessor (1971), personal computers and the internet.

Characteristics:

• Information and knowledge are the key economic resources.
• Wide use of computers, internet, mobile phones, cloud computing and AI.
• Knowledge workers form most of the workforce.
• Service-based economy (IT, banking, education, media).
• Globalisation: instant communication, global markets, e-commerce.
• Flat, networked organisations; remote and flexible work.
• Rapid innovation and lifelong learning.

Benefits: fast communication, online education and health care, e-governance, new jobs (IT outsourcing), transparency.

Problems: digital divide, cyber crime, loss of privacy, misinformation, unemployment for unskilled workers, e-waste, screen addiction.

Nepalese context: mobile and internet use have spread widely, digital payments (mobile wallets, QR payments), online government services and IT export are growing, but rural internet access and digital literacy remain limited.