Editing Technology (section)

=== Modern ===
{{Main|Industrial Revolution|Second Industrial Revolution|Information Age}}
[[File:1885Benz.jpg|thumb|The [[automobile]], here the original [[Benz Patent-Motorwagen]], revolutionized personal transportation.]]

Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of [[steam power]] set off the [[Industrial Revolution]], which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of [[British Agricultural Revolution|agriculture]], manufacturing, mining, [[metallurgy]], and transport, and the widespread application of the [[factory system]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stearns |first=P. N. |url= |title=The Industrial Revolution in World History |publisher=Routledge |year=2020 |isbn=978-0813347295 }}</ref> This was followed a century later by the [[Second Industrial Revolution]] which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including [[Sewage treatment|sewage systems]], electricity, [[light bulbs]], [[electric motor]]s, railroads, [[automobiles]], and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, [[chemistry]], [[physics]], and engineering.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mokyr |first=J. |title=The Second Industrial Revolution, 1870–1914 |year=2000 |url=https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jmokyr/castronovo.pdf |access-date=10 September 2022 |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910210450/https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jmokyr/castronovo.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=B. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPJjEAAAQBAJ |title=To Have and Have Not: Energy in World History |year= 2022 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1538105047 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184800/https://books.google.com/books?id=NPJjEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Communication improved with the invention of the [[telegraph]], the telephone, the radio, and television.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Albion |first=Robert G. |date=1 January 1933 |title=The Communication Revolution, 1760–1933 |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/tns.1933.002 |journal=Transactions of the Newcomen Society |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=13–25 |doi=10.1179/tns.1933.002 |issn=0372-0187 |access-date=26 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184825/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/tns.1933.002 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of [[nuclear fission]] in the [[Atomic Age]] led to both [[nuclear weapons]] and [[nuclear power]]. [[Analog computer]]s were invented and asserted dominance in processing complex data. While the invention of [[vacuum tube]]s allowed for digital computing with [[computer]]s like the [[ENIAC]], their sheer size precluded widespread use until innovations in [[quantum physics]] allowed for the invention of the [[transistor]] in 1947, which significantly compacted computers and led the digital transition. Information technology, particularly [[optical fiber]] and [[optical amplifier]]s, allowed for simple and fast long-distance communication, which ushered in the [[Information Age]] and the birth of the [[Internet]]. The [[Space Age]] began with the launch of [[Sputnik 1]] in 1957, and later the launch of [[Human spaceflight|crewed missions]] to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to [[search for extraterrestrial intelligence]] have used [[radio telescope]]s to detect signs of technology use, or ''[[technosignature]]s'', given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis ([[CT scan|CT]], [[Positron emission tomography|PET]], and [[MRI]] scanning), treatment (like the [[dialysis machine]], [[defibrillator]], [[pacemaker]], and a wide array of new [[pharmaceutical drug]]s), and research (like [[interferon]] cloning and [[DNA microarray]]s).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Agar |first=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2TrhBB_4fYC |title=Science in the 20th Century and Beyond |year=2012 |publisher=Polity |isbn=978-0745634692|access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184804/https://books.google.com/books?id=e2TrhBB_4fYC |url-status=live }}</ref>

Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire [[Industry (economics)|industries]] have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education&nbsp;– their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Goldin |first1=C. |author1-link=Claudia Goldin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGlCFqnakCoC |title=The Race between Education and Technology |last2=Katz |first2=L. F. |author2-link=Lawrence F. Katz |year=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674037731 |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004184804/https://books.google.com/books?id=yGlCFqnakCoC |url-status=live }}</ref> Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and [[computer science]]; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture.