Here's a question, is a change in materials used or the manufacturing process actually a change in technology? Or is it just an adaptation of the existing/previous technology??
Lets say I make a part out of steel, and later on someone figures out how an aluminium alloy can be used and the part will still do its job the same way, and later still someone else figures out how to use a plastic to do the same job, the same way, is that really an advancement in technology?
Or is it an advancement in materials technology, but not design techology?
If I use computer controlled machines to make it, replacing skilled workers doing it by hand, that's an advancement in manufacturing technology, but if I'm using that CNC to make the same product, a basic design that's been in use for well over a century (or longer??) is that an advancement in Firearms technology? I don't think so, not really.
And, are TINY changes in the details of how a mechanism works worthy of the term "advance in technology?" Every advertising guy seems to think so, but their job isn't to be accurate, its to sell a product.
And then, there's also the fact that some people see "an improvement" where others just see "a change".
One see this all the time these days, I do, virtually every time my computer upgrades itself. I see a change, but rarely an improvement, and sometimes things are worse for me after an "upgrade" than they were before.
