Abstract

Technology strongly interacts with almost every facet of our lives. It has also come to interact with almost every facet of the natural world. It is this fundamental interdependence that creates the strong linkages between the studies of sustainable engineering, industrial ecology, and the more specific methodologies such as life cycle assessment. Furthermore, the integration of technology with social and environmental systems, a key aspect of sustainability creates another important dynamic. Technology as a human competence is undergoing a rapid, unprecedented and accelerating period of evolutionary growth, especially in the key foundational areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, information and communications technology and applied cognitive science [6]. It is this influence or impact of technology on man and society that has raised the critical question: Is man in control of technology or is technology in control of man? This has brought about a dialectics, which will be examined in this paper. It is also the position of this paper that technology is part of human culture and that it promotes social transformation.

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