### more\/what is a technology? Technologies are central to **the between** because it is through them that we shape the world and it shapes us. A useful way to think about how this works comes from how technologies are defined in complex systems: - **Physical technologies** are ways to organize matter for a purpose (e.g. the wheel, printing, computers, satellites). - **Social technologies** are ways to organize people's behavior for a purpose (e.g. laws and norms, institutions, family structures, marketing). Social technologies is another word for culture and its institutions, the "machinery" behind how societies are organized and how people's behaviors are interpreted and judged. The advantage of thinking of culture as a collection of technologies is that it makes it easier to see that physical and social technologies are in a constant feedback loop, **co-evolving** with each other. Simirarly to biological evolution, this is full of unintended consequences and periods of upheaval when things are out of sync. In this picture, the stories we tell about the world and ourselves are **narrative technologies**, an essential class of social technologies. What they highlight or omit directs our attention to rewards and locations of agency so we can find our way in the ever-changing landscape, to which change they contribute. In that sense, our attention is always hijacked by technology; it's meant to be. If it weren't so, we couldn't function. It is only at this level—people as niche constructors navigating their constructs with more constructs—that attention, perception, and agency (executive function) can be understood. In light of the task for the new Bauhaus, we note that functionalism is present in Arthur's definitions of technologies "for a purpose". This is understandable in his context (economics), but both complex systems and design extend beyond this limitation. - [Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology: What it Is and How it Evolves](https://sites.santafe.edu/~wbarthur/thenatureoftechnology.htm) - [The growing gap between our physical and social technologies, Santa Fe Institute Working Group](https://www.santafe.edu/research/projects/growing-gap-between-physical-and-social-tech) - [D. Farmer, F. Markopoulou, E. Beinhocker, S. Rasmussen, Collaborators in creation, Aeon Magazine](https://aeon.co/essays/how-social-and-physical-technologies-collaborate-to-create) - [Russell Barkley, Executive Functions](https://psychet.apa.org/record/2012-1570-000)