Analysis On The Theory Of Appropriate Technology

With the fast development of science and technology, we have to find out what kind of technology can truly meet the basic requirements of sustainable human development. Since the emergence and development of Appropriate Technology, many persons of insight at home and abroad believe more and more that, the Appropriate Technology has become a correct technical choice in the process of sustainable development, and it truly reflects the basic direction and the fundamental requirements of the development in modern technology.The earliest theory of Appropriate Technology is generally regarded as the one of the technological development theory, which proposed in the 1960s to face the technological and economic conflicts in the process of modernization in developing countries, and to find their best combination point. Along with the gradual replacement by the concept of sustainable development for the traditional concept of development based on the purpose of the pursuit of economic growth alone, the theory of Appropriate Technology improved and developed fast, and it also became a representative and advanced technological development theory and philosophy through the continuous evolution in several different theoretical forms.In the past, since the narrow vision that we only focus on the relationship between Technology and Economy in the research of technological changes and development, we faced a lot of problems during the theoretical study of technology. So we reexamine and rethink the dimension and angle of the perception in the research of the theory of the Appropriate Technology, which also considered as the most important premise in the study process. On the basis of the comprehensive system of Human-Technology-Economy-Society-Nature, namely the internal relation of the balanced and sustainable development between Human and Nature, as well as the essential relation of the interactivity and intercoordination among Technology, Economy, Society, Human and Nature, the paper shows us a clear analysis framework and a correct knowledge perspective for the concept of Appropriate Technology.View at above angle, the paper will give us a full new definition of Appropriate Technology: Appropriate Technology is a kind of technology that can fit the specific environment on the certain time and space and spontaneously formed into reasonable structure and matching function, in order to obtain the best overall benefits including economic efficiency, social returns and ecological effects etc. and to achieve the sustainable and coordinated development between Human and Nature. This definition is clear in intension and rich in extension. View from specific expressive form, Appropriate Technology can be a technical product, technical service, or a technical specification, technical standard, technical knowledge, also can be a technical strategy, technical thinking, technical theory and technical concept, and even also a philosophy of technology.In addition to above definition of the concept of the Appropriate Technology, the paper will further stressed that the Appropriate Technology should be flexible according to local conditions and keeping pace with the times. It is highly efficient and it is also highly effective technology. The judgment criteria of it should be both absolute and relative. The system formation of Appropriate Technology consist of the technical hard-core which is constituted by frontier technical individual (unit) or priority technical individual (unit), and integrated with the technical protection zone composed of subsequent technical individual (unit) or assistive technical individual (unit), to sum up, it is a great uniformity worked out by the complementary and recycling process between"technical hard-core"and"technical protection zone". The function contains two aspects, one is to transform and control environment, the other is to harmonize and adapt to environment. These two opposite function will complement each other to achieve unity. Consequently, the dynamic balanced relation and feedback circulatory mechanism resulted by the integration between the technical hard-core units and protection units and the complementation between transform function and adaptive function is the unique structure and function of Appropriate Technology, it is also the true meaning of Appropriate Technology.Since the formation, generally the Appropriate Technology has experienced three stages for evolution, from the first stage, the viewpoint that focuses on the own technical elements, then the halfway point that stresses on the environmental factors, finally to the last point that emphasizes both of technical elements and environmental factors. The evolving process precisely reflects the unity and diversity of Appropriate Technology and also shows clearly the basic evolution clues of the theory of Appropriate Technology. Actually, it is a self-growing process of the theory after double negation.Finally, the thesis sets forth the characteristics of the multiple nature of Appropriate Technology based separately on two perspectives, one focuses on the way of system construction, the other emphasis on the interaction between technical system and external environment. From the first angle, the essential characteristics of Appropriate Technology consist in its creativeness, coupling feature and sense of self-organization etc; from the second angle, the essential characteristics of Appropriate Technology lie in the consistent, integrated, interactional win-win and sustainable relation between the self-essential features and the comprehensive system of Nature, Economy, Society and Human.To sum up, the Appropriate Technology is essentially a technology that integrated with the comprehensive system of Economy-Society-Human-Nature, a right technical choice for the development and establishment of Low-Carbon Economy, Recycling Economy, Ecological Economy and Harmonious Society, and the supporting technology and intermediate means to achieve sustainable development for Man and Nature. It deeply reflects the harmonious and sustainable development between Man and Nature, and truly represents the correct way, fundamental requirements and basic direction for the development of modern technology.