Tech and Art

Do you see beauty in a recursive loop?? Do the curves of a V-twin engine of a Harley Davidson remind you of finely carved Greek statues?? Do you hear music in the sound of a V-10 F1 engine (you will be missed)? If your answer to all of these is a yes, then you are a technologist at your heart, whether or not you have a tech degree.

Ever since I joined Evalueserve, I had always wondered why they called it the state-of-the-art instead of state-of-the-technology, or why they called it prior art instead of existing technology. Finally stumbled on the answer yesterday while reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Turns out that the word technology is derived from the Greek word techne, meaning art, skill or craft. One of the wisest races to have ever existed, the Greeks, in all their wisdom, never saw any difference between art and technology and never had different words for them. No wonder their buildings are considered works of art in the modern world.

So next time you find yourself comparing Bach to Knuth or Michelangelo to the engineers of Ferrari, don’t be surprised.