THE LIBRARY
WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
The latest book releases for curious minds
A GOOD QUESTION THAT’S WELL ANSWERED
AUTHOR SARAH WALDEN
ILLUSTRATOR KATIE REWSE
PUBLISHER NOODLE JUICE
PRICE £9.99 (APPROX. $13)
RELEASE OUT NOW
Technology has been in the background of human evolution since prehistoric times, but with the modern era and the dawn of the internet, the concept has been catapulted to the forefront of everything we do. So it’s easy to lose sight of what technology is exactly, how it should serve us and how we might avoid being slaves to our own ingenuity. What is Technology? is the latest in the Little Book Big Idea series from publisher Noodle Juice, which aims to define a subject using straightforward terms and lots of examples. With the opening page, technology is given a pithy, dictionary-style definition by author Sarah Walden, and then it’s into the series’ trademark question-and-answer style narrative.
Beginning far back in prehistory, each double-page spread poses a question that is succinctly answered as the reader progresses through historical waypoints in humankind’s use of technology. Walden has made extensive use of examples of what technologies were important to each era, so stone tools to the Neanderthals 200,000 years ago, the invention of paper in China in the 2nd century CE and Charles Babbage’s mechanical computer in 1835.