Technology (Groundwork Guides

by Wayne Grady

Technology is the most prevalent and powerful force in the modern world. Different aspects of technology play immense roles in our lives, from determining how doctors treat diseases to the kinds of energy we use to fuel our vehicles, from providing us with means of exploring the universe to communication systems like cell phones and the Internet. But technology is more than the sum of the tools we use -- it's also a way of thinking about the world. "Technology" follows the development of tools and their use, from the dawn of civilization through to modern times and even into the near future. It traces the development of technology from a tool in the service of science and humanity to a force more powerful than religion and politics -- an entity that now appears to be controlling its own destiny as well as ours.

144 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Wayne Grady is the award-winning author of Emancipation Day, a novel of denial and identity. He has also written such works of science and nature as The Bone Museum, Bringing Back the Dodo, The Quiet Limit of the World, and The Great Lakes, which won a National Outdoor Book Award in the U.S. With his wife, novelist Merilyn Simonds, he co-authored Breakfast at the Exit Café: Travels Through America. And with David Suzuki he co-wrote the international bestseller Tree: A Life Story.

He has also translated fourteen works of fiction from the French, by such authors as Antonine Maillet, Yves Beauchemin, and Danny Laferrière. In 1989, he won the Governor General’s Award for his translation of Maillet’s On the Eighth Day. His most recent translation is of Louis Hamelin’s October 1970, published by House of Anansi Press in 2013.

Grady teaches creative writing in the optional-residency MFA program at the University of British Columbia. He and Merilyn Simonds live in the country north of Kingston, Ontario.