General-purpose technology
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General-purpose technologies (GPTs) are a product, process or organisational system that can affect an economy at a national or global level. These technologies have the potential to drastically alter societies through their impact on pre-existing economic and social structures. Examples of GPTs include the airplane, automobile, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, bronze, computer, domestication, electricity, factory system, internal combustion engine, Internet, iron, mass production, money, nanotechnology, printing press, railways, steamboat, steam engine and the wheel.
In economics, it is theorized that initial adoption of a new GPT within an economy may, before improving productivity, actually decrease it due to time required for development of new infrastructure, learning costs and, obsolescence of old technologies and skills. This can lead to a "productivity J-curve" as unmeasured intangible assets are built up and then harvested. The impending timeframe to utilize the latent benefits of the new technology is deemed a trade-off. Spin-out firms/inventors from organizations that had developed GPTs play an important role in developing applications. However, it has been observed that the level of cumulative innovation in GPTs diminishes as more spin-outs into application development occur.
Historical GPT
Economists Richard Lipsey and Kenneth Carlaw classified 24 technologies in history as true GPTs. They define a transforming GPT according to the four criteria listed below:
- is a single, recognisable generic technology
- initially has much scope for improvement but comes to be widely used across the economy
- has many different uses
- creates many spillover effects
Since their book, more GPTs have been added for the 21st century.[by whom?]
Foundational
The earliest technologies mentioned by Lipsey and Carlaw occur before the Neolithic period and have not been cast as GPTs, however, they are innovations that the other 24 rely upon.
| Classification | Date | |
|---|---|---|
| Spoken language | process | Pre-10,000 BC |
| Clothing | product | Pre-10,000 BC |
| Mastery of fire | process | Pre-10,000 BC |
| Coil pottery | product | Pre-10,000 BC |
| Weapons (sharp-edged tools) | product | Pre-10,000 BC |
Expanded list of 26 technologies
Steam engine increased labor productivity annually by 0.34%; IT by 0.6% (1995–2005); robotics by 0.36% (1993–2007).
Military and defense-related procurement
In his book, Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?: Military Procurement and Technology Development, Vernon W. Ruttan examined the impact of military and defense-related procurement on U.S. technology development. Ruttan identifies the development of six general-purpose technologies:
- Interchangeable parts and mass production
- Military and commercial aircraft
- Nuclear energy
- Computers and semi-conductors
- Internet
- Space industries
Ruttan contended that the current technological landscape would look very different in the absence of military and defense-related contributions to commercial technology development. However, from his research, he determined that commercial technology development would have occurred in the absence of military procurement. He cited nuclear power as an example of a general-purpose technology that would not have developed.