Everything about Hi-tech totally explained
High tech is
technology that's at the
cutting edge—the most advanced technology currently available. The adjective form is hyphenated:
high-tech or
high-technology. (There is also an
architectural style known as
high tech).
There is no specific class of technology that's high tech—the definition shifts over time—so products
hyped as high tech in the 1960s would now be considered, if not exactly
low tech, then at least somewhat primitive. This fuzzy definition has led to marketing departments describing nearly all new products as high tech.
Origin of the term
In a search of
New York Times articles, the first occurrence of the phrase "high tech" occurs in a 1957 story advocating "
atomic energy" for Europe: "...Western Europe, with its dense population and its high technology..." The twelfth occurrence, in 1968, is, significantly, in a story about
Route 128, described as
Boston's "Golden Semicircle":
» It isn't clear whether the term comes from the high technologies flourishing in the glass rectangles along the route or from the Midas touch their entrepreneurs have shown in starting new companies.
By April 1969, Robert Metz was using it in a financial column—Arthur H. Collins of Collins Radio "controls a score of high technology patents in variety of fields." Metz used the term frequently thereafter; a few months later he was using it with a hyphen, saying that a fund "holds computer peripheral... business equipment, and high-technology stocks." Its first occurrence in the abbreviated form "high tech" occurred in a Metz in 1971.
Before 1970, the term "high technology" appeared a total of only 26 times; during the 1970s, 450 times; during the 1980s, over 4000 times. As of
2006, any technology from the year
2000 onward may be considered high tech.
Architecture
In
architecture, high-tech design involves the use of the materials associated with high tech industries of the 1980s and 1990s, such as space frames, metal cladding and composite fabrics and materials. High tech buildings often have extensive
glazing to show to the outside world the activity going on inside. Generally their overall appearance is light, typically with a combination of dramatic curves and straight lines. In many ways high tech
architecture is a reaction against
Brutalist architecture, without the features of
post-modernism.
The high tech style emerged in the 1980s and remains popular. In the
United Kingdom, two of its main proponents are
Richard Rogers and
Norman Foster
Economy
Because the high-tech sector of the
economy develops or uses the most advanced technology known, it's often seen as having the most potential for future growth. This perception has led to high
investment in high-tech sectors of the economy. High-tech
startup enterprises receive a large portion of
venture capital. However, if, as has happened in the past, investment exceeds actual potential, then investors can lose all or most of their investment. High tech is often viewed as high
risk, but offering the opportunity for high
profits.
Like
Big Science, high technology is an international phenomenon, spanning continents, epitomized by the worldwide communication of the
Internet. Thus a multinational corporation might work on a project 24 hours a day, with teams waking and working with the advance of the sun across the globe; such projects might be in
software development or in the development of an
integrated circuit. The
help desks of a multinational corporation might thus employ, successively, teams in
Kenya,
Brazil, the
Philippines, or
India, with the only requirement fluency in the mother tongue, be it
Spanish,
Portuguese or
English.
High tech sectors
OECD also classifies industries. OECD has two different approaches: sector and product approaches. The sector approach classifies industries according their technology intensity, product approach according to finished products. Further analysis from OECD has indicated that using research intensity as only industry classification indicator is also possible. The OECD doesn't only take the manufacturing but also the usage rate of technology into account. The OECD's classification is following (stable since 1973):
| Industry name |
Total R&D-intensity (1999, in %) |
ISIC Rev. 3 |
| High-Technology | |
|
| Pharmaceuticals |
10.46 |
2423 |
| Aircraft & spacecraft |
10.29 |
353 |
| Medical, precision & optimal instruments |
9.69 |
33 |
| Radio, television & communication equipment |
7.48 |
32 |
| Office, accounting & computing machinery |
7.21 |
30 |
| Medium-High-Technology | |
|
| Electrical machinery & apparatus |
3.60 |
31 |
| Motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers |
3.51 |
34 |
| Railroad & transport equipment |
3.11 |
352+359 |
| Chemical & chemical products |
2.85 |
24 (excl. 2423) |
| Machinery & equipment |
2.20 |
29 |
Furthermore, OECD’s product-based classification supports the technology intensity approach. It can be concluded, that companies in a high-technology industry don't necessary produce high-technology products and vice versa. This creates a problem of aggregation.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hi-tech'.
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