This piece, situated at the entrance of the University of New Hampshire's Technical College at Manchester, traces the history of technology. From the "Big Bang" of creation, the galaxies and planets spill forth to planet Earth, where a lump of meteoric iron is pounded by a stone-age hammer into tools, which make tools, which leads to the technology of today and the future.
In impressionistic style, it touches on the invention of the wheel, classical architecture, hand powered tools, animal powered impliments, water power, the age of steam, industrialization , electrification and the dizzying proliferation of technology we have today and into the unknown of the future.
All the while, it touches on the various disciplines taught
at the Technical College and also poses a question: at the early
stage is shown a Roman sword partially folded back and welded
into a plowshare - at the current stage, next to a computer chip,
a rocket is blasting off under a laser beam. Is this a rocket
for exploration and discovery or is this a means of destruction?
The age-old choice of the plow or the sword remains for the current
students of technology to determine how they will apply their
newly aquired skills. The answer is implied by the circular piece
of the ideal from DaVinci that "Mankind is the measure of
all things". Secondarily, they can also reflect on
the fact that this whole complicated assembly was created simply
by one person with a hammer and that sophisticated solutions do
not always require sophisticated technology - just sophisticated
ideas.
