The relationship between the development of materials and the progress of human civilization
Abstract: Nowadays, human society is developing faster and faster, and human civilization is also getting higher and higher, which is closely related to the development of materials. The development of materials is inextricably linked with the progress of human civilization, and we can even say that the development history of human civilization is the development history of materials.
Key words: Materials, human civilization, development and connection
Materials are an indispensable part of human life, and all kinds of human activities are inseparable from materials. Materials play a vital role in the development of human civilization, without the development of materials there is no progress of human civilization, and the progress of human civilization in turn promotes the progress of materials, so we can say that the history of human civilization is the history of material development, materials and human civilization are inextricably linked.
Since the dawn of man, man has been using materials. However, due to the limited level of technology, humans can only use the natural materials available in nature. For example, humans use leaves or hides to make clothes, and sticks and stones to make tools for hunting. This era was mainly based on stone tools, called the Paleolithic Age. Later, humans knew that grinding stone tools could better play the role of tools, which was called the Neolithic Age. Although humans in the Stone Age understand the use of materials and simple processing of them, but human use of materials is limited to existing materials. However, it is precisely because of the development of materials that humans began to engage in agriculture and animal husbandry, so that human life has been improved, so that there is extra energy to pay attention to the development of culture, and human civilization has begun to emerge.
Then, people knew the manufacturing materials, so pottery, bronze, iron and then came into being. The birth of these new tools makes human life more convenient and comfortable. Due to the use of these metal utensils, human productivity and living standards have been greatly improved, and the society has become more stable. Therefore, human beings painted or burned words on pottery and bronze ware to record the life at that time, which reflected the progress of human civilization. After the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, marked by iron smelting and iron making, appeared. Although China's iron smelting industry appeared later than West Asia and Europe, but then developed rapidly, in a long period of time, in the forefront of the world's metallurgical technology. The use of iron also promoted social and economic development and accelerated the disintegration of slavery societies. During this period, the agricultural development of human society and the religious beliefs and cultural patterns of human beings have undergone great changes, which undoubtedly shows that the progress of materials is closely related to the development of human civilization.
With the development of materials, new science and technology are ready to emerge. Only advanced science and technology can make full use of the materials that can be used in our lives, so that it can serve and human beings, so that human beings can enjoy the convenience and comfort brought by the development of materials. The Industrial Revolution first began in Britain in the 1760s and spread out in large numbers in the early 19th century. Thus, the steam age began at the beginning of the 19th century and ended with the Second Industrial Revolution in the 1870s. Due to the invention of steam engine, manual labor was replaced by machines, and human society began to enter industrial civilization from agricultural civilization. In the 1860s and 70s, the invention and use of generators and electric motors, as well as the advent of electric trolley movies, marked that human society entered the electric age.
With the development of human society, more and more information is needed, and the influence of information on the whole society has gradually increased to an absolutely important position. The amount of information, the speed of information transmission, the speed of information processing and the degree of application of information are all increasing in a geometric way, and mankind has entered the information age. Computer is indispensable in the information age. It is precisely because of the rapid development of computer that human society becomes fast and convenient. The development of computers is inseparable from the development of materials. The internal components of the first electronic computers were tubes, which made them very large. After that, computers successively used transistors, integrated circuits, and semiconductors as memory, which made computers become smaller and smaller, and the computing speed was greatly improved. It has to be said that the development of materials has an irreplaceable role in the development of human society.