Stages of technical progress and the use of technical means in our age

The paper focused on the technical development issues and emphasized the actual use of technical means in contemporary times, including – among others – tools and devices in the era of automation and electronics, and also robotics in the future. In historical time, the following groups of technical means should be mentioned in turn: 1) instruments and tools, as well as devices made from natural elements, especially of stone and wood; 2) instruments, tools and devices made mostly of metal, as well as equipment made – depending on needs – from different materials, including the ones made of glass; 1) technical means which boasted distinguished features of mechanisms (e. g. drawbridges) or even automatic machines (e. g. clocks and watches); 4) emergence of technical and technological conditions for the production of machines and construction of factories in the pre-industrial manufacture when the division of production deepened, broadened and fell into activities equivalent to technical and technological operations which initiated technical revolution; 5) implementation of assembly lines in big H. Ford car manufacturing plants which were the germs of production automatic machines initiating the scientific and technical revolution; 6) electronic devices, especially TV-sets and computers; 7) remote controlling of space objects and production processes; 8) the use of the internet for acquiring information and for communication; 9) the use of robots combining the latest technique and electronics, and working thanks to perfectly used software, which are a manifestation of great technical and technological progress, and have great perspectives for the future. Taking into account the above, the author distinguished nine stages of technical development mainly: 1) the stage of (conventionally speaking) primitive technique; 2) the stage of mainly stone and wood tools; 3) the stage of metal tools made in smelting processes; 4) the stage of mechanization due to the extensive use of machines; 5) the stage of automation as a result of extensive use of automatic machines; 6) the stage of electronics, including mainly the common use of a higher and higher generation of computers; 7) the stage of production remote controlled technique; 8) the stage of common internet domination; 9) and the future stage of robots, including mainly production robots