tehnilistes

Tehnilistes is a term used in speculative technology studies to describe a systematic approach to organizing and evaluating technological artifacts, processes, and their social effects through comprehensive listings and taxonomies. The term blends 'techno' with the suffix -istes, indicating practitioners who build and study lists of technologies and related phenomena.

Origins are uncertain and debated; it emerged in online communities and early 21st-century lectures dealing with tech ontology and data curation. By the 2020s it had gained informal adoption among information scientists, policy analysts, and educators as a heuristic for analyzing tech ecosystems.

Core activities include developing controlled vocabularies, constructing hierarchical taxonomies, mapping supply chains, and applying lifecycle and risk assessments to items on the lists. Tehnilistes work often uses ontologies, metadata standards, and scenario-based analysis to connect technical features with social, economic, and ethical dimensions.

For policymakers, researchers, and librarians, Tehnilistes provides a framework to compare technologies, forecast impacts, and prioritize research and governance efforts. It supports transparency and reproducibility by codifying definitions and criteria in searchable lists.

Critics argue that heavy reliance on lists can oversimplify complex systems, that taxonomies may reflect biases, and that cross-domain interoperability remains difficult.

Although the term has limited formal recognition, Tehnilistes is used in some circles as a conceptual toolbox for technology assessment.