Technology in middle earth

[Lalwendë]

I think it's one of those areas where Tolkien's world reflects the real world. When nations are either at war or in a constant state of defence, they do tend to focus their scientific efforts more on developing weapons and their resources are directed in the same way.

Contrast Mordor with The Shire - the former has developed an impressive array of weaponry (you can see in RotK they have not only the trebuchet/catapult which fires something like grenades but also some of the rudimentary weapons used in WWI and probably oil). Two examples:

As soon as the great catapults were set, with many yells and the creaking of rope and winch, they began to throw missiles marvellously high, so that they passed right above the battlement and fell thudding within the first circle of the City; and many of them by some secret art burst into flame as they came toppling down.

And

Busy as ants hurrying orcs were digging, digging lines of deep trenches in a huge ring, just out of bowshot from the walls; and as the trenches were made each was filled with fire, though how it was kindled or fed, by art or devilry, none could see.

But Mordor is a blackened wasteland and the Orcs don't seem to lead very comfortable lives, rather brutal ones where they have to fight for a scrap or food or tiny luxury. Things are quite the opposite in The Shire. Even those at the bottom of the social pile, families like the Gamgees, seem not to be lacking in very much, perhaps apart from schooling (though I'm not clear if Sam didn't know his letters because he wasn't taught them as a child or if he just wasn't interested...). The Hobbits clearly know what level of tech is acceptable to them and do not want anything which impinges on their lifestyle - as seen by their reaction towards Saruman's new mill!

I can't think of any places in the modern world as extreme as Mordor or as idyllic as The Shire, but we can all think of countries which have expended high percentages of their money on military investment to the detriment of their people, or who have been engaged in war for so many years that any kind of human development effectively draws to a halt (Afghanistan is maybe a very good example of this?). Perhaps a little of this was at work in Gondor, too much of their resources having to be poured into defence. And also Rohan. Though I think they are also a younger culture so you could maybe not expect them to develop all that much, I often wonder how much Helm's Deep actually cost them to maintain!

The Elves, I think, we can leave out of this line of thought. Tolkien shows us that they had entered a state where they sought to preserve, rather than develop. Their stasis was brought about for very different reasons than the stasis of Gondor.

But in the end, I don't think Tolkien wanted to show us that development was a bad thing in itself, just that there were good and bad ways of applying technology. Which is kind of a theme throughout his work if you think about it. The crafts of Celebrimbor aren't a bad thing, but the crafts of Sauron certainly are!