With the advent of Industry 4.0, technological interdependence is becoming increasingly important in the delineation of technological development dynamics. In the present paper, we propose an extension of the theory of technological paradigms conceptualizing the role of technological interdependence in the emergence of paradigms and the coevolution of the corresponding trajectories. We corroborate our conceptual extension by means of an in-depth historical account of the genesis and evolution of the additive manufacturing paradigm. Accordingly, we elucidate how different technological paradigms may give rise to an aggregate paradigm through a process of convergence and how the aggregate paradigm may contribute to steering the direction of technological change alongside traditional science-push, demand-pull, institutional, and socioeconomic factors. Our work has two main implications: first, it shows that a technological paradigm may emerge from a process of incremental convergence and not only from radical innovations and scientific breakthroughs. Second, it shows that the dynamics of epistemological interdependence (i.e., interdependence between paradigms) matter significantly in the determination of technological development paths.

中文翻译：

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技术范式和融合的力量

随着工业 4.0 的到来，技术相互依赖在描绘技术发展动态方面变得越来越重要。在本文中，我们提出了技术范式理论的扩展，将技术相互依存在范式出现和相应轨迹的共同演化中的作用概念化。我们通过对增材制造范式的起源和演变的深入历史记录来证实我们的概念扩展。因此，我们阐明了不同的技术范式如何通过融合过程产生聚合范式，以及聚合范式如何有助于引导技术变革的方向以及传统的科学推动、需求拉动、制度和社会经济因素。我们的工作有两个主要含义：首先，它表明技术范式可能来自渐进融合的过程，而不仅仅是来自激进的创新和科学突破。其次，它表明认识论相互依赖（即范式之间的相互依赖）的动态对技术发展路径的确定具有重要意义。