  We introduce an agent-based model for the spreading of technological
developments in socio-economic systems where the technology is mainly used for
the collaboration/interaction of agents. Agents use products of different
technologies to collaborate with each other which induce costs proportional to
the difference of technological levels. Additional costs arise when
technologies of different providers are used. Agents can adopt technologies and
providers of their interacting partners in order to reduce their costs leading
to microscopic rearrangements of the system. Analytical calculations and
computer simulations revealed that starting from a random configuration of
different technological levels a complex time evolution emerges where the
spreading of advanced technologies and the overall technological progress of
the system are determined by the amount of advantages more advanced
technologies provide, and by the structure of the social environment of agents.
We show that agents tend to form clusters of identical technological level with
a power law size distribution. When technological progress arises, the
spreading of technologies in the system can be described by extreme order
statistics.
