How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Probably I'll be sent home on the next ship—but at least I can expect to see something. I've got a four millimeter camera and thousands of meters of film: it won't be my fault if I can't use it. (13.32)
Science fiction is all about future technology, but in many ways, its predictions are based on the technologies of the time. Case in point, there was no way someone writing in the 1950s could have guessed that technology would advance to the point that cameras wouldn't need film in the future. Either that or Jan couldn't afford a decent data plan and has to do things old school.
Quote #8
There were various community-owned service vehicles—trucks, ambulances, and fire engines, all restricted, except in cases of real emergency, to fifty kilometers an hour. As a result the inhabitants of Athens had plenty of exercise, uncongested streets—and no traffic accidents. (15.33)
To counter the Overlords' influence on humanity, the people of Athens have limited what technology they allow in their colony. Yet they still have bicycles, and bikes are still technically technology—they're just not the highest tech.
Quote #9
So this was the exhibit for Earth. They walked for a few meters past a beautiful model of Paris, past art treasures from a dozen centuries grouped incongruously together, past modern calculating machines and Paleolithic axes, past television receivers and Hero of Alexandria's steam turbine. (22.31)
How do the Overlords define other species? By the exhibits in their Earth museum, we'd say they define them by the technology they create. Notice the lack of art in the exhibit. See the next quote for why that's important.