When was fire discovered?

“The earliest creatures that predated human beings were probably well aware of fire. When lightning would strike a forest and create a fire, it probably intrigued and amazed them. Today, many scientists believe that the controlled use of fire was likely first achieved by an ancient human ancestor known as Homo erectus during the Early Stone Age. Archeologists have uncovered evidence of what they believe to be the controlled use of fire in Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, as well as the Lake Turkana region of Kenya.”

That was from Google-search, which opened on https://wonderopolis.org. Wonderopolis, the website created by the US National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) in 2010, and is one of the most popular education sites today.

Up to about 30 years ago, the Encyclopedia Britannica would have been the go-to for young students, researchers and curious or passionate learners, and others who wanted to know factual expositions on various subjects to historical timelines, background, and events of history, among other topics of interest and investigation. At the height of its popular use, Britannica had 32 hardbound volumes and 32,640 pages.

But in the 21^st century, Britannica suffered due to competition with the free online crowdsourced encyclopedia Wikipedia, which was established in 2001. The 2010 version was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopedia. Technology has converted many physical and mental activities to digital, operable on the internet.

Jan. 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet. It was the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite that challenged the US Defense department to consider ways information could still be disseminated even after a nuclear attack. The formation of the ARPANET or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network ultimately evolved into what we now know as the internet. Prior to this, the various computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol, established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol or TCP/IP, allowed different kinds of computers on different networks to “talk” to each other, according to the University System of Georgia, usg.edu.

Consequently, the number of websites grew from 130 in 1993 to over 100,000 at the start of 1996. By 1995, the internet and the World Wide Web were established phenomena: Netscape Navigator, which was the most popular browser at the time, had around 10 million global users. Note: The internet is the networking infrastructure that connects devices together, while the World Wide Web is a way of accessing information through the medium of the internet, according to scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk, Dec. 3, 2020.

In 2023, there are 5.18 billion internet users in the world. The total number of internet users around the world grew by 147 million during the past 12 months. Globally, internet user numbers are growing at an annual rate of 2.9%, but year-on-year growth is much higher in many developing economies, says datareportal.com. In the Philippines, there were 73 million internet users, 64.1% of the 113.88 million population as of 2021, according to Wikipedia.

At the KPMG-sponsored conference on July 20 on Digital Transformation, “Innovating Ideas to Execution,” the objective was to showcase digitization efforts and accomplishments of the local government units and startup digital technology businesses focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises. City Administrator Mike Alimurung reported on the various Quezon City government’s former manual processes that were converted to digital, through the Biz Easy Online Unified Business Permit Application System (OUBPAS), an online processing system of business permits applications, which was ordered for the creation of the Task Force for Ease of Doing Business and Automation in the city. Citizens who have already registered for a QCitizen ID Card can expect an expedited processing system for the city’s services and privileges through the digital conversion of the IDs into a unified database. Quezon City was recognized by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines for its best practices in utilizing information and communications technology in delivering services to the people during the Digital Governance Awards for 2022 at the National Museum on March 30.

Three small, startup digital tech businesses presented their strategic plans and operating processes towards transforming small businesses like sari-sari stores and other small retailers to digitize their own operations. Packworks, Peddlr and Prosperna, all started by computer-savvy young men during the lethargy of the three-year COVID pandemic, sold low-priced software for sales, accounting and inventory control of erstwhile technology-challenged small entrepreneurs who were then indoctrinated into digitization and guided in simple computerized processes. Peddlr, which is based in Samar, was chosen to attend the digitization summit in Portugal in November. Prosperna packaged a fintech option with the software subscription, by which a client-user would be able to borrow some money short-term from the float of the community pool of funds at a rate near the lending rate of credit cards.

There was no Q&A at the KPMG conference, but a few questions were asked among participants/guests at the lunch tables. Question #1: Is the government ready and able for this burst of energy and interest in digitization of data and processes? It was pointed out that many government websites are not updated, with data and statistics lagging by at least two years. Can the government offices at least provide working contact numbers for land calls, since e-mail and website contacts are more often not replied to. There still have to be the physical, face-to-face visits to the government, in the ubiquitous bureaucratic waiting-in-queue for your turn to be served. And then, the paperwork and documentation will not go away — for the protection of the citizen. One person at the lunch table told of how some electronic payments for her quarterly income taxes were not in the database.

The second question raised was: Is the ordinary, lower/lowest class citizen ready for the sophistication of advanced technology? Okay, jeepney driver Juan has a cell phone loaded with pre-paid Wi-Fi, which he uses for Facebook and games, sometimes for noonday TV entertainment. But can he understand and do online access to city services like registrations, permits, statistical data, and inquiries? At the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Juan had to renew his professional driver’s license. No more manually-written renewal applications are allowed. All license applications and renewals had to be inputted onto an electronic application on the computer and sent directly to the LTO computer. Poor Juan, who was physically there, had to stand behind an LTO staff who sat before a computer, typing out Juan’s verbal inputs into the electronic form and sending the application electronically to the same LTO!

And the third and most important question asked around the lunch table was: Can we really trust digital technology? What about the data privacy of users? “Hacking, identity theft, trolling, doxxing will become increasingly commonplace and a daily cost of doing business on the internet,” said a Pew Research Center survey and analysis dated Aug. 10, 2017. “One cannot have any faith in secrecy of digital correspondence… because so many of us use technologies that necessitate a third party to have access to metadata and content, as a product of that transaction. Apps that upload address books to servers and e-mail providers that read e-mail have become the norm,” the same survey pointed out. “People sold their personally identifiable information a long time ago with Google, Netflix, Twitter, etc. The genie is out of the bottle for most with regard to the interest of privacy,” one respondent said.

Bernardo A. Huberman, senior fellow at Hewlett Packard, warned: “Unless people learn of a big breach in security at a level that affects them, they will continue to trust blindly the new technology, mostly because of their ignorance of how intrusive it is.” In the report of Pew Research, many agreed that “the inexorable march toward mass adoption of online interactions will proceed…the public will not have the energy, interest or capacity to resist because most aspects of daily life will require compliance. Tech usage and acceptance will simply become normalized — (but) acceptance does not imply trust. Users will be coerced into using online technology more as alternatives are phased out.”

Like fire, when Homo erectus first discovered it, digital technology and its full conflagration in artificial intelligence are fearsome and threatening for their risks — but useful and convenient for a faster and fuller life.

Just Google search or go to Yahoo for further discussion and analysis.

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com