Obsolete systems
Step into a bleak future where progress has ground to a halt and obsolete systems plague every aspect of Filipino life. Welcome to a world where inefficiency reigns supreme and modernization is but a distant dream:
In this dystopian reality, navigating the labyrinth of bureaucracy is a daily struggle. The Philippines' archaic identity verification process remains a tangled mess of outdated requirements, forcing citizens to jump through hoops and endure endless delays just to access basic services. Losing a single ID card becomes a nightmare, grinding life to a halt and trapping individuals in a web of red tape.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world races ahead, embracing cutting-edge healthcare technologies and innovative practices. But in the Philippines, progress is stifled by a stubborn refusal to evolve. The healthcare system languishes in the past, clinging to decades-old methods while the world moves forward. While other countries harness the power of AR, VR, and AI to revolutionize patient care, Filipinos are left behind, deprived of access to modern treatments and technologies.
Public transportation is another casualty of this stagnant society. Outdated systems and lack of integration leave commuters stranded in a maze of inefficiency. Multiple cards are required to navigate a disjointed network of buses, trains, and tricycles, with each journey plagued by delays, breakdowns, and the constant threat of theft. Roads crumble beneath the weight of neglect, rendering them impassable for pedestrians and perilous for cyclists.
Classrooms across the nation are affected too; students struggle to access quality education as resources dwindle and equipment rusts. Outdated textbooks gather dust on crumbling shelves, their contents increasingly irrelevant in a rapidly changing world. The national curriculum, frozen in time, fails to equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the modern workforce. And teachers, once the custodians of knowledge, now find themselves adrift in a sea of disillusionment and despair. Caught between the demands of an outdated system and the expectations of parents desperate for their children's success, they struggle to impart wisdom in an environment poisoned by apathy and neglect.
In this dystopian landscape, progress is a distant memory and hope is a fading light. The Philippines remains trapped in a cycle of stagnation, its potential stifled by the weight of obsolete systems and outdated practices. As the world marches forward, the country is left behind, a relic of a bygone era in a rapidly evolving world.
In an AI-dominated world, computer science degrees teeter on obsolescence. As algorithms outpace human intellect, traditional expertise wanes. CS graduates grapple with skills rendered obsolete by relentless technological progress.
The MRT is still not fully operational due to numerous issues like broken rails, system glitches, and delays in construction.
While AI-assisted patient scheduling is now a norm for most hospitals around the world, many public hospitals in this Philippines still do things manually, forcing many Filipinos to waste a day waiting outside.
Selected Quotes
...So next worst case is of course...public [transportation] will still be underdeveloped, which means that we won't be able to innovate in terms of technology in improving public transportation. So...we use the same trains that we get from other countries. Even the system is not cohesive enough, like for example...sobrang entangled yung systems na ginagamit natin when it comes to transportation. And even yung mga payment systems. Like for example...sa toll, diba? Iba yung easy trips...hindi siya connected. Kasi nagbabangga yung private and public.
So for transportation, the next worst case is...we're building technology, we're building this enhanced space, pero hindi nag-co-connect or hindi siya cohesive enough. So nag-go on top lang siya, nakakaroon lang, siya ng parang layer of complexity na at the end hampers yung ability of people to access it easily. Kasi, again, hindi compatible yung technology to other technology from another government office...
Then, maybe...we'll have 5-10 different cards that we have to have in our wallets if we want to use public transport.
And the need for maintenance will be greater, since you'd have to keep fixing things because [of] cars [continuously] running on them.
I think for digital identity, it became a big deal because a lot of entrepreneurs tried to come to the Philippines and tried to invest and...start a bunch of start-ups, and [the government] just made it so hard...for entrepreneurs just to come in and do that...they can't even get government funding, because you need to be like a Filipino resident, right? So [they] just make it super hard for foreigners; well feasibly, they make it hard in a way to really start up a new business there. I mean, that's a reason why Gojek failed to get into the Philippines as well. So there's a number of reasons; that's why digital identity is such a big deal. Like if you wanna get proper investments in the Philippines, if you wanna have companies come into the Philippines, if you want foreigners to know that the Philippines is easy to deal with in terms of getting onboarded through...the government and being [identified] like that, that's such a big deal that I feel like the Philippines has just really failed at that. Because I think...there's two or three pieces of identity that you have to carry or something...it's really annoying. And like if you lose one, then you have to sign up...and wait [in] a queue just to get a new one. So like it's so stupid...again, [digital identity is] also time-saving. So if you have just one thing and it's digital, it saves you so much time. So I think that's the biggest thing that I saw, like why people are pushing for digital identity...it's just very cumbersome to have like [2-3] forms of identity for a regular person. And then if you're an entrepreneur trying to start a thing, or a company trying to come into the Philippines...it's very hard, [the government makes] it super difficult. So that's definitely a turning point, I feel like why people would push for that.
Yeah, as an accessibility expert, I fear for the people who are hard of hearing and hard of sight, because you can't just assess things and make things accessible via Braille Viewer and be done with it, because that's not the end all be all. So, yeah, we're probably gonna see that globally as well.
For shopping [in a pessimistic future]...[I foresee numerous] packages getting lost [in transit].
It's not a walkable Philippines. It would be even worse and almost impossible to get a ride.
Also, when you commute, mananakawan ka or something because we are just trying to get by.
Look at the First World countries. They have hollow medicine...[which is] AR [and] VR for visualizing organs. So they don't have to operate on patients just to see. Oh yeah, they have all of these things...they have AIs to predict hospital bed crunch. So one of the problems when we had COVID was that our hospitals were filled to the brim. Because people would come in and come in, and nobody would come out. Here [in Singapore], how it works is [that] they have an AI model that predicts the length of stay of patients, and that predicts when exactly the bed occupancy in the hospital will become full. And based on that prediction, they use that to deploy manpower. In addition to being able to deploy manpower, you're also able to route patients coming in. Because [you would] already know that this hospital for the next two weeks would be full. [So] don't bring this patient who is likely to stay for two more weeks at this hospital, bring them to a hospital that's not full. So we don't have stuff like this [in the Philippines]. So you can see how far behind we are already in the present. If we don't bring in people to actually elevate our healthcare system through tech, we're done for...we're missing out on so many on so many possible innovations that can help our country, simply because we're too ignorant to explore them to begin with.
The pessimistic future is...how [Filipinos] think is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So right now, we have dinosaur tech, right?...Imagine if it ain't broke, don't fix it [is still our mindset] 20 years from now. The rest of the world is like...if we're 30 years behind now, if we keep up with our mindset, in 20 years, we'll be 50 years behind. And then we'll be 70 years behind. And then we'll be 90 years behind...It's like the rest of the world is already in another league, already doing all of these new things, and we're still like: "Yeah, okay. It's still good."
I hope the education system would be reformed by then thanks to technology, since we have a lot of information available now...which sounds kind of scary, because it might take teachers' jobs away. But I'm hoping that there could be a way where teachers and technology could co-exist and [raise]...the standards of education in the Philippines, because if you look at the world rankings, we're near the bottom, which kind of sucks. I think [this is] especially [seen in]...standardized testing [in] math and science...like we're not up there with our neighbors...like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Can you believe [it]? It's like the countries next to us are [the ones on top:] Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, and we're just there [at the bottom]...I don't know, it's like kind of hard...I feel like it's not that [Filipinos] are not good, it's just that there's so little resources being pumped into education. Like people just don't see it as an important thing, and even the government [acts the same way]...I guess they'd rather funnel their resources somewhere else...
...[T]he government doesn't find a way to give accessible education to people...I think it benefits them that people aren't educated enough, because it makes it easier for them to manipulate these people. So I would say...the most pessimistic would be...40 years from now, [or] 20 years from now, we're still in the same spot: education is still not accessible to most of the students [in the country]...For the education systems that we currently have that people are in, people aren't elevated to do more. People aren't elevated to the same level as other countries are, because...we really are super, super, super, super, super, super, super behind. So yeah...my worst vision for this would be stagnancy.
...[M]ahihirapan [ang mga teachers] sa school system, in dealing with the kids, kasi sa academe there's already a massive gap between industries tsaka academe eh. So yung mga teachers yung tinuturo nila sa mga bata outdated na. So woefully unprepared yung mga generations natin ngayon in dealing with the corporate world eh kasi...sobrang disconnected ng academe sa industry...yung mga teachers is super nahihirapan na. Lalong magiimplode sila lalo. Siyempre yung mga teachers may problema din yan sa finances nila. It would grossly affect negatively yung quality of teaching nila sa mga bata na ipapasa nalang din nila kasi otherwise mayayari sila dun sa mga magulang na ineexpect niila na magexcel yung mga bata. Na yung mga magulang na yun hirap din sa trabaho. Ipasa mo nalang yan. Ganun siya eh. Actually nangyari siya sa dad ko ngayon. Maraming mga underachievers na nakaassign sa dad ko pinapasa nalang niya kasi isipin mo next year he is dealing with them again? Tapos ang ano tawag dun, mangyayari pa...mayayari siya sa principal o bakit di mo pinasa ito, ibig sabihin ba nito bobo ka magturo? O dadayain nalang ng tatay ko yung numbers. Ganun. Very unfortunate.
