Short answers, pulled from the story.
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word can also mean the products of such efforts, including tangible tools like utensils or machines and intangible ones such as software.
The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory. Around 2 million years ago, hominids learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble to form a sharp hand axe.
Fire allowed early humans to cook food, increasing its digestibility and nutrient value. The cooking hypothesis proposes this promoted an increase in hominid brain size, and hearths dated to 790 thousand years ago may have intensified socialization and contributed to the emergence of language.
Archaeologists estimate the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus, and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE, with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE.
Philosophy of technology is a branch of philosophy that studies the practice of designing and creating artifacts and the nature of the things so created. It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries and has grown considerably since the 1970s.
The World Economic Forum's "The Future of Jobs Report 2020" predicted AI would replace 85 million jobs worldwide and create 97 million new jobs by 2025. A study by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu found that from 1990 to 2007 in the U.S., one robot per 1,000 workers cut the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2% and lowered wages by 0.42%.
Yes, the use of basic technology is a feature of non-human animal species including chimpanzees, dolphins, and crows. West African chimpanzees use stone hammers and anvils to crack nuts, as do capuchin monkeys of Boa Vista, Brazil, and beaver dams reshape river habitats.