How did digital photography first begin?

In 2000, the magazine Popular Photography at the turn of the century published an article introducing Zhu Gang, a photography trainee in the Institute of Imaging of Central University for Nationalities. It is pointed out that Zhu Gang's personalized image is also true and false, that is, the materials are absolutely true and the composition is absolutely illusory. The author says that Zhu Gang combines traditional cameras with digital cameras, and finally digitally synthesizes them: scanning, transmission and image processing. The computer is a darkroom, and the human brain is added with a computer, which is fast, convenient and clean, which makes him "find back the happiness of photography in the past".