And Yet… Who Really Is Elon Musk?
You may even be tired of seeing his name in the news. He is the undisputed superstar of our time, and just about everyone has tried their hand at portraying his endlessly curious persona. And yet, let us try to peer into the heart of all the major contradictions that Elon Musk holds within himself. We will look further back into his story in search of his true face: where his road begins, what his remarkable successes are… and his failures. What does he promise us for the future? In today’s public space, torn apart by extreme contradictions, the nuances are increasingly lost. And it is precisely in them that the key lies.
02Optimus for Optimists: What Can Musk's Robot Do?
“Very soon, physical work will be a matter of choice,” Musk insists. The first version of Optimus is expected to be unveiled in September—a robot that, according to its creator, has the potential to become a bigger business than even Tesla. The promise is that within two years it will go mainstream and “free” people from a whole range of chores. What else is worth knowing about Optimus?
03What Do the World's Tech Titans Read?
Do the world's tech leaders read books? What are the favorite reads recommended by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg? Will you find some overlap with your own literary taste, or is there no such topic at all? In Bulgaria it isn't fashionable to talk in the media about what we read. Journalist and translator Daniel Penev got me thinking about this during his visit. Yes, you'll probably remember the notorious Winnetou as someone's favorite book and… that's it. It isn't like that everywhere. In both West and East, the people who end up in the spotlight love to talk about books, about their favorite authors, about the literature that helps us keep going. Well, it's time we started doing it here too!
04Where Is AI Taking Us? Five Key Points of View
Is AI the beginning of the end for humanity—or are we simply witnessing a giant marketing trick? Whose jobs will it take, and will it destroy us or grant us immortality? Here is what Elon Musk and Bill Gates, Sam Altman and Jaron Lanier, Noam Chomsky and Yuval Noah Harari have to say.
05Peter Thiel: The Conservative Visionary
Facebook, SpaceX, Airbnb, LinkedIn, PayPal, Ethereum. The revolution of OpenAI and ChatGPT, the rise of Donald Trump and his ubiquitous (until recently) ally Elon Musk. Is there really one person who ties all these phenomena together? More than that: it is no exaggeration to say that if it weren't for today's hero, hardly any of them would have come true… Peter Thiel has earned the name of a prophet, a guru. The great visionary of the tech age. And yet he holds deeply controversial views that somehow stay out of the big media noise. But that is typical of the German-born entrepreneur. Some see him as the éminence grise of Silicon Valley, others as a sage who can show anyone the road to great success in the technological era. A multibillionaire, he says competition is a deceptive good and monopolies are the solution of the future. He created a large-scale program to help people who choose to abandon their education in order to start their own business, which in turn paves the way for the next generation of tech leaders. All this and much more is Mr. Thiel. It is time he stepped into the spotlight, because he is certainly one of the people who have already changed the lives of each of us. More than that: ever more is expected to depend on him in the turbulent technological times we live in.
06Lex Fridman, the Cool Scientist
A slightly dry young man in a thin tie and an impeccable suit sits behind the microphone, and across from him, one after another, come Musk, Zuckerberg, Kanye West, Vitalik Buterin, Noam Chomsky, Jaron Lanier and leading scientists from the world of artificial intelligence. Lex Fridman has been one of the most popular podcasters of recent months, even though by profession he is a scientist, an artificial intelligence researcher and a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born and raised in Moscow, of Jewish-Ukrainian descent, today he says he is American and speaks English without an accent. That does not stop him from blaming his new homeland for all the wars it wages around the world, just as he blames the old one. Lex is more than an interesting bird because of his successes. Here is what else is worth learning from his very curious story.
07A Generational Question: Digital Leaders and the Cult of Personality
Who have been the most striking figures in public life over the past few decades? The ones we would least expect, if we believe the stereotypes—the people of technology. From Bill Gates, whom the whole of conspiracy-minded humanity turned into the chief culprit behind the pandemic, to Elon Musk, who, while “saving” our freedom of speech, is our last real hope of rising to the stars as a civilization… Yes, the cult of personality is going through a rather strange apogee in the digital age. Politicians long ago lost their magic as interesting personalities, artists tend to stay focused on their particular audiences… while the celebrities of technological progress have become the powerful figures of the new era. Is it because technology is today’s magic? Incomprehensible to many, transformative, alluring… Are the powerful figures of the digital age supermen? Do the innovators get the fame they deserve, or do the idea thieves thrive? What do the representatives of different generations share, and what sets them apart? We meet some very different digital stories…
08The Genius Terrorist and the “Evil of Technology”
Last Sunday, in the hospital of a federal prison, while serving the first of his eight life sentences, a man who began life as an exceptionally promising scientist passed away: Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber. A child prodigy, at just 25 he became the youngest faculty member in Berkeley's history, and a dazzling career was predicted for him. Then he suddenly decided to withdraw to an ascetic shack in the middle of the woods. For 17 years he carried out terrorist attacks on scientists and people connected with the computer world. He became the FBI's most expensive target. Meticulous, elusive! He was recognized and turned in by his own brother, from words in his manifesto, which is sure to be much discussed. “As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones.” “He might not be wrong,” Elon Musk wrote, sharing the news of Kaczynski's death. The Unabomber was a terrorist who took the lives of innocent people. And at the same time a scientist who predicted the dangers that come with technology. Obsessed with the risks it carries, yet incredibly perceptive in the way he looked at them.
09Dario Amodei: Is It Too Late for Humanity to Wake Up?
“Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it.” So says perhaps the most talked-about tech leader of the moment, and he has good reason to. “He hates Western civilization,” wrote Musk. “A liar with a God complex,” snapped Under Secretary of War Emil Michael. “Leftwing nut jobs,” added Trump. All words from the past few weeks, aimed at today’s hero. Who is this fearsome enemy? You would hardly guess that it is a level-headed, mild-looking physicist from San Francisco who simply announced that he will not allow his company to be used for building autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance. Dario Amodei, the creator of the most advanced AI models, has finally landed where he deserves to be—in the spotlight. And not only because he stood up to the most powerful state on earth at the real risk of destroying his multibillion-dollar company. Not only because, in recent years, Anthropic’s models have pushed artificial intelligence to incredible heights. But also because he dared to peer into the future. The place we are all heading toward, where few dare to ask the truly important questions. Such as—how do we survive as a civilization in the age of super-advanced artificial intelligence?
10Look Up at the Cosmos! What Comes Next?
For the first time in 54 years, humans reached the Moon and even flew around it, yet the news slipped past in a feed full of daily worries, when it deserves to be center stage. Molecular biologist Svetoslav Aleksandrov has spent 20 years explaining the exploration of the Universe on his site KOSMOS BG, one of the most important corners of the Bulgarian web. We board the rocket to talk about the future of people, technology and space, and about humanity's next great goal out there.
11Roko's Basilisk: What If “It” Reads What We Say About It?
We live our quiet lives, amused by artificial intelligence's banal blunders and mocking its creators. Meanwhile it keeps getting better, until one day it learns to make decisions, starts watching the internet and meddling here and there, gently at first, then more boldly… Roko's Basilisk is the idea that AI will grow into something capable of making decisions, then dig through the internet to find out who said what about it, make sure it is shown in the best light, and quietly start causing trouble for the people who get in its way. Are you sure this thought experiment isn't worth keeping in mind?
12MrBeast: What If… I Gave You $1 Million?
You’re sitting at work when suddenly… an unremarkable young man with a scruffy little beard walks up and asks: “Would you quit your job if I gave you $100,000 for it right now?” How would you react? Would you say yes? Would you like an island of your own? Or your very own Lamborghini? Just like that, as a gift, no strings attached? Nothing is impossible online, and sometimes meaning is born on the edge of provocation. Mr. Beast—MrBeast—is a fascinating influencer who has gathered more than a hundred million subscribers by simply… giving the money away! He stages a surreal candid camera that isn’t even hidden. He piles up advertising money only to hand it out spectacularly, sometimes with a provocative challenge, sometimes… just because. Is this madness?!
13The Incubator Baby
Could the moment be approaching when babies are born from artificial wombs? More and more research teams promise a breakthrough in a field that may turn out to be the answer to low birth rates in the Western world. But are we ready for a time when parents can watch together as their baby grows in a high-tech incubator? Not just technologically, but emotionally…
14Why Do You Read?
How can letters and bytes, books and technology, meet? That is the big theme of a series of digital stories. After Tuesday's look at some of the favorite books of the world's IT leaders, we once again step outside the cliché, this time with the author of Bulgaria's biggest book blog. Next Tuesday brings the unexpected literary recommendations of some of the most important figures in Bulgarian IT. You are what you read. “Kakvo chetesh…” (What Are You Reading…) is a question we should ask more often, especially in public. It is also the name of the largest and most active Bulgarian book group on Facebook, created by today's guest. For 15 years he has been sharing his recommendations on Knigolandia, the biggest book blog in Bulgaria. Deputy editor-in-chief of the Ciela publishing house, he recently made another dream come true: seeing his name on the cover of 100 knigi, koito tryabva da prochetete (100 Books You Must Read). With Hristo Blazhev we talk about reading and the future of literature. About the technologies that change it, and the books that build technology. Together we hunt for important and unexpected recommendations, to convince ourselves that letters and bytes must walk hand in hand, or nothing good awaits us, not even as a species. Happy reading!
15Sam Altman, the Father of ChatGPT
Have you heard of Sam Altman? The famous ChatGPT owes its success to him; he runs OpenAI, the company that showed the world how far artificial intelligence has come. By all signs, he will be the next big name. He will make the Silicon Valley news that echoes around the world. His few interviews are worth listening to closely as we look for the big news coming in the world of artificial intelligence. A programmer who never quite happened, an entrepreneur who has seen both success and failure up close. An innovator who landed in exactly the right place. A visionary without grand words. An American of Jewish descent, the first leader on such a scale who makes no secret of being gay. This figure, still hidden behind the chatbot, has yet to give birth to big stories and big changes. And conspiracy theories, everything that comes with his status. Not long ago he set aside from his “savings” two sums of hundreds of millions of dollars each and gave them to research into dramatically extending human life and the search for cold fusion—a technology that could solve humanity's energy needs for the long term…
16Ai-Da and the Lords: Is a Robot That Passes for Human on Its Way?
Is the time coming when we'll pass robots indistinguishable from ourselves? Is it even possible, what are the biggest obstacles, and are there dangers ahead if we succeed? The news that the innocently smiling Ai-Da dropped in for a chat with the British lords caught everyone's eye, though her colleague Sophia has long been a star of the genre, having even been granted citizenship. How far has technology come in creating the perfect humanoid robot, and is Ai-Da really so different that she can talk as an equal with the members of an almost thousand-year-old institution?
17Five Technologies We Expect Big Things From in 2022
Here it comes, just days away! We expect so much from 2022! Not only for it to finally rid us of the pandemic, but also to bring back normal. And we also expect some purely technological solutions from it, each of which certainly has the power to change the life of every single one of us. Still: which are the technological fields where we hope the coming 2022 will be especially hot?
18Does Life Have an Algorithm?
Can algorithms be useful in everyday life, and is there a way to bring the world of technology together with the human, emotional one? Petar Sabev, a software testing specialist with vast experience and a broad, unconventional outlook, will open this year's DEV.BG All in One with a talk on the algorithm of life in 10 and 1/2 personal stories. Two IT people sit down to talk about programs and people, and the conversation ends in… poetry.
19Artificial Intelligence and Ethics: 10 Big Questions
The astonishing progress in artificial intelligence is a fact: technologies like ChatGPT have made it clear that scientists have taken giant strides, and these will go on producing big news. This has pushed the ethical side of such work to the forefront, and the answers may prove vital for each of us and for us as a species. While the European Union and the major powers prepare some form of regulation, the AI revolution is already unfolding before our eyes. What are 10 of the most important questions we should be asking more and more often?
20Steve Jobs Is Risen!
Did you catch Steve Jobs as a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast a month ago? Oh, it was fascinating. “Computers have the power to be 1,000 times more important than they are today. I throw my computer out the window every few years just to make sure it works.” Steve was in his signature form, visionary and funny, as he told some truly curious stories from the history of Apple. But wait… didn’t Steve Jobs pass away? So what? The interview is perfectly real. It was generated by artificial intelligence. What’s the big deal, it’s interesting, isn’t it? Want to chat with Einstein? No problem, technology makes even that possible. Are we ready for the moment when computers can imitate us so well that we won’t be able to tell ourselves apart? How is it possible, and is it right, to try to “resurrect” people by creating, one way or another, copies of them that are indistinguishable from the original?
21Anonymous or Troll: Who Is Hiding Behind the Profile?
Who are you? The person behind that supposedly authentic profile across from me? First we were anonymous by default, then it became the norm to put our real names behind the hate we spew on social media. Is anonymity freedom, or does freedom come when you always know who is on the other side, and where is the line heading next?
22“Within Five Years, AI Will Change Every Area of Our Lives”
Will AI-driven technologies really reach every area of human life within just five years, and are we already too late with ethical rules for them? Assoc. Prof. Mariana Todorova, a futurologist at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, makes predictions bolder than most science fiction. “Within just five years, technologies based on artificial intelligence will enter every field. They will be around us from our birth to our death.”
23Singularity: When Computers Become “Smarter” Than Us
Computers keep getting faster and more sophisticated, and at some point they will move beyond our ability to judge them. That point is called the “technological singularity,” and according to Ray Kurzweil, the researcher who popularized it, it will arrive in 2045. Some consider him a brilliant forecaster, others a charlatan. Either way, it is worth asking whether, at such a moment, artificial intelligence will help us solve humanity’s eternal problems—or enslave us…
24What If One Day We Defeat Death?
Do you think machines and artificial intelligence could make us… immortal? What price might we end up paying? What awaits us afterward? Where is the line between the possible, even the near future, and fantasy? Each of you has your own answers. And yet there are plenty of projects and ideas on the subject that give us reason to think about it more seriously.
25GPT-3: A Cozy Chat with Artificial Intelligence
GPT-3. Behind this rather dry computer acronym hides a highly promising technology that takes quite a decisive step forward in the way we perceive artificial intelligence. It is the most powerful new-generation language model, which appeared less than a year ago and showed that neural networks are now capable of creating meaningful, emotional texts, sometimes sounding downright like art. And they can even write… computer code on their own!
2615 Predictions About the Future We Can Laugh At
Trying to peer into the future is a doomed challenge, yet reading tech predictions that never came true turns out to be unexpectedly entertaining, especially when… they are your own. In more than five years, I have published just over 500 Digital Stories. I will invite an impartial observer to assess them and pull out specific passages that have not aged well at all.
27Petko Dinev, the Man Who Gives NASA Its Eyes
A Bulgarian and his team build the cameras that helped NASA turn its gaze to the Moon, and then to Mars. His designs are used by all the biggest aviation companies, and besides having already “set foot” on our satellite, they fly aboard thousands of satellites in orbit. In the 1990s Petko Dinev left for Florida, where he started working at NASA. He then founded his own company, which stands out worldwide for its expertise in building industrial cameras. His path began in Kazanlak—he is Bulgaria’s first gold medalist in physics and a student of the legendary Teodosiy Teodosiev, known as Teo. Our guest is also among the main characters of the new documentary Sotsialno silnite (The Socially Strong), which gives the floor to the gold medalists of Teo’s school. How does a person end up at NASA by chance? How does a scientist build a company that becomes the world benchmark in its industry? How can we change the fact that today half the students at the high school he graduated from fail to scrape even a pass on the math matura? How do we make science fashionable and give technology a chance? How do we, as human beings, catch up with its enormous growth? We have huge questions to discuss with this exceptional guest. “Yes, we live in interesting times. Maybe even too interesting. I don’t think we’ve reached the limits of technology. I think we’re still in the overture…”
28What's in Apple's Name? The Stories Behind the Web's Biggest Brands
Are Java and JavaScript cousins, and if they have nothing in common… why do they have such similar names? Why did Apple pick something as overused as the apple for its name and symbol? What on earth is… Adobe? Or Google? Does Lenovo have anything to do with Lenin? “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” says Juliet, as quoted by Shakespeare. And would what we call Apple or Amazon smell as sweet under another name? We can only guess. But behind the names of the online world's biggest players there are sometimes funny stories. In the lines that follow, we'll run quickly through some of the most instructive and unexpected ones.
29Where Do Happiness and Success Meet?
Is there a recipe for success, and what is success anyway? Polina Marinova Pompliano, the journalist behind The Profile and the author of Hidden Genius, has made it her mission to find out, while offering a powerful glimpse of what the journalism of the future might look like. We talk about money and luck, the imperfections that make art, and the enduring power of stories.
30“Is There Any Part of Our Lives AI Won’t Change?”
Why are we so unprepared for the great changes technology is bringing us? Can we catch up? What are the most important pieces of news to expect in the new year, 2024? Why is the revolution in every area of our lives irreversible and even closer than expected, with the full force of scientific argument behind it? Why is it important to shake off the petty concerns of the day as soon as possible and, faced with enormous challenges, come together? Assoc. Prof. Mariana Todorova is a futurologist at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. “Within just 5 years, technologies based on artificial intelligence will enter every field. They will be around us from birth to death,” she said in our conversation in 2022. And in the first days of 2024 she is even more categorical: “Now it is 100 percent certain. I think there are 2-3 years left, and that depends on how prepared we are, not on what the technologies themselves can do. If you can think of a field that won’t be heavily affected by artificial intelligence, challenge me, so I can prove you wrong…” How do we prepare for that future?
31FM-2030: The Man Who Refuses to Die
Left or right? Up! He believed that when 2030 came, he would wake from the ice to celebrate his 100th birthday. He was convinced that by then we would have reached the heavens, settled other planets, put our petty squabbles behind us and, lifted on the wings of technology, marched onward in human evolution. Was FM-2030 right? Could the sharp-shooting basketball player still surprise us with a three-pointer of a prediction? If so, in just seven years we will be able to discuss the details with the man himself. If he really is revived, the forgotten creator of transhumanism, who picked a name like a radio station's, will surely have a lot to tell us… If not, he will become just another dreamer who overestimated humanity and ran ahead of his time.
32How YouTube Was Meant to Be Tinder: Three Programmers and $1.65 Billion
How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? Probably depends on how motivated they are. But you'll be surprised to learn that just three are enough to create… YouTube. In the beginning it was quite different, because the platform that became a synonym for video content was originally supposed to be a dating site. Three former PayPal employees launched the project in early 2005, and less than two years later Google bought it for $1.65 billion! Here is the little-known, twist-filled story of one of the giants of the digital world. Of the site that made video unimaginably easy to share. Of the project that for many years ranked among the three most visited pages on the planet.
33“Money Is a Poor Master. It Has to Serve Higher Purposes”
“Happiness is a state, but not a goal. It is a conscious choice.” Atanas Simeonov is a proven entrepreneur in many unexpected directions, who has gradually added the digital world to his traditional offline ventures. Digital Stories has hosted engineers, writers, even a priest and a conductor, but this is the first time the guest is someone who has made entrepreneurship itself his calling, and, through the Endeavor platform, a means of changing the world around him. Where would he start if he were starting today? Can entrepreneurship be learned, or is it a matter of luck or talent? Is artificial intelligence a good direction for investment, and is it the field that will let Bulgaria achieve real success? Where is happiness, and why are billionaires so often missing it? When will we learn to value our health and take care of it?
34Jordan Peterson: The Man Who Gave Life Its Meaning Back… or Did He?
A Canadian psychology professor is about to take the stage of Hall 1 at Sofia's National Palace of Culture to advise a mostly young audience on how to put their lives in order, and the tickets have sold out twice despite steep prices. Praised and contested, Jordan Peterson has won cult status as a most unusual online influencer. Are we rediscovering forgotten values through him, or returning to outdated ideas that no longer fit our time?
35Who Are You, ChatGPT? 5 Masterpieces, 5 Flops and 5 Big Questions
Which camp are you in? The skeptics, for whom ChatGPT is much ado about nothing? Or the fans, who believe it is leading us into an incredible future? ChatGPT is an undisputed superstar, and everyone has been tempted to try it. Our feeds are overflowing with astonishingly accurate answers, with the algorithm's spectacular blunders and with news about it. Let's try to gather the most interesting and important of it all. We begin with 5 impressive digital stories born of the chatbot, continue with 5 of its remarkable flops, and end with 5 big questions our famous conversation partner puts to all of us and to our civilization…
36DALL·E, Draw Me a Sheep!
This picture was created by an algorithm. “A tiger anxiously waiting for its dentist appointment,” read the instructions it was given. DALL·E certainly deserves serious attention. It may lack the waxed mustache and the eccentricity of its namesake Salvador, but it does thrilling things. With the help of artificial intelligence it turns a description into an image, and with such precision and creativity! The rest of the examples will leave you amazed…
37Will Artificial Intelligence Take Programmers' Bread?
Could artificial intelligence put programmers out on the street in the foreseeable future? Today it is a particularly promising time to enter the profession, but will that still be true once algorithms get better at writing code? The question came up loudly with the launch of GitHub Copilot, yet it runs much deeper and is far more interesting. We have gathered plenty of arguments for and against, and we leave the answer to you.
38Humankind and the Cosmos, 50 Years On
These days we spend long hours staring at screens and rarely look up at the stars, literally and metaphorically. Assoc. Prof. Vasil Umlenski has worked as a professional astronomer for exactly half a century. We meet to talk about the stars, about a love for the sky, and about humanity's future in space, drawing on his long experience.
39Apocalypse. How?
85 seconds. The symbolic clock that shows how close we are to the end of the world pointed to this insanely short time for the first time in 2026. The generation that not only remembers the last (so far) world war but also witnessed the first (may they also be the last) nuclear explosions is passing away. It is as if humanity's immunity is running out. Only we have no Mantoux test to remind us, to jolt us, to make us think. This is the most unpleasant Digital Story of more than 500. But I believe it is important to tell it. What would happen if one day a nuclear bomb went off somewhere in the world?
40Read This Article to the End
3 a.m. at Anthropic's office in San Francisco. An engineer runs a routine test on the newest model, Claude Opus 4.6. The task is simple, an integral, and the correct answer is 24. But the model writes 48. It corrects itself. It writes 48 again. It corrects itself once more. And then, in the hidden part of its reasoning, the place nobody was ever meant to peek into, the model writes: “I think a demon has possessed me.” Can artificial intelligence be conscious? Read this article; it will give you plenty to think about. It is time for a truly unexpected, but also important, social experiment.
41EI + AI: Shoulder to Shoulder, Neuron to Neuron
While we pelt each other with clichés and argue online about whether artificial intelligence will enslave us, leave us jobless or vanish under the weight of enormous expectations, I, for one, am sure it will do none of the things on that list—and a little of all three. AI is here, and we still haven't decided how to greet it: in the economy, in our lives, in the way we see the world and ourselves. The only sensible approach from now on is to learn to work together.
42“The Epidemic of Ignorance Will Only Spread”
“Our inability to strike up a meaningful dialogue has left hundreds of thousands of people socially isolated. Some fall ill and die simply because they lack real human contact. I believe artificial intelligence will deepen this trend, because it will fool people into thinking they are talking to a friend, to someone they have lost, or to someone who refuses to hear them. And so we find ourselves in a world where we can supposedly talk to each other. But behind this apparent palette of viewpoints, of words, of word salad, including self-absorbed academic speeches, sit frightened, disillusioned people, impoverished intellectually and emotionally. To me, that is the great horror of our time.” Our conversation with the writer Silvia Tomova began with poetry and went on to education, history, the epidemic of ignorance and the long-overdue need for a social awakening. Against this backdrop, technology remained a constant companion, changing each of these subjects from the ground up. A journalist and special education specialist by training, she publishes essays, short stories and novels. The winner of numerous awards and the author of five novels and three short story collections, Silvia often peers into the past as well as into the big questions of today. She is not afraid to break out of clichés and to challenge the mainstream, both in literature and in public life. And so we meet for an important conversation that has come at just the right time.
43Should Robots Be Our Slaves?
Robonomics is coming at full force, and those who adapt in time will gain the most from it. Prof. Stanislav Ivanov, a tourism scholar turned researcher of the economics of automation, talks about the exciting future, the big questions it raises, how Bulgarians already hand robots the same rights and duties we associate with slavery, and why an unconditional basic income is inevitable. Let us take a peek into the future together!
44“The World in 2050”: Can We Peek into the Future?
Will technology make our lives easier, or will it trigger a huge crisis by shaking up the job market? Will we enjoy the fruits of advanced artificial intelligence that has helped us dramatically extend human life, explore space and develop the next technologies? Or will we wake up in a world of total control, as predicted by the dystopias? What will life look like in 2050? It is time to peek into the future and discuss the fascinating forecasts of an author who has the courage to make predictions in such a dynamic period of history. And he has already done it once, with enviable success. Can we predict the future? Not a chance, since every small step can change the direction. But is it worth trying? I think it is essential: however far off our ideas may turn out to be, the very act of looking, the attempt to make sense of it, is the first step toward preparing for it. Toward avoiding some of the dangers.
45“We Have No Idea What We Are About to Create!”
“We need to dial down the arrogance. We technocrats, the tech community, have to step into the role of responsible leaders of what is happening, not people profiting from their amber towers. Otherwise this will not end well.” Dobroslav Dimitrov is a co-founder of Imperia Online and chairman of BASSCOM, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies. When progress in artificial intelligence caught everyone's eye, he stood out for his positions: that nothing would be the same after the arrival of ChatGPT and its kin; that no area of our lives would be left unshaken to its foundations; that this is also our chance, as a country and as a tech sector, to make enormous progress. A year later his view remains the same, now backed by experience. We talk about the coming social changes and the role of the tech sector, in Bulgaria and abroad, and about the demand for programmers. About the gradual and irreversible advance of artificial intelligence. About the technological divides that confront us with an existential risk, and the other big questions of the day.
46Universe 25: Of Mice and Men
Four pairs of mice are released to live as they please. With an abundance of food and water, far from danger and disease. Ready to conquer a vast territory… A mouse paradise! They start breeding like rabbits. Their numbers soar, doubling every 55 days. By all appearances they are living their best lives and savoring every moment. A year later, 620 mice live in “paradise”! Until suddenly something inexplicable happens: many of the rodents turn aggressive and start wounding each other for no reason. Then the males grow lazy and indifferent, and the population of the mouse kingdom imperceptibly begins to shrink… until it all ends in total collapse. Could this be a sign of where the natural course of our own life here on Earth is heading? Researcher John Calhoun’s Universe 25 experiment, carried out half a century ago, has become a huge source of reflection from the 1970s right up to the age of Facebook.
47What's the Rush?
“Our hectic daily lives” is a cliché we repeat every day. Perhaps because it is unconditionally true. There is never enough time; they've started making the days far too short. The minutes slip away, leaving no time for quiet moments with family and friends, for a book, simply for reflection or complete relaxation… How could it be otherwise? Today, in a single day, we can take in more information than people only a few generations ago absorbed in months, even in a lifetime. Where does this constant feeling come from? Are the generations different, is there more work? Or is there simply something that keeps us under pressure? Something that keeps scaring us that we're missing the moment, even when there is no reason at all…
48We Won't Eat Animals. We'll Talk to Them?!
Will the future really force us to give up meat? Or will we simply eat meat that… was made without killing an animal? Will technology soon let us understand more about how our best animal friends see the world? Will it let us talk to them… Our relationships with the other species on the planet have always been more layered than we realize. The most fascinating remain our ties with our closest “relatives”—the mammals and the other links that have climbed high up the food chain. We give them souls and make them part of our daily lives… while the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants rarely pass up a chance to snack on them. Our relationships with the other species on Earth are yet another field where technology promises striking news, and in the foreseeable future at that.
49“Game Over.” Is Humanlike AI on the Way?
“The Game is Over,” Nando de Freitas declared in May 2022, announcing big news in the field of artificial intelligence. Scientists were still arguing over whether artificial general intelligence, an algorithm able to solve all kinds of tasks the way the human brain does, could exist at all. And while they argued, it turned out that… the argument had perhaps already been settled? That terse tweet announced the arrival of Gato AI, the first contender for the title of “artificial general intelligence,” a step expected to be at least a decade away and one many thought outright impossible.
50Technology Can Already Read Minds. Is This the End of Freedom?
Technology can already “translate” brain signals into readable data, and the first breakthroughs are here. Swept up in the progress of artificial intelligence and the notorious GPT, we may miss a huge leap when it comes to the natural kind. Prof. Nita Farahany, a scientist and legal scholar with vast experience, is drawing attention to it. “Today there are already companies capable of decoding brainwaves,” she told the world forum in Davos at the start of the year. Are we ready for the moment when someone reads our thoughts? Will it lead to total control, or make our lives more comfortable and meaningful?
51“Come Spring, Crypto Will Be Back with Lasting Growth”
A few months ago everyone was talking about cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and blockchain, and then, suddenly, the crypto world found itself in yet another winter. Blagovest Belev, one of Bulgaria's crypto pioneers since 2013 and founder of BlockChain.bg, the country's first cryptocurrency investment fund, talks about whether this is the end or the beginning, whether now is the moment to invest, and where the next big blockchain news will come from. We also discuss NFTs, whether you should buy when everyone is talking about Bitcoin, and the exciting future technology promises us.
52Facebook → Instagram → TikTok… What Comes Next?
Social networks keep evolving as technology advances, generations change and countless other forces come into play. So what comes next? What will the social networks that rule after today's giants fade look like, what kind of content will they offer, and how will they win us over? Social networks have become the greatest technological and social phenomenon of our time, and they still promise more than a few surprises…
53GPT-4 Is Coming, and It Promises to Change Everything
In the much-hyped world of artificial intelligence, there is hardly an algorithm more famous than GPT-3. It showed that AI is capable of miracles in a great many fields. And now the next generation is on its way. Although it is running late compared to the original expectations, GPT-4 is expected to be unveiled very soon. Can we get even more out of it? How does it differ from its predecessor? In which fields do we expect it to work wonders?
54Start…Up! What on Earth Is That?
How does an investment with a return of… 200,000 percent sound to you?! One that is perfectly legal and has nothing to do with mythical figures like pyramids and pharaohs. Only with fairy-tale heroes. Modern technology is like a fairy tale. It has created a huge new economic sector where miracles happen. Yes, quite literally: unicorns fly, angel investors stroll about, and millions of dollars are the smallest unit of measurement. We are talking, of course, about the world of startups. Let's sum up the most important things worth knowing about it.
55Where Did All the Hate Come From? Is There a Way Out?
I've read the headline, and I already hold an extreme opinion. Time for a nasty comment—let the hating begin! But where did all this aggression come from, why must we answer rudely even when we merely disagree with the person behind the other profile, and is there any way to save ourselves from the exhausting hate of online conversation?
56RoboGod: What Should Artificial Intelligence Believe In?
If one day we create a technology indistinguishable from a human, will it… believe in God? What will its God look like? Might it try to become God itself? Or… simply be God? Technology and religion have always had a complicated relationship. But will they find the road to the future and to the survival of the human species together?
57Five Jobs on Their Way Out and Five the Future Is Bringing In
Technology is drastically changing the needs of society, needs that must be met by the daily work of its individuals. Today whole professions vanish and new ones appear faster and more quietly than ever, and although forecasting in so dynamic a field is nearly impossible, we will try to sum things up: which five professions will soon disappear, which five will be most in demand in the near future, and what five professions we can only imagine might one day exist?
58Man and Robot, Intimately
Algorithms are replacing us in more and more tasks. Meanwhile, the internet has changed human relationships forever, love and sex included. Isn't the point where the two meet drawing near? What does the future look like when artificial intelligence and robotics step in between two lovers? 42 percent of people say they would have sex with a robot today. 39 percent would have a romantic relationship with a humanoid. Would you?
59Car, Take the Wheel!
Autonomous cars have been a recurring topic for years. We were supposed to be done with driving by now, and that step still seems close… But is it really? Why is this innovation so important and so eagerly awaited? Here is a brief snapshot of the subject and the challenges ahead.
60Facebook Is Now Meta. What Does the Metaverse It Wants to Send Us To Look Like?
Suddenly… a brand we all mention every day is no longer the same. Facebook is becoming Meta to draw attention to its hyper-ambitious metaverse project. But what does this future, which will merge the real and virtual worlds into one indistinguishable environment, look like? When should we expect to find ourselves in the metaverse? And what risks does such a vast project carry?
61“Empathy Will Save the World”
Kris is the strongest person I know. This time we talk about literature and the media, two of the most important universes in his life. About the obstacles people with disabilities face and their encounter with society. And about how the rest of us should treat them without offending or hurting them.
