The Digital Stories project turns two today!
Which of the 219 pieces published over that time were read the most? Topics well worth not missing, that much is certain…
My heartfelt thanks to every one of:
- More than 6,800 followers of Digital Stories on Facebook;
- More than 3,700 followers on LinkedIn;
- More than 600 people who subscribed to the mailing list;
- More than 190,000 readers who visited the site!
Over these two years the project:
- Twice won the Technology and Innovation category of the most hotly contested journalism competition, the Web Report awards, and once the competition organized by the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies.
- Ran regular rubrics in Manager magazine and on the business news of bTV, a leading Bulgarian TV channel. It was featured on bTV, BNT 1 and BNT 2 of Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Darik Radio, BTA (the Bulgarian News Agency), Dir.bg, the magazines InGlobo and Osem, and many other media;
- Most important of all! It drew attention to a range of topics that grow more important and pressing with every passing day.
Thank you! Every read and every share matters!
So here they are: the 10 most-read Digital Stories, two years on.
1. “How Is It Spelled?” “Idontknow”
You think topics like definite articles and spelling can't get anyone excited? Well, quite the opposite!
How do we write in the digital world?
Which mistakes are searched for most often?
Is it time to drop the needless rule about the full definite article, the ending Bulgarian grammar demands only when a masculine noun is the subject?
Why is it important to take care of language, of the words we load with messages?
How Is It Spelled? is a cult website for every Bulgarian online who cares about writing correctly. We meet its creator, Pavlina Varbanova. A PhD in the Bulgarian language, she not only knows how things are spelled but shares that knowledge with everyone, entirely as a volunteer.
More on the topic:
- “A world is coming in which our thinking is riddled with gaping holes” – journalist Rayko Baychev is our guest
- “Let us wake from the dream that we are somebody's victims” – an interview with the poet Ivan Landzhev
- “We are simply not wise…” – the writer Anton Donchev
2. What Do Google and Facebook Know About You? And Why Does It Matter?
“If something is free, you are the merchandise.” “You are not the customer of the internet giants, you are their product,” says Jaron Lanier, a researcher who knows very well what hides behind the facade of today's information society.
How did the data of billions of users become one of the most valuable commodities of our time?
What do the biggest players “know” about each of us?
Why is it so crucial to always keep in the back of our minds the traces we leave behind?
More on the topic:
- Who Are You, ChatGPT? 5 Masterpieces, 5 Failures and 5 Big Questions
- The Digital Prophet Who Came to Hate the Internet
- “Computers can manipulate our feelings beautifully”
3. 5 Professions on Their Way Out and 5 Arriving with the Future
Technology is drastically changing the needs of society, needs that have to be met by the everyday work of its members. Today, faster and more imperceptibly than ever, professions vanish and new ones appear. With every caveat that forecasting in such a dynamic field is close to impossible, we will try to sum things up.
Which five professions will soon disappear?
Which five will be in the highest demand in the near future?
What do 5 professions look like that we could only imagine might one day exist?
More on the topic:
- “My future stretched out its hand…”
- Ai-Da and the Lords. Is a Robot Indistinguishable from a Human on Its Way?
- Luddites, Long May They Live
4. 2022, Seen 60 Years Earlier. What Did the Sci-Fi Writers Get Right?
- Science fiction writers on both sides of the Iron Curtain make their predictions about what the world will look like in 2022. What did they get right, and where did they go wrong?
In 1962 the first issue of Kosmos, the cult Bulgarian popular-science magazine, came out, and it carried a piece called “A Window to the Future,” which gathered the predictions of “Soviet science fiction writers” about what was coming decades later.
A little later, Isaac Asimov, the father of modern science fiction, also collected his predictions in a remarkable essay.
Which expectations turned out to be the most surprising?
More on the topic:
- “Programs, programs and more programs! That's what we should infect the young generation with…”
- Robots vs. Silodei. The Story of the First Bulgarian Science Fiction Writer
- The Flying Little Prince
5. “When Everyone Starts Talking About Bitcoin, Don't Buy!”
Blockchain technologies remain among the most important and pressing topics, and they still leave huge questions open. Which ones? Here are a few examples.
What does anyone who decides to invest in cryptocurrencies need to know?
What does the future of decentralized finance look like?
What are the technological risks?
What will happen once the very last bitcoin has been mined?
Valentin Mihov is the man you need if you want an up-to-date view of blockchain technologies.
More on the topic:
- Who Are You, Satoshi Nakamoto?
- “Come spring, crypto returns with lasting growth”
- NFT. Buying… Nothing
6. Rumen the Cat: The Internetz Exsists to Giv Peeple Akses to Moar Kittehs
“The onli thing i cud do was eat, sleep and go to the toilit. with thees skillz i had no uther choise of profeshun exept to becum an enfluenser.”
This beloved interviewee of Digital Stories rarely gives interviews. We can safely say that if it weren't for our digital present, he wouldn't have given a single one. And that would have been a loss for the reader, because his thoughts are sincere, colorful and delivered in a rather peculiar way.
In an unforgettable piece, we welcome a true star and a meaningful influencer. Rumen the Cat!
More on the topic:
- Slavs of All Lands, Smile!
- “Laugh, ’cause the Universe ain't got no end, but life sure does”
- The Meme, the Next Step in Evolution
7. “Sometimes I Will Come…” How Did AI Illustrate 10 Classic Poems?
What kind of illustrations can artificial intelligence draw for the works of Hristo Botev, Dimcho Debelyanov, Boris Hristov and Georgi Gospodinov, giants of Bulgarian literature from the 19th century to today?
How will image-generating algorithms interpret classic lines from Bulgarian literature?
This type of AI is an unexpected hit, a stunning example of what technology is already capable of. It has given rise to a new skill: describing images correctly so that the algorithm generates exactly what is expected. And what happens when we “feed” it the stanzas of proven masters?
More on the topic:
8. “Within 5 Years, AI Will Change Every Area of Our Lives”
“In the space of just 5 years, technologies based on artificial intelligence will enter every field. They will be all around us from birth to death.”
Will AI-driven technologies really penetrate every human domain so soon? What will our lives look like then?
Are we too late in trying to introduce ethical rules for this kind of development? Is the age of artificial general intelligence upon us?
Assoc. Prof. Mariana Todorova is a futurologist who works at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
The near technological future sounds more and more like science fiction come true…
More on the topic:
- “The problem is that we became godlike in our own heads”
- “In the world of AI, everyone can find something exciting”
- Steve Jobs Is Risen!
9. Grigori Perelman. The Last Mad Genius
The mathematician Grigori Perelman became a global star after solving one of the “Millennium Prize Problems,” which matter for the technological progress of all humankind.
Then… he turned down the $1 million prize that was his due!
The story of the undisputed mathematical genius of our time is not only fascinating but also quite instructive…
More on the topic:
10. The Fake News Hunter
The algorithm can tell that a news story is fake… before it has even been written. It is called Tanbih, it comes from Qatar, and it promises to save us from disinformation.
We meet its creator, Prof. Preslav Nakov, a world-class specialist in machine learning.
And then: we meet Prof. Nakov again to talk about the next big questions.
Which are the hottest directions from which to expect news in the world of artificial intelligence, and in text processing in particular? Where does the enthusiasm outrun reality?
Are we close to an artificial general intelligence that can resemble and even surpass humans? Is such a thing possible at all?
Should this frighten us, or, on the contrary, fill us with enthusiasm for the future?
