Look 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.
02From The Floor to Quizza: Put Your Knowledge to the Test!
Let me introduce Quizza! A website we built as volunteers. Where you can challenge yourself by taking any of our many permanent quizzes on all sorts of topics. Where you can face off in a weekly contest against some of the heroes you know from online and offline competitions! And, last but not least, where you can discover causes that each of us stands behind with our own name! I have no doubt that last night you watched the first episode of The Floor, the new and innovative game show on NOVA, one of Bulgaria's main TV channels. If you didn't, it's not too late at all—there are still 12 whole episodes to come. It is a reason to celebrate in itself that a game about knowledge, not scandal, has made it to prime time, and I believe it will be the hit of the season. Rumor (and ChatGPT) has it that I'm in it too. But we're here for a slightly different digital story, one closely tied to the game. It comes to show us that when we are together, we are capable of miracles. That if people brought together supposedly to compete and beat one another can reach out a hand for something bigger, then our society can do it too. Do you like to provoke and test your knowledge? Are you looking for meaningful causes to help, knowing for sure that your help goes to the right place and supports something important and lasting? If your answer is “yes” to even one of these questions, then this Digital Story is just for you!
03“Without a Little Madness, It Just Won't Work”
In this life you shouldn't, and can't, only take. If you don't give—in return or entirely for free—you have lived in vain, as the popular hit song goes. Even if we know it, it is worth reminding ourselves often. I hope this Digital Story reaches more people. I believe that if more people recognize its lessons, we are all capable of reclaiming the conversation and helping our country flourish. Of fulfilling the great dream of the protagonist and narrator here—that our children will WANT to stay in Bulgaria. Tenko Nikolov is not only one of Bulgaria's most successful tech entrepreneurs. He is a visionary who believes in the power of a close-knit team, shared values and a little “healthy” madness.
04Don't Miss the Bus! What Open Data Can Do for a City
Every autumn, Sofia starts choking on the traffic of hundreds of thousands of cars it was never built for, and we all ask whether it really has to be this way. Google Maps helps us plan a route, but it rarely knows when the next bus will actually come, or whether it will be packed to the doors. Open data could help the city breathe again, as the fascinating story of my fellow programmers at Codexio shows.
05Who's Speaking—a Human or an Algorithm?
It's no news that AI generates images and texts that (we checked!) cannot be told apart from those made by humans. Video still seems to lag behind, but… Can you imagine a voice indistinguishable from a human one reading the news, or calling you on the phone with no chance of you telling the difference—not a cloned voice, but an entirely artificial one, in pure Bulgarian, a language almost impossible for non-native speakers? It's time for a resonant Digital Story, and a challenge awaits you afterward…
06Ivan Popov, the Man Who Caught the Future
“A person’s worldview depends substantially on their information metabolism.” “Man is a bot to man. And bot is man to bot. But what kind of man is the bot? And what kind of bot is man?” Ivan Popov was a master of syllogisms, and much more. He was a writer who left us a small number of works from the beginning of the new millennium. Although he published only one novel in his lifetime, and in a small print run at that, his name remains mythical. Because he presented the future in an inimitable way. He caught the trends, gathered the sparks of knowledge that paint the colorful picture of technology’s tomorrow. He managed to bring science and literature together, so that they could search, shoulder to shoulder, for the human and the superhuman, and catch the trends. Ivan Popov’s messages are powerful, stirring and thought-provoking today, more than ever. My heartfelt thanks to Nikolay Genov, who drew my attention to this remarkable writer, forecaster, journalist and scientist. I believe it is important for his words and his name to reach more people. I will be glad of any support—stories from people who knew him, help in making his work better known, or simply good ideas. Write to me!
07Vasil Anastasov: Virtual Reality Meets the Mutual Teaching Method
He is 21, and he has already helped more than 200 children take their first steps in a professional field that could grow into a successful career. Today Vasil Anastasov has taken up another cause: using modern technology to make Bulgarian museums more attractive and appealing to young people. Roll up your sleeves, an adventure awaits!
08Fear of Technology = A Nation Left Behind
Elitsa Stoilova says digital literacy should become a national goal if we want to move forward. “Its absence leads to fear of technology = conservatism in adopting and using it = our nation falling behind in many directions. What is the future of illiterate nations?” she wrote to me. Our guest has traveled a colorful road: 11 years in journalism, then tourism, where she became… a hotel manager in the Mariana Islands in the Pacific, before finally dropping anchor in the IT world. She realized that much of the work in tourism is repetitive and can be done by algorithms, so she created the chatbot platform UMNI, long before another chatbot made the world notice how far artificial intelligence has come. But how is it that she is so optimistic about the road ahead? Our guest believes that if we play our cards right, AI is leading us to a wonderful future. What does playing our cards right depend on? And why is it sometimes worth leaving one of the most heavenly corners of the planet to chase your dreams? We look for important and unexpected answers in the lines that follow.
09“Reading Is the Glue Between Parents and Children”
“A great love story!” says a teenage girl… about Under the Yoke?! How can that be, when Vazov’s classic is supposedly incomprehensible to today’s young people and we have to “translate” it for them… Val Stoeva is the ideal guest for a conversation about children and books and the love of reading. She is the creator of the invaluable platform Detski Knigi.com (Children’s Books.com) and the foundation of the same name. Why is reading more important than ever for children in the technological world we live in? How do we choose reading for them from a sea of titles and light the spark? Which books will a child like, given their age and interests?
10Why 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!
11“It’s Crystal Clear That AI Is the Future”
The day before I met Ilia Valchanov, the news broke officially that his startup Team-GPT had secured $4.5 million in funding, a record for Bulgaria! Today’s guest leads a platform that helps businesses around the world use the power of large language models while keeping their data safe and confidential. It is far from his first impressive achievement: for years Ilia has been building hugely successful online courses in data science and artificial intelligence, and he personally has more than 1,400,000 students on Udemy! He owes his remarkable success to a thorough approach, a great deal of reading and learning, courage and unconventional decisions. That is why we are meeting: to talk about the next big news coming out of the world of artificial intelligence. About how the technology will transform every area of business, but also about the risks it creates. About the important causes tied to the progress of AI, and the skills it will never manage to develop.
12PC Mania, Gamers Workshop… The Legends Return!
You love computers, and to be able to use them… you buy magazines!? Isn't that strange? Isn't everything online? It is today, but this digital story was born in a computer past that feels both recent and very far away. A kid dreams of a magazine with James Bond on the cover, gives up his pocket money to buy it, and loses it to the “big guys” a few hours later. Decades on, Project Lazarus lets anyone browse the complete collection of the legendary Bulgarian computer magazines of the 1990s and early 2000s. Which one did you love?
13Radio-TV-Gramophone: 5 Unexpected Bulgarian Technologies
Did you know that the mains voltage in Bulgaria wasn’t always 220 volts? Or that a fascinating Bulgarian computer game from the early ’80s turned into… a prophecy with its very title? What did the first Bulgarian electric scooters look like? And could the “hipsters of the ’60s” who rode them also get themselves a radio-TV-gramophone… provided they could carry 120 kilograms on their shoulder? Once again we set off through the colorful history of Bulgarian technology with the most precise and captivating guide. For 15 years now, Anton Orush has been gathering a sea of information (and exhibits) about its past and present. His incredible life, worthy of a novel, was one of the first digital stories. So here we go, boarding the time machine for 5 stops back in history: 5 fascinating stories from the past of technology in our lands.
14The Wanderer Who Toppled a Government (Without Meaning To)
Can we change the world around us—our country, the world—simply by writing online about what moves us? We can, and here is the strongest proof I have ever come across. Meet Chergar, the legendary anonymous blogger whose satirical mystifications became part of Bulgaria's digital folklore, and one of whose texts ended up, entirely against his intentions, bringing down the Bulgarian government.
15“We Bulgarians Have the Mindset to Be Successful Entrepreneurs”
Boris Paskalev is an entrepreneur with impressive experience in the startup world. He recently became a strategic advisor to INSAIT, Sofia's Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology, one more guarantee that we can expect ever more remarkable news from there. A former youth national basketball player, he went on to study at MIT, then helped found DeepCode, a pioneering AI coding startup acquired by Snyk in 2020. We talk about his path through Silicon Valley, the AI revolution, the coming revolution in robotics, and how Bulgaria can have more successful startups.
16“All the Stories Have Been Told. But How Will the Words Tremble?”
A director, rapper and podcaster meets a journalist, programmer and writer. A conversation with the roles of host and guest swapped… and although there are only two of us (plus, of course, one more wonderful podcaster), it turned out that these combinations of three callings apiece hold some interesting nuances. The podcast 2&200 is a classic of the genre and shows why this form of conversation is turning eyes and ears back toward shared words. We continue the conversation for admirers of Kusturica and/or Dostoevsky and/or Marx with Orlin Milchev, once known as MC ATILA, a man able to pierce with words and questions. He is also a director, and last year saw the release of his debut feature film, The Art of Falling. A guest with an unexpected view of the big issues of today, interwoven with technology. The “Scourge of God” has long ceased to be a single hero; it is what we have created online. But what is looming ahead?
17The Little Bottle Cap and the Avalanche of Good Deeds
Twenty-two modern incubators and five ambulances, specially equipped to help premature babies. That is how big today's guest is. Thanks to him, premature babies in many regions of the country have a far better chance of surviving and avoiding complications.
18“You Do Science? You’ll End Up Stupid and Poor!”
No, you won’t! Technology and science are the way forward—for every young person who wants to achieve something, and for all of us as a nation, even as a civilization. Last year, posts from the site Bulgarian Science were viewed 29 million times on social media. For 17 years, Petar Teodosiev has poured his soul into the cause, still convinced we can turn the stereotype around and light the spark of curiosity in the next generation. But how?
19Iva Gumnishka: Using AI to Give People Hope
Iva Gumnishka came back to Bulgaria from an Ivy League university with a dream: to make the most high-tech industry of all help the people who need it most, and to make that model sustainable. Her company, Humans in the loop, has spent six years giving work to refugees, people in deep poverty and people living in war zones, from Afghanistan to Venezuela, as they annotate the data that teaches artificial intelligence to see. What does it feel like to give a livelihood to 1,000 people scattered around the world?
20The Selfies That Will Save Lives
A long-underestimated technology, finally come of age, could save many lives. The Bulgarian startup Kelvin Health uses thermal cameras and artificial intelligence to catch tiny changes in body temperature that point to illness long before we feel it.
