What could martenitsas—the red-and-white tasseled amulets Bulgarians give one another on March 1 to welcome spring—possibly have in common with technology and artificial intelligence?
Absolutely nothing.
Quite the opposite: the red-and-white charms are, to a large extent, a wonderful symbolic antipode of the digital world. They carry hope, metaphor, optimism and a healthy dose of superstition. All things we have yet to teach machines. And to remind ourselves of, too, because we live in harsher times than we thought.
Mathemartenitsas
The Digital Stories project comes into the world on the very day of the martenitsa.
Because nothing is lovelier than the coming of spring.
Because the white of purity and the red of blood are universal symbols. And every first of March we embody them in our own way in these simple trinkets.
We didn't surrender them to the commercial world, we didn't surrender them to religious denial; they keep marching on, even though we don't truly know their origin, hidden behind beautiful legends.
Every spring they help us awaken our own strength and carry on. To give them to as many friends as we usually lack the strength to give even a smile.
Snowdrop Robot
Shut in at home, cut off from loved ones and from the most basic social contact, our smiles hidden behind masks. More than ever, we need an awakening.
Not in the New Age sense or in lofty messages, but in the purely human one. We need the strength of spring, new ideas. And the wish to wake up with the first warm rays of sunshine, whether like the snowdrop or like the little robot that is learning to resemble us.
The long winter's time is up. And we will wake up in a world where more and more stories have already happened, or are happening, online. Where the digital is an inseparable part of who we are.
Are we ready for it? Exactly as ready as the snowdrop is to peek out from under the snow that climate change has already eaten.
Fiery and Rebellious
This spring, information exists only online. That is what the first Digital Story I have to tell you here is about. Isn't it time we took a fresh look at how we receive the information that is so vital today? Didn't the good old newspapers have their advantages too? Is it a good thing that everyone is a journalist now? Aren't we becoming ever easier prey for manipulation of every kind?
We ignore the subjects of the digital present and future. We have no time to think about them, and yet they flood over us. That isn't necessarily bad, but it carries risks. We are already welcoming digital people! Is the moment near when we won't need human stars at all—singers or footballers? After all, the virtual world can draw us even more interesting, market-oriented “personalities,” tailored to what we are looking for, to what would delight and entertain us…
Stressed and crushed to the point of pain by the challenges of the past year, we close ourselves off, push each other away, set one another at each other's throats on Facebook. We wait to be let back into the cafés and bars, to see our friends, and then—we find it hard to start talking again. But only for the first minute. After that the conversation flows like a river let loose. Friendship is yet another thing worth teaching artificial intelligence. Stories like this one, about friends who, ever since distant 1982, have recreated a symbolic photograph once every five years, remind us of it.
We live in interesting times—and to my mind that isn't necessarily the curse good old Confucius mentioned. The digital world gives birth to dramatic, funny and sad, powerful stories. Perhaps we have somewhat forgotten how to appreciate them, having bitten into the comfortable, flat point of view of social media.
Meanwhile, spring is coming.
In every sense, sooner or later.
