Ancestors

Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-03 at 22:16

I've got extra stock!

These hopeful climate fiction stories would make great holiday gifts, esp for folks who are struggling with the dark times ahead.

I'm selling them at cost ($10 incl shipping, US ONLY), while supplies last. I'd love for them to be affordable heart-warming gifts for folks you care about (or maybe for YOU). 🌞 📖

https://susankayequinn.com/signed-paperbacks-at-cost

[#]solarpunk #climatefiction #climatechange #climatecrisis #scifi #books @bookstadon

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Toot

Written by Molly 🏳️‍⚧️ on 2024-12-04 at 13:04

@susankayequinn

Ordered one, thank you!

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Descendants

Written by Molly 🏳️‍⚧️ on 2024-12-17 at 14:58

@susankayequinn

I received it! Looking forward to reading over break, thank you!

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 15:00

@MollyBeth Yay! I hope you enjoy it 💚

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Written by Amici Is Me 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇳🇴 on 2024-12-17 at 15:13

@MollyBeth @susankayequinn

this toot made me look at Susan's book catalogue again, and wow, I've been following Susan for years now, but never realized she had so many books that'd been done into audiobooks!

as a guy big on audiobooks (~200 audiobooks in collection), that makes me happy! Now I have some indie #solarpunk novellas/novels I recommend ppl with reading difficulties!

Almost nothing of the solarpunk I've seen has made it into audio format yet, so I'd mostly given up looking tbh

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 15:16

@amici I'm glad you checked it out! I need to do a better job of letting people know about the audiobook catalog!

Folks that need (or just enjoy) audio should also be aware that @grist's Imagine 2200 #solarpunk stories are in audio as well:

https://grist.org/imagine2200/

@MollyBeth

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Written by Amici Is Me 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇳🇴 on 2024-12-17 at 15:24

@susankayequinn

it appears that Grist does it using machine learning though, which, besides regular ML issues, often has trouble with pronouncing names, or dealing with any irregularities/creativity or diverse/minority use of language

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 15:26

@amici WHAT? That's new then... the audio on the older Imagine 2200 stories (including mine) are definitely human... Let me look into this...

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Written by Amici Is Me 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇳🇴 on 2024-12-17 at 15:30

@susankayequinn

I clicked through the 2024 collection, and all the ones I checked were ADAURIS.AI

But on their "Best of: audio stories" on their front page, it was all soundcloud with different voices, and it sounded human (ascented, none-flat tone, etc)

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 15:35

@amici Ugh, you're right. They used AI on the 2024 collection of stores. So disappointing.

I'm sure it was just a money-saving move, but it's really disappointing regardless. It looks like my year of stories (2022) was the last one that used human narration. Now I'm going to have to have a discussion with them about the Metamorphosis collection, which I'd been encouraging them to do audio 🙄

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 15:31

@amici ok, I see the AI being used on the regular Grist non-fiction journalism (which I hate — AI is destructive, based on theft, etc, you won't find anyone more anti-AI than I am). That seems to be a relatively new thing.

I just spot checked the audio collection that Seven Sisters is in and it looks like they're still human narrators — I've even suggested to Grist that they pull those human narrated stories into an audiobook for Metamorphosis. So I don't think it's impacted the stories (yet).

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Written by Amici Is Me 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇳🇴 on 2024-12-17 at 15:35

@susankayequinn

The stories are also impacted. The 2024 collection at least. See for instance this: https://grist.org/climate-fiction/imagine2200-to-labor-for-the-hive/

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Written by Fully Automated! Solarpunk RPG on 2024-12-17 at 22:02

@amici @susankayequinn

Hmm. Thanks for catching that.

I'm of two minds. On one hand, using these tools for increasing accessibility of art is usually one of the applications I'm most likely to see as a net positive, but knowing that they previously employed human narrators is pretty much textbook automation-driven job loss for folks in creative fields.

I'd have to really know who reaps the savings to know how I feel about this. Is the Grist investor owned? If someone could show that this savings allowed them to publish more fiction or journalism, I'd be understanding. But if it's a profitable enterprise and this is just to improve margins, that's pretty gross.

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 22:16

@FullyAutomatedRPG I dug into it (emailed Grist), so I can tell you exactly: Imagine 2200 is funded by donors & they first pulled the funding for narration & now have pulled funding for the entire contest. As it stands, no more Imagine 2200 because the donor class doesn't value these stories, much less human-narration.

I really hope they find alt funding because it's a tremendous loss not to have these stories. (full disclosure: I send $ to Grist every month, but I'm not a big donor)

@amici

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Written by Fully Automated! Solarpunk RPG on 2024-12-17 at 22:31

@susankayequinn @amici

That's a shame, but also sadly not that surprising. As you've said before, when your ideas inspire change, they're dangerous. Perhaps this is just a badge that these artists were far more successful than the donors were comfortable with.

One way or another, these ideas are going to get out. If you get a chance to talk to some of the folks who edit and produce it, I think a lot of folks would be interested in a crowdfunded spinoff!

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 23:33

@FullyAutomatedRPG @amici

It also reminds me of a constant refrain in the non-profit org world (of which Grist is part) that funding models are broken. You can't rely on the elites to fund threats to the status quo (yet we do).

Plus there's an ethos online (esp wrt arts) that everything should be "free"--yet we have to (should) pay people for their labor. My labor isn't free (although I often donate it). I'm not gonna ask narrators to work for free.

Those things are inherently in conflict.

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Written by Susan Kaye Quinn 🌱(she/her) on 2024-12-17 at 23:36

@FullyAutomatedRPG @amici

I also didn't get a vote on the Grist decision to use AI voice but if I had, I would have said I don't understand the accessibility argument. Text-to-speech has been around a lot time and just gets better (often off stolen narrator labor) and that's available regardless of whether you include it right in your website.

Either I do human narration or do I no audio, knowing that Text-to-speech is always there: https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/14m4op5/a_good_free_text_to_speech_solution_for_ebooks/

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