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The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

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Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#171

Post by prepend »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #158
prepend wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But, we should ask if you would want to hang out with the voice actor at a party. I think the question is really “Will I be able to enjoy great books I otherwise would not have experienced?” For me, it’s not that these are superior or equivalent books to parents reading to their kid or voice actors; it’s whether I’ll listen to a book for free that I wouldn’t be able to afford $10-30.

Plus lots of books don’t have audiobooks. I’ve a few sitting on my to read list for years on end just cuz there’s no audio. Being able to make one myself with AI would be awesome.

This precisely.

Also, I’ve bought ebooks and want to listen to the book but don’t want to pay again for the voice acting. So I’ve bought a license to the IP and would like to listen rather than read.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#172

Post by zelphirkalt »

WalterBright wrote: post #150
jzb wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget the exact quote but the thing I've seen making the rounds sums it up pretty well: Computers were supposed to do the work so people could make art and write poetry. Now the computers are making art and writing poetry and I still have to have a job. In another life I'd love to do voice over work. (I even have a face for radio!) But, instead, technology is being used to avoid even having humans do that type of…

> what the fuck do we do with all these jobless people who've been replaced? Around 1800, 93% of labor in America worked on farms. Today we have jobs that were unimaginable in 1800. > "how can we replace people and save money?" and not "how can people have better lives and work less?" Those two are actually the same thing.

In my opinion we seriously need to think about providing people with new perspectives, as we replace their jobs / automate them away. We need a social system, that encourages learning at every step in people's lives. A nation should have an interest in getting people back into meaningful jobs and should act according to that interest. The coal mining industry worker, who loses their job, because we no longer want to mine coal? How can we get that person a good new job? How can we make it so that that person gets the necessary qualifications?

We are still (I think in most countries around the world and at the very least where I live.) throwing away enormous amount of human potential.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#173

Post by nonrandomstring »

cxr wrote: post #110
jzb wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget the exact quote but the thing I've seen making the rounds sums it up pretty well: Computers were supposed to do the work so people could make art and write poetry. Now the computers are making art and writing poetry and I still have to have a job. In another life I'd love to do voice over work. (I even have a face for radio!) But, instead, technology is being used to avoid even having humans do that type of…

As software developers, we know what getting workers to have better lives while working less looks like. There's some sleight of hand at play, though, in the employer/employee relationship (favoring the employer). > Every advance in AI is "how can we replace people and save money?" and not "how can people have better lives and work less?" It's not just AI, but technology generally. And it's because when it comes to m…

> their most immediate concern is whether their employees are exposed to sufficient toil.

Protestant work ethic, twisted and disfigured through late capitalism has become a sadistic and wholly disgusting human trait. To impose moral, intellectual and physical labour on others, not of necessity, nor to create value, but to serve a system rooted in guilt and a craving for validation in the eyes of others is about as un-Christian as can be.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#174

Post by c0pium »

lolinder wrote: post #147
c0pium wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure have, it’s hellacious. I don’t give a fuck about who that baby was, why would I? Relations who my parents only vaguely remember going somewhere boring that I would never go, or someone’s 12th trip to the same lake, is a great use for Facebook. Most people are crazy boring, if I care I can always ask.

To quote a GP comment: > But most tech advancements I think have been harmful to society in the last 30 years or so. I thought this was overly cynical until I read your comment. Now I'm not so sure. Has our attention span really become so shot that just being with family has become a chore, and we'd rather our parents just post their life stories into the void that is Facebook?

Sounds like I struck a nerve. Next time you’re telling someone a detailed story about what route you took to dinner, stop and ask yourself if it’s actually that interesting.

Seriously though, technology has nothing to do with this. People have been bored out of their mind by other people for centuries, the only difference is there’s no excuse for having nothing interesting to say now.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#175

Post by klondike_klive »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #148

A good human reader doesn't read as much as he dramatises the book. This conveys ideas and feelings more than what is just written. He takes liberties doing that which makes the narration interesting. I don't know if that's possible in the same way with an AI voice. I read to my kids often and try to dramatise the books in a similar way. The libre vox project which is contributer driven audio books is, I think, a mor…

When I'm reading to my kid I can respond to the situation too.

We're currently going through the Chronicles of Narnia, and are finishing up the second book (The Magician's Nephew). I'll do different voices for each character (I'm a professional voice actor). But we've noticed that close to bedtime it can have an enlivening effect so that it keeps him awake, so I'll just read the voices in my normal narrator voice.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#176

Post by artur_makly »

civilitty wrote: post #105
Towaway69 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will probably all fall apart when there is no one left to purchase this stuff, no job, no money, no purchasing power. Once purchasing power has evaporated, then and only then will the system change. Alternatively AI will also replace the jobless.

We'll invent a third World War long before that happens - to thin the herd and remind everyone using rationing and austerity about how great consumerism is, while creating plenty of jobs rebuilding the industrialized world.

it's simple and it works.. every time. /s

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#177

Post by OfSanguineFire »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #132
c0pium wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, you’re talking about main character syndrome. Showing pictures to someone is one of the cruelest things you can do; you’re probably boring and a terrible storyteller (most people are) but they’re going to feel obligated to not tell you that. It’s always amazing to me that people almost universally hate other people’s slideshows, and then don’t have the self awareness to realize that they do the exact same thing.

>Showing pictures to someone is one of the cruelest things you can do So you are saying that friends, family and significant others better no share old photos and memories with you? Because that is one of the cruelest things to do?

They can share those old photos and memories on social media, where their friends, families, and significant others can choose whether to look or ignore it.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#178

Post by sundarurfriend »

satvikpendem wrote: post #141
mvdtnz wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the thing that has surprised everyone in this revolution is that the opposite has happened. Musk wasted billions trying to automate vehicle manufacturing while AI is threatening to take the jobs of novelists and graphic designers.

It hasn't been a surprise to anyone in the field. Turns out it's much easier to read digital content in the form of bits then to read real world data. Hardware is harder than software.

These kinds of responses are so easy to write after the fact. Show us a quote from ten years ago then, please, that says that creative writing and art will be among the first things to be automated at a mass scale. Since this

> hasn't been a surprise to anyone in the field

apparently, it should be pretty easy to find such a quote.

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#179

Post by cxr »

WalterBright wrote: post #153
cxr wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As software developers, we know what getting workers to have better lives while working less looks like. There's some sleight of hand at play, though, in the employer/employee relationship (favoring the employer). > Every advance in AI is "how can we replace people and save money?" and not "how can people have better lives and work less?" It's not just AI, but technology generally. And it's because when it comes to m…

> favoring the employer If you've ever been an employer, you'd be disabused of that quickly.

Disabused of what?

Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection

#180

Post by reddit_clone »

RichEO wrote: post #163
WalterBright wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealth in a free market is not concentrated, it is created. It does not "flow", either, as free trades are an exchange of value, not a flow of value. Wealth disparity comes from people creating different amounts of value.

On what do you base these statements?

Some Iyn Rand novel would be my guess.
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