I am honestly okay with Science Fiction that tends more to Space Flavoured Fantasy...
But there's one thing I think is very important. If you write Science Fiction, you need to at least know the difference between a Solar System and Galaxy.
Why have I read two novels from people who didn't just today?
Had a ramble about Territorial Publishing Gatekeepers over on Birdsite. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1485996990571986950.html
personal issues
Well this is stressful. Over on the hellbird site, an apparently former friend is subtweeting me while liking my tweets and appearing to be trying to bait me into responding. This is because I asked them if the stepper motor on their 3D printer was going to be an easy part to replace if it needed that, and they yelled at me for 'manspalining', then refused to accept an apology and said I was a coward for deleting the comments. So now I have had to go from unfollowing them, to outright blocking them. And it's making me feel like shit.
What does anti-bias training have to do with audio engineering?
What does anti-bias training have to do with audio engineering?
One time, a film maker called me up because she wanted to use a hubub of voices as a music statement but it wasn't coming off. I listened to the audio and knew just the thing! A resonant 70s style low pass filter would keep the timbres but jettison the words. I ran her vocal recording through my synthesiser and proudly returned with the improved audio.
She listened. "This does sound a lot better," she said, "but you've completely prioritised the men's voices and removed the women."
Cis normativity aside, she was right. My process had made altos much softer and pretty much nuked sopranos. I had to go back and organise each audio sample by vocal range and run the filter multiple times. It was time consuming, but the result was much nicer.
She noticed this because she knew what it was to be silenced according to vocal range - something that has gradually faded from my mind as its no longer a regular occurrence for me. If I'd been working with a fellow tenor or a bass, we might never have noticed. The audio would have been worse and the while project subtly effected by unconscious bias.
Instead, when the film was released, a reviewer praised the sound in that section.
Unconscious bias isn't just unfair, it makes *your* work worse.
I used to write.