SPRING 2025 FINALE: ONE YEAR OF SYNTHESIZED SUNSETS

Today marks exactly one year since the first post on Synthesized Sunsets. To celebrate the occasion, Gordon and Kevin take a look back at how it all began. We also discuss Kevin’s recent article, “Shunrō Oshikawa, ChatGPT, and the Birth of the "Pre-Translator"”, as well as its follow-up post and the ways in which AI translation might (or might not) pave the way for a utopian multilingual Internet future. It’s been a great season at Synthesized Sunsets, and we thank you all for reading! We’ll see you next season for the Hugo Awards!!TIMESTAMPS00:00:12 – Episode Start00:00:37 – Inspiration for Synthesized Sunsets00:03:57 – How did Gordon react to being asked to co-host Synthesized Sunsets?00:08:06 – Synthesized Sunsets was not originally super sci-fi focused00:10:47 – Has Synthesized Sunsets become audience-captured?00:14:39 – Favorite “core memories” of Synthesized Sunsets and the first post on Synthesized Sunsets: 'The Wandering Inn' Allows Us to Properly Fear the Sea00:19:08 – Kevin did not expect to get particularly into visual art00:21:37 – Synthesized Sunsets is less popular but more influential at this stage than Gordon + Kevin expected00:25:02 – Has Synthesized Sunsets become audience captured? (cont.)00:27:53 – Does Synthesized Sunsets plan to experiment with the form of fiction?00:29:29 – Why haven't Gordon and Kevin written more fiction?00:31:43 – Hoping for more audience engagement / possible trivia events in the future00:33:52 – Discussion of “Shunrō Oshikawa, ChatGPT, and the Birth of the "Pre-Translator"” begins00:39:21 – Somewhat fair negative feedback of the article00:40:35 – Attempting translation is a very novel experience00:47:39 – Kevin would have done some things differently in retrospect00:49:40 – How gatekeep-y is translation and is this good?00:51:02 – Will monolingual translation ever become widespread?00:52:21 – Kevin speculates about our glorious multilingual Internet future00:56:07 – Conclusion and final recommendations00:57:45 – Thank you to everyone who has supported Synthesized Sunsets! We are very grateful for your support!! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe