If you like reading books, we have something for you. Katarzyna Zawodnik, one of the guides at the exhibition "Into the darkness", has written a novel entitled. “Save the Changes”, published by JanKa Publishing in 2022.
What is the book about?
The thing takes place in the future, 100 years from now. After World War III, the earth's surface is contaminated and people have to live in underground cities. Water has to be saved, scientists are working on re-breeding plants. Humans decide to hand over power to an artificial intelligence because they hope this will make management more rational.
One of the decisions of the new government is to restrict human reproduction, so permission is needed to have a child, and ideally people are bred in hatcheries with strict quality control, and then grow up in special institutions, shaping citizens with desirable attitudes and qualities.
Heroes
Olivia is just such a citizen. She seems to get things right, leads an orderly life, has a flat, a job. Yet she is unable to form a satisfying relationship. She knows how to function in the state system, but not in relationships.
After many unsuccessful attempts to arrange a life with someone, she takes out a loan and buys Caesar - the perfect partner, a humanoid robot designed especially for her. Things must be going well now, because Caesar has only one goal in life - to make Olivia happy.
The other protagonist, Olga, remembers the old days when people still functioned in families and robots were only subservient. But times have changed and Olga, although she tries very hard to live as analogue a life as she can, has to face the fact that technology will also enter her world, including the world of feelings. Because can you refuse to help a robot that is suffering? As long as things are suffering...
How did a blind person write a book?
In technical terms, a computer with a speaking programme was sufficient. Today such a programme is installed by default on all computers. The keyboard is ordinary, you just have to remember the layout of the keys. The computer can read what you type as well as what is displayed.
What about descriptions?
A novel isn't just about plot, it's also about the appearance of places, people and things, gestures, faces, colours. It helped that Kasia reads a lot herself, so she suggested descriptions she had just found in other books. Some information, however, she had to look up. What colour is jasmine and what colour is a hornet? Which gesture expresses joy and which hesitation?
Here it is worth adding that the facial expressions of blind people are spontaneous and usually natural, whereas they are unable to control their faces to produce a particular expression. They don’t gesture, or even if they do, it’s only vaguely and unnaturally so the non-verbal part of the message is something unknown to them.
The publisher only found out a few weeks before the book came out that the author was blind. As Kasia says, sometimes it is nice to be seen only through the prism of one's effects and not one's disability. Additionally, she wanted to try out these descriptions on her first reader, the editor.
Where to buy the book?
Katarzyna Zawodnik's book entitled. “Save the Changes” can be purchased at Bonito, online bookstores in paperback and as an e-book, and is also available on Legimi subscription as an e-book and audiobook.
If you would like to find out more about the book, we encourage you to check out https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/5002678/zapisz-zmiany#.
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