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Vernor Vinge described a similar rocket-based delivery system in his short story "Fast Times at Fairmont High", which eventually became the novel Rainbows End.
by ngoldbaum 13y ago
Vernor Vinge described a similar rocket-based delivery system in his short story "Fast Times at Fairmont High", which eventually became the novel Rainbows End. Crazy to see this actually happening in the real world.
- Flenser 13y agoThat was the first thing that came to my mind. It would be interesting to know if that was what inspired amazon or if there was some earlier source that inspired both. Edit: Fast Times at Fairmont High was a reworking of an earlier short story Synthetic Serendipity, which is available online: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/synthetic-serendipity http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/synthetic-serend... > "But don't worry about us." Fred looked upward, somehow prayerful and smug at the same time. "'FedEx will provide, and just in time.'" > "Jerry was looking upward, at the FedEx shipment falling toward his outstretched hands." Vinge also has them doing things other than delivery: > maintenance UAVs flitted like bats around the canyons, popping out nodes here and there.
- markvdb 13y agoYou really want to see Jacques Tati's "Jour de fête". It's the 14th of July, French national holiday, late 1940s. There is the traditional village fair and party. The village mailman gets inspired by a combination of alcohol consumption and a stunt movie about speedy modern American mail delivery. An absolutely hilarious prequel to this drone delivery thing, and a must see for people even remotely working on this project or anything similar.