That 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 inspire

That 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.