Drone deliveries cause chaos in hilarious sci-fi novel ‘Rescue Us’

Deliver usChristopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite’s 2018 novel Drone Delivery takes a hilarious look at the future of drone delivery. The plot revolves around a social media activist named Piper Prince who attempts to stop Amazon from taking over her Detroit neighborhood.

“It was written in the tone of the Coen brothers,” Robinson said in the show’s 561st episode. Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “A The Big Lebowski A certain tone. I wanted the world and characters to deviate slightly from reality. So Jeff Bezos and his S-Team are characters in the book, they’re kind of like the boardroom characters in “The Movie.” Hudsk Agent“.

Robinson thought Detroit was the perfect setting for a novel about the conflict between social justice activism and startling technological disruption, because of the city’s rich history and uncertain future. “This is a place where the arsenal of democracy is,” he said. “this the jetsons The future is a future extrapolated from Detroit’s past. Detroit was once the site of America’s greatest technological innovation. “

Robinson worked hard to get the details right, meeting with various members of the Detroit community and conducting extensive research on Bezos. He also got feedback from his wife, writer and activist Amanda Knox. “When he and Gavin were writing the book together, I was reading everything they wrote,” Knox said. “When I told them, I thought, ‘This feels long, this feels overexplained, go a little deeper, this is super funny, this isn’t very funny, I don’t really understand this character’s motivations.’ All these little factors come into play. How do you write a story.”

Readers may expect Deliver us While firmly on the side of the activists, Robinson is careful to portray both sides of the complex debate. “I think one of the things that connects Amanda and me is that we don’t really believe in evil,” he said. “We believe that humans are complex, flawed, and have many identities at the same time. I think that’s true of Bezos and Amazon as well.”

Listen to the full interview with Christopher Robinson and Amanda Knox in Episode 561 of Christopher Robinson and Amanda Knox Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (more than). And check out some of the key points from the discussion below.

Christopher Robinson on his viral proposal:

There is a data crystal from the future that has traveled back in time, and on that data crystal, in the crevices of the smoldering meteorite, is a broken, from the Galactica Encyclopedia about the Knox-Robinson Convergence. Partial entry, this is the future union of Amanda Knox and Christopher Robinson. So this is an encyclopedic article about us and our lives together. When Amanda came and found out about this, I was like, “Oh wait, I was thinking about doing this, but I guess it’s already happened in the future. So I guess I’ll do it now?” She had no idea what was going on. . She thought maybe I was leading her on a scavenger hunt.

Amanda Knox is at The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

This gave me a hard time in prison. Douglas Adams is my first choice.I have The Ultimate Guide to Hitchhiking the Galaxy, which kept me company during a very difficult time. I was locked in a cell with five other guys, one of whom behaved unexpectedly violently, and I spent a lot of time sitting on my bed trying to become invisible. I have earplugs in my ears so I don’t have to hear people screaming I just need some escape and this is the perfect escape for me because it’s light and fun and that’s all I need everything. that moment. This is everything my reality is not.

Christopher Robinson on characterization:

I actually create D&D style character sheets for all the characters in D&D. Deliver us, try to fully imagine who they are. Obviously they don’t have the Silent Movement skill or Lockpicking, but I replaced those with social skills and things people in modern society have. For example, for each character, I know what their “Flirting” skill is, and I know what their “Navigation Awkwardness” score is. I assigned these things somewhat haphazardly. I also asked “What are the five items they carry with them at any given time?” I knew the answer to this question for each character.

Christopher Robinson at maze podcast:

we did an episode maze It’s very interesting to work with Itiel Dror, one of the world’s leading experts on cognitive biases, particularly as it affects forensic science. Because many people think that things like fingerprinting are just a fixed science. The prints either match or they don’t. But in fact, it’s more of an art, and like DNA comparison and analysis, people tend to think of it as just a settled science. Dror has shown through some very clever research designs that these people are extremely susceptible to the kinds of cognitive biases that plague us all, so if they are told irrelevant information such as a suspect’s confession, they will often change Do your own analysis and make your decision.Say, “Oh, actually this print Do match” when previously they thought they didn’t. This is very disturbing.


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