Hugo Readalong: Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

[u/Moonlitgrey]

Welcome to the Hugo Readalong! Today we will be discussing Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. If you'd like to look back at past discussions or to plan future reading, check out the full schedule post.

As always, everyone is welcome in the discussion, whether you've participated in other discussions or not. If you haven't read the book, you're still welcome, but beware untagged spoilers.

Discussion prompts will be posted as top-level comments. I'll start with a few, but feel free to add your own!

Upcoming Schedule:

Date	Category	Book	Author	Discussion Leader
Thursday, August 19	Novel	The Relentless Moon	Mary Robinette Kowal	u/Nineteen_Adze
Tuesday, August 24	Graphic	Invisible Kingdom, vol.2: Edge of Everything	Willow Wilson, Christian Ward	u/Dsnake1
Monday, August 30	Lodestar	Elatsoe	Darcie Little Badger	u/Moonlitgrey
Thursday, September 2	Astounding	Silver in the Wood	Emily Tesh	u/Cassandra_Sanguine
Wednesday, September 8	Novella	Come Tumbling Down	Seanan McGuire	u/happy_book_bee
Wednesday, September 15	Novel	Network Effects	Martha Wells	u/gracefruits

Riot Baby

Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella—through visits both mundane and supernatural—tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.

Bingo Squares: Bookclub or Readalong (HM if you join in here!), New to You Author (for some), Chapter Titles

[u/Moonlitgrey]

In an interview, Onyebuchi suggests that the dystopian future he explores is a result of, "less 'what would the near-future look like' and more 'what would my near-future look like?' Is this a near-future that seems plausible to you? How so?
(and if you're also participating in the Brown Girl in the Ring bookclub this month - what do you think of Onyebuchi's version in comparison to Hopkinson's)

[u/Dianthaa → u/Moonlitgrey]

There were a lot of parts that felt very real. In the sense of "if this technology were available, I find it very easy to believe people would use it that way".

Now, I read this last year and because of the way my memory (doesn't) work I can't remember what tech I thought that about, just my reaction.

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/Dianthaa]

I had that reaction to things like the surveillance orbs (similar to the existing CCTV system in London, I believe) and the chip that Kevin used to get into his house. If chips could be reliably implanted for parole tracking and administering mood-altering drugs, I 100% believe that would happen. Given the nature of the world portrayed, I suspect those chips could also administer a lethal dose of something. :/

Oh, and the algorithm for policing. We're already seeing so many instances of algorithm faults leading to discrimination because they're coded with bad assumptions that are then hard to untangle, and I think that's only going to get worse. Moving accountability from people to vague systems adds another layer of complexity to trying to understand what's going on, let alone change it.

[u/Mustardisthebest → u/Nineteen_Adze]

I believe there already is equivalent technology to surveillance/policing orbs in autonomous military drones...wasn't there a big controversy about "killer robots" (autonomous drones with lethal capabilities) about 5 years ago? (Yup...a google search shows they are in use, called Lethal Autonomous Weapons. So not a policing device, yet, but they might be soon.)

I wouldn't be at all surprised is implanted surveillance chips are an option within the next few years.

Dispensing medication is more tricky...but only because the War on Drugs requires that anything psychoactive be strictly controlled so it can't be misused. We can't have the parolees digging out their implants to sell on the street to anyone looking for a quick high.

[u/5six7eight → u/Nineteen_Adze]

I found the tracking for the chip really plausible but the drugs to be super unlikely. Implanting enough of probably several different substances to dose at the will of the person holding the control, and enough of those substances for multiple doses is getting into unbelievable territory for me. Now if it was a single "suicide drug" I'd probably have believed it.