Soh Kam Yung reviewed Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
On robots deciding to open a noodle restaurant and serve good food
3 stars
A lovely, but too short, story of four robots who want to run a proper restaurant serving biang biang noodles in a future San Francisco, where California has declared independence from the rest of the US. They have to navigate a smart contract to gain ownership of the restaurant, learn how to make noodles, and survive a review bombing before it is over.
The story starts with the robots (with near human intelligence) waking up in a deserted restaurant to discover that they may soon be repossessed as the restaurant's franchise owner has closed. Considering their options, they decide to go their own way, and reopen the restaurant with food they want to serve to pay off their loans. But they have to navigate (and obfuscate) their way into ownership, for robots still cannot own property, and figure out how to serve food.
As first, it works, and …
A lovely, but too short, story of four robots who want to run a proper restaurant serving biang biang noodles in a future San Francisco, where California has declared independence from the rest of the US. They have to navigate a smart contract to gain ownership of the restaurant, learn how to make noodles, and survive a review bombing before it is over.
The story starts with the robots (with near human intelligence) waking up in a deserted restaurant to discover that they may soon be repossessed as the restaurant's franchise owner has closed. Considering their options, they decide to go their own way, and reopen the restaurant with food they want to serve to pay off their loans. But they have to navigate (and obfuscate) their way into ownership, for robots still cannot own property, and figure out how to serve food.
As first, it works, and their get high ratings. But then, trolls begin to review bomb them, lowering their ratings (and income). Investigating, they discover a group of robot haters and have to figure out how to fight back.
The story is set in a world where California is independent of the rest of the US, but not without a war that ended not long ago. Some of the robots in the restaurant fought in the war, and are recovering from the conflict. But while California may now have more freedoms, robot freedom isn't one of them, and there are still parts of the population that are wary of robots, especially those with near human intelligence.
The story ends with the restaurant on the way to success, but leaves dangling threads in the story, like how the robots ultimate navigate bureaucracy to really own the restaurant, and how the robots and humans will ultimately live together (or not). These might require another story (or two) to settle.
