Automatic Noodle

Mostly enjoyed this, the book is getting quite cozy over time.

The bots are interesting, I especially liked Staybehind's ambitions in interior design and how Robles got into the gang.

Below stuff sounds rather negative but isn't as bothersome:

Technical stuff was very 2020, not sure if people will still be identified via their IP address on 2063, but that didn't affect the story. The group chat element was cool.

Am a bit annoyed how this book greatly contemplates the rights of sentient robots and even their perception of "dumb" robots, but repeatedly mentions animals (lambs) exclusively as a source for food without any consideration regarding their life circumstances. This or similar blind spots has been bothering me in several progressive books now.

Also there was a Graeber reference (chapter called "Debt: The first 5000 seconds"). Not that I read that book but still nice to spot. Maybe there's more that I missed.

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.