Automatic Noodle

by Annalee Newitz

Pain sensors were entirely a UX for humans, offering what manufacturers called “courtesy sensation.” The courtesy, of course, was for people who wanted to hurt their bots.

when bots come to life, humans will go back fully to the cruelties of slavery

Something about seeing her own skull gave her an angry burst of hope.

not conforming to Western beauty standards anymore

Independence was only for some people. It felt as though humans had granted bots civil rights for the sole purpose of taking them away again.

Nobody ever sat in the driver’s seat of a sentient car; it felt creepy, like climbing into the lap of a stranger.

It reminded Staybehind of when he had to carry all the equipment for his unit, and then he decided it was nothing like that. This burden was consensual.

“It sounds like a nationalist thing? The president—I mean, the one in Yankee Land—he’s always talking about authenticity as this thing we lost.”

authentic suggests cultural appropriation and white nationalism

Humans had a ritual of putting things on, implanting things, to show who they were inside. She was on the opposite path, a simpler one, showing who she was on the inside by taking off the outer layers. Bots understood that. But humans couldn’t imagine nakedness as truth. They needed adornment.

non comforming to beauty standards

Poor Hands had never known war and wasn’t prepared to face the worst of human nature.

Wow, you’re carrying that around? That’s a big file to be saving in such a lossless format in fast memory. It’s got to be taking up a lot of space.

insightful way of viewing memories

You want to protect us from the review bombers. I never want to make that mistake again—letting humans decide how valuable we are.

Now that he’d shared it with a friend, he didn’t feel the urge to remember it all the time.