Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships

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Should I create a "robot sex" shelf for this? Seriously, the book was pretty dull, but I think I knew it was going to be. The history of sex toys part was quite interesting, which is really all that gets this book two stars. It could have made a four-star essay. People will look at you like you are insane, so make sure to hold the cover out so people can see what you are reading. If you can get away with yelling things like " Should I create a "robot sex" shelf for this?

If you can get away with yelling things like "fuck yeah, I'd totally do that robot" and "wow, look at that robot's testicles" in your local library, I recommend that you do it. Although there really aren't any robot testicles pictured in the book, nobody will know that. Unless they pick it up off the desk when you leave, which almost surely somebody will.

I didn't yell anything because I like spending time at the Central library, and do not want the librarians to think of me as "that guy with a robot fetish" instead of "that guy that is here a lot and needs a haircut. Feb 22, Terry Tsurugi rated it did not like it.

Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships

This book seemed to be written by a very smart, precocious, year old boy with Asperger's. So imagine my surprise when I saw the author's photo in the back jacket flap. Jun 16, M0rningstar rated it it was ok Shelves: So imagine my surprise and delight when I happened upon this book. The author does a good enough job of gathering relevant research findings although his presentation is not always clear , but the conclusions he draws from them are laughably simplistic.

For example, he asserts that robots will be readily accepted, even preferred, candidates for arrang Robots and androids have enthralled me ever since I was a little kid C-3PO and R2-D2 were the only parts of Star Wars that I gave a toss about. For example, he asserts that robots will be readily accepted, even preferred, candidates for arranged marriages because they can be customized in terms of physical and personality traits to the liking of the parents and prospective spouse.

The book spends a lot of ink arguing for the acceptance of robots as our companions and, eventually, as our lovers, repeatedly citing supporting research featuring animals and computers. While this is an important point to make, it could have been presented far more succinctly, thus leaving room for more discussion of the potential effects of such acceptance. This far more important and interesting topic, alas, is largely confined to the short concluding chapter. Most problematic is the book's lack of internal coherence.

Longueurs expound on the many characteristics you can customize to your heart's content when ordering your robot from the store--everything from eye colour and muscular build to sociability and mood.

After purchase, if you ever decide to, let's say, have multiple partners, you can even dial down the "jealously" setting to ensure smooth sailing. A few pages later, the author is enthusiastically recommending marriage with your robot and comparing the eventual acceptance of such marriages with the evolution of married women's rights and same-sex rights. He doesn't seem to understand that such comparisons are inane because marriage between a man and a woman or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman is between two persons. A robot whose very personality and memories one has absolute and constant control over not to mention property rights cannot be considered its own person.

Needless to say, deeper issues like consent and competence are not even mentioned except for a single-line footnote , let alone addressed. The author also operates on a rather antiquated model of gender roles, a particularly unforgivable shortcoming when one is supposedly writing about futuristic love and sex. Perhaps because of this, there's scant discussion of same-sex relationships or alternative sexualities.

It's frustrating to see such a thought-provoking topic treated so thoughtlessly. Nov 15, Dea marked it as abandoned. I didn't get THAT far into the book, only about 60 pages or so. I dropped it because it was not what i thought it would be, and i thought it was boring. Perhaps i should have read further but I would have liked to see the negative aspect of becoming attached to robots and other inanimate objects or perhaps a discussion into whether or not having sex with a robot constitutes rape.

If a robot can feel aka respond emotionally according to the programing as the author suggests then would the sex act or any act be truly of their own choice. Like i said i am not afraid of people becoming emotional attached or having sex, i am more concerned with the status of the "inanimate object" in our society.

Apr 04, Adam Hyla rated it it was ok. By , robots will be moving about as with as much animal grace as you or I. But the rush of new technologies pulls along sexual innovations in their wake. Cybersex has supplanted the telephone as a means of long-distance lovers to get their freak on. With a computer, a modem, and a haptic interface, the discipline of teledildonics produced the first transcontinental orgasm in And some things stay the same: Couple the long history of love machines from the to the RealDoll for boys and girls with our abiding fondness for the sex trade et tu, Elliot Spitzer?

The iPod, incredibly plain-looking but infinitely accessorized, its files more than the sum of their gigabytes, will be pushed aside as the highest technological statement of self. We have a ways to go in making lifelike skin or plausible conversationalists. For the first one, trust that pornographers around the world are experimenting with ever more pliant silicone. For the second, Levy closes the gulf between human and man-made personality by extending to emotions the so-called Turing thesis: If a machine appears to us to be intelligent, we should assume that it is, in fact, intelligent.

At the ultimate test of lovers robots will fail always: They will not be unpredictable in any way other than is dictated by their programming and disclosed upon their sale. A cyborg lover is just another drydock. Technological innovation once heralded the end of work. Sexbots forecast the end of love. Dec 17, Elise rated it liked it.

I wrote the below see quoted text when I was halfway through the book. I have to say, my opinion of the book improved with the second half.

Levy abandoned a lot of his writing foibles that annoyed me so, and his history of the sex toy industry was awesome. The topic is fascinating, the facts in Levy's book are fascinating, his writing style is insufferable. I actually don I wrote the below see quoted text when I was halfway through the book. I actually don't find him boring, far from it, rather I find his writing style annoyingly repetitive and simplistic. Must we have a footnote every few pages re-iterating that when Levy uses the word "computers" he means the hardware and the software?

Not only is that what readers are likely to assume anyway, but we're also not idiots. If you say it once, we get it!!! Another annoyance for me are the constant footnotes referencing some idea or concept to an idea or concept either a few pages back that you JUST READ or a few pages forward that you're about to read. First of all, if I just read it, I don't need a footnote reminding me of the concept. My memory is longer than a goldfish's thank you very much.

Second of all, if your book is well written, then the concepts you're introducing will follow logically and build on each other, and there won't be any need to use footnotes to link ideas that follow consecutively. The general concept Levy addresses - that in the future people will be falling in love with and marrying robots - is still very interesting. With some significant editing Levy - I'm happy to oblige if a second edition of the book is issued this book could be excellent.

Jun 07, Matthew Antosh rated it it was ok.

Sometime in the not so distant future, the movement for android civil rights and robosexual rights will be the most important movement of it's time. Levy is a technologist, not a humanist or ethicist. His vision of sexuality is very mechanic, where attraction can be summed up with a mathematical equations and that the reason people will have sex with robots is because of what they produce Sometime in the not so distant future, the movement for android civil rights and robosexual rights will be the most important movement of it's time.

His vision of sexuality is very mechanic, where attraction can be summed up with a mathematical equations and that the reason people will have sex with robots is because of what they produce orgasms. In a world where robots are virtually indistinguishable from other humans, how we fall in love and have sex with robots would be, generally, how we fall in love and have sex with regular people.

See a Problem?

But Levys vision is one where we go out and buy our robotic sexual partners, one where they would be able to scan our brains to ensure that we loved them, that would be perfectly designed for our specific sexual desires. The problem is that humans are not looking for the perfect human being to be our partners.

All humans are flawed and it's those flaws that make our partners special and loveable. There is a frightening aspect if you consider robots to be indistinguishable from humans, Levys vision in my opinion would be a form of sexual slavery. Levys manbots and fembots are little more then Thrillhammers with emotions. The second half of the book, the history and future technology of sexual aids is very interesting, but in general Levys illogical leaps in the first section don't work and the book as a whole isn't worth it.

Mar 23, mark rated it really liked it Recommends it for: See the newest novels, discuss with other book lovers, buy romance books online. Get a free e-book from Book perk. We'd love you to buy this book, and hope you find this page convenient in locating a place of purchase. The broadest selection of online bookstores. The links will take you to the Web site's homepage. From there you can navigate to the title you are interested in. Interest-specific online venues will often provide a book buying opportunity.

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A leading expert in artificial intelligence, David Levy argues that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. He shows how automata have evolved and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and virtual pets, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots.

Levy also examines how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Shocking, eye-opening, provocative, and utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots is compelling reading for anyone with an open mind.

Along the way, Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and to virtual pets such as the Tamagotchi, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots.

He also examines the needs we seek to fulfill through sexual relationships, tracking the development of life-sized dolls, machines, and other sexual devices, and demonstrating how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Shocking but utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots provides insights that are surprisingly relevant to our everyday interactions with technology.

This is science brought to life, and Levy makes a compelling and titillating case that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. Anyone reading the book with an open mind will find a wealth of fascinating material on this important new direction of intimate relationships, a direction that, before long, will be regarded as perfectly normal.

Levy, a renowned expert on Artificial Intelligence AI and author of Robots Unlimited, gives us an awe-inspiring and frightening peek into the future, to imagine a society where humans have deep Couldn't find the book I was looking for at the library, but saw this on a nearby shelf.

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