Robot Sex Review

RAY WU (M.ARCH I, ’19)

_Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications. _Edited by John Danaher and Neil McArthur

Sitting on Omar Shapira’s desk, the red, uppercase title is hard to ignore.

The title is accompanied by a discreet image of an android clad in glossy white with chromic details and articulations, much like those depicted in I, Robot. Yet the book is written, with academic rigor, in anticipation of the False Marias of Metropolis, wives of The Stepford Wives, Prises of Blade Runner, Gigolo Joes and Gigolo Janes of A.I., Samanthas of Her, Kyokos of Ex Machina, Maeve Millays of Westworld, and Jois of Blade Runner 2049. These collective fantasies already exists, albeit in very crude and unsophisticated manifestations, in the form of hydronic silicone dolls and virtual assistants in our pockets.

“Sex bots are coming.”  It is the premise of the book, and very much prophetic.

For a taste, read Chapter 11 by Michael Hauskeller—”Automatic Sweethearts for Transhumanists.”

Available as an online book through Yale Library or The MIT Press, $40.