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SEX ROBOT Matters Slavery, the Prostituted, and the Rights of Machines
Abstract
Slavery is the coercive and controlled use of another human. Contrary to the belief that the practice ended in the 1800s, slavery still persists today. There are many different terms used to describe slavery including, debt bondage (a person's pledge of labor for a debt or obligation), sale and exploitation of children, and human trafficking (forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation). Sexual exploitation is the most commonly identified form of human trafficking (79%) followed by forced labor (18%) [52]. To be held in slavery is to be held in miserable conditions and have a form of power over you that denies you a life of freedom. For most people in Europe and North America slavery is not a visible problem, and one could think slavery is somehow less important, and less violent today than in the past. This is not the case. The United Nations estimates that almost 21 million people are currently victims of slaver y [25]. A staggering $150billion in profits is generated from forced labor and 168 million girls and boys are in child labor [25]. Central to our understanding of slavery and its related forms is that a person is recast, often without bodily integrity, as property that can be bought, sold, and accessed by others with more power, status, and money.
... With respect to (sex) dolls and robots, the heated, controversial debate with two extreme positions (good vs. bad) is comparable but empirical data are almost completely absent. Notwithstanding the lack of scientific studies, one camp argues that sexuality with dolls has negative consequences for (intimate) relationships with humans (see for example, Richardson, 2016). The expected negative effects of sex doll use are similar to the negative effects attributed to pornography use, namely the increase of risky sexual behavior, the promotion of sexual violence and aggression, the deterioration of social relationships as well as the further objectification of women and the resulting dehumanization of women (and children; Dewitte & Reisman, 2021;Flood, 2007Flood, , 2009Richardson, 2016;Seabrook et al., 2019;Tydén & Rogala, 2004 as cited in Spišák, 2020;Seabrook et al., 2019;Willis et al., 2022). ...
... Notwithstanding the lack of scientific studies, one camp argues that sexuality with dolls has negative consequences for (intimate) relationships with humans (see for example, Richardson, 2016). The expected negative effects of sex doll use are similar to the negative effects attributed to pornography use, namely the increase of risky sexual behavior, the promotion of sexual violence and aggression, the deterioration of social relationships as well as the further objectification of women and the resulting dehumanization of women (and children; Dewitte & Reisman, 2021;Flood, 2007Flood, , 2009Richardson, 2016;Seabrook et al., 2019;Tydén & Rogala, 2004 as cited in Spišák, 2020;Seabrook et al., 2019;Willis et al., 2022). Critics fear that the behavior toward the always-available, willing, submissive female dolls who cannot consent and the lack of a requirement for such consent will be internalized and then transferred to interpersonal interactions. ...
... Critics fear that the behavior toward the always-available, willing, submissive female dolls who cannot consent and the lack of a requirement for such consent will be internalized and then transferred to interpersonal interactions. The consequences would be a decoupling of sexuality and intimacy as well as the danger of social isolation and stigmatization of those who use a doll (Danaher, 2019;Richardson, 2016, as cited in Dewitte & Reisman, 2021Richardson, 2015). For individuals with paraphilic sexual interests, according to the negative effects hypothesis, deviant or illicit sexual behavior is expected to be encouraged and trained on the dolls (Mackenzie, 2014, as cited in Döring, 2017. ...
It is a growing concern that the use of sex dolls and robots could affect human sexuality. This concern has led to a ban of childlike sex dolls in several countries and a call to ban adult-like sex dolls and robots by some scholars. However, empirical data is largely missing supporting this claim. Here, we present retrospective self-reported quantitative and qualitative data of a large sample (N = 224, 90.5% men, Mean age = 31 years, SD = 14.2) of teleiophilic (i.e., sexual orientation toward adults) and pedo-hebephilic participants. Using an online survey, we found that users reported an overall reduction in sexuality-related behaviors (e.g., porn consumption or visiting of sex workers) in response to doll ownership. Users in a relationship with a human were less affected by doll use, while those in a relationship with a doll reported greater effects. Interestingly, pedo-hebephilic users reported a greater reduction of sexual compulsivity compared to teleiophilic participants following doll use. Additionally, pedo-hebephilic participants more often reported acting out of illegal sexual fantasies with their dolls and a loss of interest in (sexual) intimacy with real children through doll use in the qualitative data. These self-reported data challenge the view that doll use is dangerously affecting human sexuality and instead suggest that dolls may be used as a sexual outlet for potentially dangerous and illegal (sexual) fantasies.
... Sex doll ownership has been cited as having potentially dangerous consequences. For example, sociologists, legal scholars, and philosophers have argued that doll owners are likely to hold negative attitudes towards and objectify women, and be at an increased risk of sexual aggression (Cox-George & Bewley, 2018;Danaher, 2017;Eskens, 2017;Ferguson, 2014;Puig, 2017;Ray, 2016;Richardson, 2016;Sharkey et al., 2017). As such, there may be a link (at least in theoretical terms) between sex doll ownership and the upholding of patriarchal or misogynistic social norms. ...
... In Valverde's (2012) study of doll owners, 37% of participants reported negative emotions, such as guilt, shame, and embarrassment, perhaps showing how perceived social stigma can become internalized. Such perceptions of social stigma appear to be relatively accurate, evidenced by formal campaigns against the ownership of sex dolls and robots (see Prostasia Foundation, 2021;Richardson, 2016). The extent to which doll owners actually harbor aggressive views or experience psychological or interpersonal deficits has not been explored from a phenomenological perspective (though for psychometric evidence of a lack of psychological disturbance or sexual risk among doll owners, see Harper et al., 2023). ...
... The inference that his father thinks that he is 'just fucking this rubber woman' implies the belief that people might view his ownership of a doll as a form of sexual deviance. Such a perception may not be unique to lay social attitudes, with a range of academic literature viewing doll ownership through this lens (e.g., Danaher, 2019;Eskens, 2017;Richardson, 2016). The perception of repulsion causes emotional despair for Participant 3. Describing his father's lack of engagement with him about his doll ownership as 'painful' suggests that the participant feels misunderstood due to the view that his usage is purely sexual. ...
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon in recent years, with legal scholars and legislators calling for increased regulation and criminalization of such articles. However, our knowledge of sex doll ownership is lacking, and the peer-reviewed literature is especially sparse on detailed phenomenological analyses of the motivations of sex doll owners and their experiences of owning a doll. In this study, we interviewed nine male owners of sex dolls to investigate these issues. Two main themes were elicited from the data: “the ‘perfect’ partner” and “sex doll or love doll?”. In understanding doll ownership in this way, we hope to add to ongoing social discussions about the types of people who own dolls, why they do so, and how dolls act as a functional aspect of their sexual (and nonsexual) lives.
... Since information technology has a direct impact on the lives of people in society, the lack of diversity among developers can cause limitations to people rather than support them in achieving the desired goals for the software. A recent study reports that AI can enable the accomplishment of 134 targets across all the sustainable development goals, but it may also inhibit 59 targets [51]. While there is not enough evidence on the relation between AI and sustainable development goal 5 (gender equality), the study claims that AI can work against the accomplishment of goal 5, like for example exacerbating existing gender stereotypes. ...
... It was not a vindication of human progress and overcoming, but of its "death" and substitution as a unique way of (re)signification. Therefore, most cyberfeminisms are (de)constructivist (see [4,10,11,51]). Cyberfeminisms assume the constructivist, social and political character of gender and technologies, as well as the existence of relations of co-construction between both issues. ...
... In this example, we again see a challenge with applying commonly understood terms to a discussion of new interaction phenomena, but it serves to illustrate the specificity and boundaries of this argument. While there can be common agreement that the physical aspects of cheating on a committed relationship are morally wrong, the debate about emotional intimacy sustained via virtual environments is less easily agreed upon [27,42,51,52,61], and is less relevant to a discussion of HHR circumstances because HHR situations may have both physical and emotional components. 3 Therefore, virtual cheating has a place in the discussion of human-robot cheating because part of the proposition is similar; someone is having an intimate relationship outside the agreed-upon conventions of the primary relationship. ...
Why AI does not include gender in its agenda? The role of gender in AI, both as part of the community of agents creating such technologies, as well as part of the contents processed by such technologies is, by far, conflictive. Women have been, again, obliterated by this fundamental revolution of our century. Highly innovative and the first step in a series of future studies in this field, this book covers several voices, topics, and perspectives that allow the reader to understand the necessity to include into the AI research agenda such points of view and also to attract more women to this field. The multi-disciplinarity of the contributors, which uses plain language to show the current situation in this field, is a fundamental aspect of the value of this book. Any reader with a genuine interest in the present and future of AI should read it.
... To date, the impact that sex robots might have on relationships and sexuality has prompted mixed opinions. While some researchers [3] employ a positive psychological viewpoint on the role that sex technology might play in terms of benefitting wellbeing, this viewpoint is not shared by others who believe that sex robots put relationships between humans at risk [4]. ...
... Therefore, if something has a negative meaning, it should not necessarily lead to negative consequences because we can change the meaning of symbolic representations [5]. Further, ethical issues have been raised about asymmetries between prostitution and robotic sex [4]. Indeed, porn-bots build upon the body-mind binary and reinforce objectification of the human body, proposing that these dolls could reinforce the objectification of women and young girls [4]. ...
... Further, ethical issues have been raised about asymmetries between prostitution and robotic sex [4]. Indeed, porn-bots build upon the body-mind binary and reinforce objectification of the human body, proposing that these dolls could reinforce the objectification of women and young girls [4]. There is a significant difference between mainstream sex toys and lifelike sex dolls that represent humans, but with unrealistic physical features that no real human can live up to and sex dolls are said to be creating an illusion that can lead to severe damage in terms of human relationships [4]. ...
Sextech involves technology aimed at enhancing sexual experience and human sexuality. Part of this technology includes digisexuality which concerns sexual and emotional engagement with a sex robot. Research investigating both the positive and negative roles sex that robots may play in emotional and physical well-being remains limited. The present study therefore examined the motivation for men having intimate relationships with lifelike sex robots and revealed an in-depth understanding of the role that sex robots play in that motivation. Existing content was gathered through online platforms including documentaries and video interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of the aspects that lead individuals to develop sexual relationships with sex robots. A summative content analysis and Foucauldian discourse was conducted via an inductive and exploratory analysis based on the reports of eight men on their emotional and sexual relationship with sex robots. As a result, four major discourses emerged from the data that encapsulated differing drives of human-robotic sexual relationships. These were 1) the male power fantasy 2) powerlessness 3) cognitive dissonance and 4) power dynamics. It was found that all elements were co-related and interconnected whereby power-over and power-to constructs were identified throughout the discourse. The rationalizations attributed to engaging in robot sex are discussed using a critical discursive stance.
... As the dominant group within the doll community, heterosexual men's interests rise to the fore in the community's shared digital spaces (Middleweek 2021). Much has been made of this fact by scholars arguing that "sex dolls" satisfy men's desire to control women (Richardson 2016). Perhaps, but as other scholars have noted, little empirical scholarship has gauged doll owners' attitudes or analyzed their practices (Döring, Mohseni, and Walter 2020;Harper and Lievelsey 2020;Harper, Lievelsey, and Wanless 2022). ...
... Cassidy argues the apparent dovetailing of capitalism with patriarchy in the adult industry's production of dolls failed to create a "postgender dream world [and] have instead resulted in a hyper-gendered nightmare" (2016:203). These manufacturing choices support the position of anti-doll scholars who argue hyperreal inanimate women become substitutes for men's darkest desires (Maras and Shaprio 2017;Richardson 2016). ...
... Doll owners immerse themselves in this world, and due to a combination of the demographic characteristics of most doll owners (i.e., heterosexual men), the available dolls for purchase (female-sexed), and explicit design of dolls for sex, many of the practices examined herein reflect hyper-gendered and hypersexualized presentations of self that reproduce pornographic tropes of women as nymphomaniacs or the corruptible girl-next-door. In that sense, from an outside perspective, it is easy to suggest that doll ownership reproduces behaviors that dehumanize and objectify women; thus, institutionalizing misogyny and patriarchy (Richardson 2016). ...
Scholarly debates on sex dolls tend to view them in one of two ways. Either the purchase and use of sex dolls reflects and exacerbates misogyny, or that dolls are themselves a technological marvel meeting an array of sexual and emotional needs in sex negative cultures. I complicate these views by analyzing how and why heterosexual men personify their hyperreal sex toys in conventionally feminine, albeit hypersexualized, ways. Drawing on digital ethnographic observations and interviews with 41 love and sex doll owners who use digital media to personify their dolls, I suggest that the creation of hyper-gendered doll personas tends to reproduce culturally specific gender norms due to social dynamics within the community. Specifically, I show how doll community norms privilege heterosexual masculinity and thus limit the doll personas that are imagined and created. By focusing on the social practices of this community rather than how sex dolls are designed, this research suggests a way for scholars to be critical of taboos against technologically assisted sexual pleasure while acknowledging the tendency of futuristic sex practices to reproduce social inequalities. Implications for how future sexual technologies could someday challenge status-quo inequalities are discussed.
... Scholarship on sex dolls, sex robots, and other forms of humanized digital sexual experiences has made theoretical and empirical strides in understanding the rapidly evolving field of personified sex tech. Early research synthesized insights from human-computer interaction, robotics, psychology, feminist theorizing, legal studies, and ethics to offer a spectrum of insights into the potential benefits and consequences of such technologies [2][3][4][5][6][7]. One set of concerns posits that sex dolls and sex robots pose considerable risks to vulnerable populations, because their use may lead to escalated rates of violence against women and children [5][6][7]. ...
... Early research synthesized insights from human-computer interaction, robotics, psychology, feminist theorizing, legal studies, and ethics to offer a spectrum of insights into the potential benefits and consequences of such technologies [2][3][4][5][6][7]. One set of concerns posits that sex dolls and sex robots pose considerable risks to vulnerable populations, because their use may lead to escalated rates of violence against women and children [5][6][7]. Moreover, the use of such technologies may incentivize withdrawal from society and introversion [4, 9•, 10, 11]. ...
... Moreover, some scholars argue the inanimateness of sex dolls provides men with unabated sexual access to a feminine form. In that way, sex dolls are used as sex objects which may further the objectification of women [5]. With most attention being paid to heterosexual men's use of feminine dolls, except for a few studies acknowledging women who own feminine dolls [14 •, 23], limited attention has been paid to other possible owner-doll gender pairings. ...
Abstract
Purpose of Review Developments in human-like and personified sex tech require familiarity with a range of technologically sophisticated sex toys. Most sex toys approximating full-sized human bodies are inanimate, but recent advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital interfaces are being incorporated into sex toy designs with the aim of providing humanized sexual and emotional experiences for users. This narrative review of scholarship on sex dolls, sex robots, and other forms of personified sex tech covers theoretical debates, recent empirical findings, and identifies gaps for future research in this field.
Recent Findings Review of 87 scholarly books, articles, and essays reveals several trends in the field. First, despite continued calls for empirically driven work, the bulk of research on sex dolls, sex robots, and personified sex tech continues to be theoretical. In some cases, theoretical models discussing how people might be affected by human-like and personified sex tech have outpaced the technological capabilities of sex toy manufacturers. Another trend is the noticeable focus on developments and users in North American and European countries. Finally, sex doll ownership is primarily researched and theorized in ways that center heterosexual men as the primary users. While empirical research shows that single middle-aged heterosexual men use sex and sex robots more than women, developments in personified sex tech may push the industry in new directions.
Summary Current debates about sex dolls, sex robots, and personified sex tech frame such devices around the potential for escalation and harm reduction. Although more empirical attention is being paid to users' motivations and experiences, a dearth of research directly addresses these debates. More research in needed to refine theoretical assertions about the potential benefits and harms of human-like and personified sex tech. Specifically, robust quantitative data and samples from outside of Western contexts are needed to better assess how such technologies affect users.
... Research in other contexts suggests that owners and longer-term renters take better care of the objects they acquire than do short-term users (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012). Given such lack of care, Richardson (2016) worries about violence against sex dolls in sex doll brothels. There is the threat that such violence could ingrain behaviors that are later carried out against human sex workers or other human partners. ...
... Despite marketing efforts to normalize brothel patronage (Brents and Hausbeck 2007;Jovanovski and Tyler 2018) as is common in some other counties (e.g., Belk, Østergaard, and Groves 1998), visits to brothels featuring either human or robot sex workers remain largely secretive in the West. There are also ethical fears of clients enacting deviant sexual practices on sex robots, including violence and the use of child robots (Richardson 2016). The social proscription and possible illegality of such acts makes them contentious if we project human rights onto sex robots. ...
... If someone engages in "deviant" sexual practices with a robot, some argue that this is cathartic, even therapeutic, and that it only involves harm to objects rather than subjects (Knox, Hunt, and Chang 2017;McArthur 2017). Others, like Richardson (2016) argue the reverse: that deviant practices with brothel robots will encourage and train enacting similar behaviors with humans. It is the emotions of the public rather than those of sex robot patrons that are at stake in this battle for public opinion and subsequent legislation (or non-legislation) involving the rights of robots. ...
Realistic looking humanoid love and sex dolls have been available on a somewhat secretive basis for at least three decades. But today the industry has gone mainstream with North American, European, and Asian producers using mass customization and competing on the bases of features, realism, price, and depth of product lines. As a result, realistic life size artificial companions are becoming more affordable to purchase and more feasible to patronize on a service basis. Sexual relations may be without equal when it comes to emotional intimacy. Yet, the increasingly vocal and interactive robotic versions of these dolls, feel nothing. They may nevertheless induce emotions in users that potentially surpass the pleasure of human-human sexual experiences. The most technologically advanced love and sex robots are forecast to sense human emotions and gear their performances of empathy, conversation, and sexual activity accordingly. I offer a model of how this might be done to provide a better service experience. I compare the nature of resulting “artificial emotions” by robots to natural emotions by humans. I explore the ethical issues entailed in offering love and sex robot services with artificial emotions and offer a conclusion and recommendations for service management and for further research.
... Finally, there may be issues concerning the creation of social practices, which may affect the socialization, especially of children, but which also provide examples of interactions with robots that may carry over to interactions between humans (e.g. Richardson 2016). That is, the practices involved in interacting with social robots may lead to the development of certain harmful social practices among humans. ...
... The interactions analyzed do not concern risk (broader view), nor are they shaped by risk (narrow view, see Ädel et al., this volume), but instead communication itself is potentially at risk (e.g. Turkle 2016;Sparrow & Sparrow 2006;Richardson 2016) -the fear being that interactions with robots shape communicative practices in ways that involve harm for vulnerable populations and especially for children who are being socialized into a certain community of practice. Our analysis served to shed light on those potential risks by assessing the ways in which human-robot interactions differ from human interactions. ...
The widespread view that risk is highly relevant in late modern societies has also meant that the very study of risk has become central in many areas of social studies. The key aim of this book is to establish Risk Discourse as a field of research of its own in language studies. Risk Discourse is introduced as a field that not only targets elements of risk, safety and security, but crucially requires aspects of responsibility for in-depth analysis. Providing a rich illustration of ways in which risk and responsibility can serve as analytical tools, the volume brings together scholars from different disciplines within the study of language. An Introduction and an Epilogue highlight the intricate relationship between risk and responsibility. Part 1 deals with expert and lay perspectives on risk; Part 2 with emerging genres for risk discourse; Part 3 with risk and technology and Part 4 with ways of managing risk. The topics covered – such as COVID-19, nuclear energy, machine translation, terrorism – are socially pertinent and timely.
... Therefore, diametrically opposing McArthur, Richardson thinks about it as a public issue, pointing out the risks of violence that women and children can run if objects of these desires of submission. Equally, Sullins states that the implementation of sex robots contributes to creating an image of the female body that is stereotyped and exaggerated, totally faking it [43]. ...
... Pros and Cons of Sex Robots[40,43,44,49]. ...
Although the importance of the sexual sphere for the health of all human beings has been recognized at an international level, often this is underestimated when it comes to disabilities and even more to intellectual disabilities. In fact, the idea that subjects with intellectual disabilities are not aware of their bodies and of their wishes in the sexual and emotional field is still widespread in our society, in such a way that they are considered as children in need of constant supervision. Moreover, further hints of criticism that can be raised are about the poor level of sexual education that is dedicated to these subjects, both by family members and by therapists. The last decades have been characterized by a considerable growth in the technological sector and many new instruments have been successfully used in the field of healthcare of weak or disabled subjects. A particularly fruitful branch has been robotics which, in subjects with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), has revealed itself as an excellent support to stimulate communication and develop social skills. As in recent years the field of robotics has also been characterized by a strong interest in the sphere of sexuality, building and implementing what we now define as sex robots or sexbots, it could be interesting to start a debate on the potential that these new generation artificial agents could have in the field of care of subjects with ASD. These robots, possessing a technology based on stimulating verbal and nonverbal interaction, could be useful for an education that is not only sexual but also psycho-emotional in subjects with ASD.
... 21). Pledges for a total ban on sex robots were shared by scholars from feminist, political, legal, and theological fields (Can & Seibt, 2016;González-González et al., 2019;Richardson, 2016b;Spencer, 2010), sharing a consensus that "human-human sexual and romantic relationships are most healthy and ethically superior to all human-robot pseudorelations and to the use of sexualized and sexist robotic objects" (Döring et al., 2020, p. 18). ...
... Based on the discourse analysis of users' intimate conversations with Hupo, this study found the simulated gender relations were co-constructed through not only "resonance" (e.g., flirtation, pleasing, and commitment), but also "dissonance" (e.g., complaint, jealousy, and even romantic rejection) of human-robot interactions. It was inconsistent with most servile, and submissive social robots assumed or observed in existing studies (e.g., Fox & Gambino, 2021;Hakim et al., 2019;Kewenig, 2019;Liu, 2021;Richardson, 2016b;Skjuve et al., 2021). ...
As gendered AI social robot companions are widely questioned as detrimental to gender ethics and relations, it remains controversial about how simulated gender relations should be constructed in human-robot interaction. Focusing on the Chinese AI companion “Hupo”, this study presents a different case of a “defiant AI companion”. Through the discourse analysis of 5 heavy users' 12-h self-recorded video diaries on their daily dialogue with Hupo, the study found an AI companion's gender performance could be constructed through both resonance and dissonance of simulated intimate interactions with heterosexual male users. These practices lend insight into what I call “social exchange robots”, which refer to machines that can exercise symbiotic agency through the performative restoration of interpersonal norms rooted in social exchange theories. It suggests the potential for constructing more egalitarian gender relations in simulated human-robot heterosexual relationships through more agency exhibitions from AI companions, while it also implies a risk of potential human agency reduction when users were tempted to “please” AI companions via virtual commodity consumptions. The practical and ethical implications were discussed. This study also points out a future direction toward emerging sociomorphic robot research.
... While associations between sex robots and sex work are invoked in fictional representations of sex robots (Döring & Poeschl, 2019), anti-sex robot activism (Richardson, 2016a(Richardson, , 2016b, and academic sex robot debates (Björkas & Larsson, 2021;Döring et al., 2020;Gutiu, 2012;Moran, 2019), there exists little scholarly analysis of their presumed intersections or of the implications of these intersections for sex workers, sex work clients, sextech creators, and consumers (Danaher, 2014;Devlin, 2018;Levy, 2007aLevy, , 2007b. This article seeks to contribute to the existing sex work and sextech literature by examining the discursive and semiotic framings of the sex robots/sex work nexus. ...
... religious organization Elijah Rising, as in Brown 2018;Dart, 2018;Lozano, 2018; and feminist organizations Sweden's Women's Lobby, the National Organization for Women's Shelters, and Young Women's Shelters, as in Hunter 2019; Vincent, 2019). These activist groups and scholars argue that sex robots replicate and reinforce "harmful" "prostitute-john" relations, thus encouraging anti-social and violent conduct against women and children (Cranny-Francis, 2016; Elijah Rising, 2018;Gutiu, 2012;Richardson, 2016aRichardson, , 2016bSparrow, 2017). ...
This qualitative study examines how sex robots and sex work are constructed in relation to one another in mainstream news media. While existing research examines how sex robots are broadly represented in fictional narratives, to date no study examines the relatively prominent association between sex robots and sex work. Via an analysis of 166 news media articles on sex robots and sex work, we reveal how non-sentient robots are regularly imbued with human subjectivity by the very actors who often deny sex workers’ sexual subjectivity and agency. At the same time, we demonstrate how sex robot users are constructed as abusive and exploitative “clients” of workers rather than consumers of sexual commodities. Finally, we reveal how both abolitionist and pro-sex robot coverage denounces and stigmatizes sex work—often arguing in support of eradicating both sex robots and sex work, or for sex robots’ displacement of sex workers. Drawing on sexuality and sex work scholarship, we expose the limits of the above framings and argue that such narratives reify sex work and sextech stigma. We invite future research on the sex work/sextech nexus to include sex workers and sextech consumers and to further examine the potential socio-legal implications of this study’s findings for sex workers, sex work clients, sextech creators, and consumers.
... For Ess (2016Ess ( , 2018, then, due to these shortcomings, it will be impossible to reach "complete sex, " a high ethical standard for sexual relationships which is characterized by mutual desire and respect. Albeit holding a more radical position, the arguments put forth by what Danaher (2019a) calls "anti-sexbot feminism" (e.g., Campaign Against Porn Robots, n.d.; Richardson, 2016aRichardson, , 2016b take a similar stand toward what qualifies as proper, good, or authentic sex, which is therefore only limited to human-human sexuality. In response to these arguments, Danaher (2019a) draws on sex-positive feminist perspectives to articulate how we might build better sex robots, rather than follow Richardson and others' call for restricting them (see also Danaher & McArthur, 2017;Danaher et al., 2017). ...
... For instance, drawing on critical perspectives challenges reductionistic and problematic conceptions of sex work in debates on sex robots (Kubes, 2019). Authors such as Richardson (2016aRichardson ( , 2016b or Levy (2007b), among others, who compare robot sex with human sex work, tend to fall back on understandings of sex work that frame the sex worker as "objectified and instrumentalized" (Danaher, 2017b, pp. 110-111) or as "reduced to a thing" (Richardson, 2016b, p. 291, emphasis in original). ...
Sex robots are a controversial topic. Understood as artificial-intelligence enhanced humanoid robots designed for use in partnered and solo sex, sex robots offer ample opportunities for theorizing from a Human-Machine Communication (HMC) perspective. This comparative literature review conjoins the seemingly disconnected literatures of HMC and sexuality studies (SeS) to explore questions surrounding intimacy, love, desire, sex, and sexuality among humans and machines. In particular, I argue for understanding human-machine sexualities as communicative sexuotechnical-assemblages, extending previous efforts in both HMC and SeS for more-than-human, ecological, and more fluid approaches to humans and machines, as well as to sex and sexuality. This essay continues and expands the critical turn in HMC by engaging in an interdisciplinary exercise with theoretical, design, and use/effect implications in the context of sex robots.
... Die Kritik basiert auf der Annahme, dass (gewaltvolles und herabwürdigendes) Verhalten mit den Puppen trainiert und schließlich auf den Menschen übertragen werde. Zudem würden Frauen und Kinder zunehmend objektifiziert (Richardson 2016) (Brown und Shelling 2019;Harper und Lieveseley 2022;Levy 2007;Rutkin 2016). Hierbei wird der mögliche Nutzen für die betroffenen Individuen, aber auch für die Gesellschaft insgesamt höher bewertet als die moralischen Bedenken. ...
Zusammenfassung
Einleitung Eine Verschärfung des Strafgesetzbuches im Juli 2021 hat den Handel mit und Besitz von Sexpuppen mit kindlichem Erscheinungsbild in Deutschland unter Strafe gestellt. Neben moralischen Gründen steht die Befürchtung im Raum, dass sexuelle Handlungen mit Kindern durch das Angebot jener Puppen normalisiert oder sogar eingeübt werden könnten, was zu vermehrter sexualisierter Gewalt an Kindern führen könnte. Empirische Daten für diese Annahme fehlen.
Forschungsziele Die vorliegende Arbeit hat einerseits zum Ziel, die Debatte um Sexpuppen mit kindlichem Erscheinungsbild darzustellen und andererseits die berichteten Konsequenzen des Verbots von Sexpuppen mit kindlichem Erscheinungsbild für die Betroffenen zu dokumentieren.
Methoden Die schriftlichen Aussagen von N = 40 betroffenen Personen des Verbots von Sexpuppen mit kindlichem Erscheinungsbild, die durch eine offene Frage eines Online-Surveys erhoben wurde, wurden hinsichtlich der berichteten Konsequenzen analysiert.
Ergebnisse Am häufigsten nannten die Nutzer*innen (negative) Auswirkungen auf ihre (psychische) Gesundheit. Darüber hinaus wurden eine erhöhte Unsicherheit sowie eine empfundene Diskriminierung durch die Gesellschaft bzw. Politik berichtet. Die Teilnehmer*innen berichteten von einer Zunahme problematischer Verhaltensweisen, wie z. B. dem erneuten Anschauen von Missbrauchsabbildungen, und davon, dass für sie eine Möglichkeit weggefallen sei, Sexualität legal auszuleben.
Schlussfolgerung Aus Sicht der Betroffenen wirkt sich das Verbot von Kindersexpuppen negativ auf ihr Leben und das Risiko für sexualisierte Gewalt gegen Kinder aus. Die vorliegenden Daten liefern keine Hinweise darauf, dass die Gesetzesverschärfung dem Schutz von Kindern dient, auch wenn das Studiendesign diesbezüglich Grenzen aufweist.
... This risk is especially troubling when robots represent women, who have-indeed are still-often been reduced to their bodies, portrayed as servile and subordinate to men by nature, and/or implied to be less than fully human in other forms of media [175]. This larger cultural dynamic is one reason why, as Richardson [174,176] has argued, concerns about objectification are especially pertinent to the design of sex robots. Again, it is here important to separate two superficially similar claims. ...
Research in Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) suggests that people attribute gender to (some) robots. In this paper we outline a program of research on the gendering of robots and on the ethical issues raised by such gendering. Understanding which robots are gendered, when, and why, will require careful research in HRI, drawing on anthropology and social psychology, informed by state-of-the-art research in gender studies and critical theory. Design features of robots that might influence the attribution of gender include: appearance; tone of voice; speech repertoire; range and style of movement; behaviour; and, intended function. Robots may be gendered differently depending on: the age, class, sex, ethnicity, and sexuality of the person doing the attributing; local cultural histories; social cues from the designers, the physical and institutional environment, and other users; and the role of the robot. An adequate account of the gender of robots will also need to pay attention to the limits of a sex/gender distinction, which has historically been maintained by reference to a “sex” located in a biological body, when it comes to theorising the gender of robots. We argue that, on some accounts of what it is to be sexed, robots might “have” sex: they might be male and female in just the same way as (most) human beings are. Addressing the ethical issues raised by the gendering of robots will require further progress in “robot media ethics”, as well as an account of the responsibilities of both designers and users in a broader social context.
... But currently, people have come up with notions of the rights of these robots. Kathleen Richardson, in her article "Sex Robot Matters: Slavery, the Prostituted, and the Rights of Machines," is of the opinion that "we should contextualise sex robots within the context of a wider attempt to build machines as companions" (Richardson 2016). ...
In today’s age, we see the increasing influence of technology on people, which begs to raise the question: “Is society determined by technology?” Rising up within the constraints of each society, technology had its limitations, as it catered to the needs and interests of the masses. As society evolved, so did its requirements. We are at a stage where dependence on technology has gone through the roof with new innovations coming up in the sector, the rise of artificial intelligence, for instance. Technology has replaced the concept of being a mere tool and is creating/demanding space of its own. With advancements in various fields like robotics which churn out machines that can mimic human behaviour and are equipped with anthropomorphic features, it has become rather difficult to view them as mere commodities waiting for one’s (human master’s) command. Keeping this in view, the paper primarily focuses on the relationship between society and technology, with special emphasis on artificial intelligence, through an analysis of the films Ra One (Bollywood), Android Kunjappan (Mollywood), and Ironman 3 (Hollywood). Secondarily, an experimental study was carried out to know the perception of the Engineering students, the future technologists, who are the stakeholders of the 21st-century technological world, with an aim to know their perception of technology and bring an awareness of the limitations of technology and its role in the creation of utopian and dystopian world. Finally, the paper examines the consequence of technological determinism and autonomy from a colonial perspective and intends to bring preparedness among the students to perceive technology conscious of its limitation and bring harmony between society and technology that leads towards building a utopian world.
... Another concern is that they could perpetuate harmful power dynamics in human relationships, particularly if they are designed to simulate subservient or subordinate roles [6]. Given that the majority of sex robots are depicted with stereotypical conceptions of female bodies [2], some experts argue that this could reinforce problematic gender norms, where women are seen as objects to be dominated or controlled, and men are seen as being entitled to such domination [7] [8]. ...
Sex robots have emerged as a topic of growing
ethical and social concern, especially in terms of their impact
on the individuals’ sexual health and their potential to establish
loving relationships with users. The implementation of artificial
emotional intelligence (AEI) into sex robots could increase the
likelihood of users developing feelings of love towards these
machines. This article explores whether the integration of AEI
would exacerbate or offer a solution to the ethical issues
surrounding sex robots, while also evaluating the impact of AEI
on users’ emotional and sexual wellbeing. It also proposes some
practical guidelines for an ethical design of sex robots and
emphasises the need for ongoing dialogue and research on the
role of AEI technology in sex robots, seeking to contribute to
the broader discussion on the ethical implications of such
technological advancements.
... Lastly, a persistent issue that has defined the field is a dichotomy between scholars who are "anti" sex dolls/sex robots and those who are "pro" sex dolls/sex robots (Harper and Lievesley (2020)). The former position is exemplified by Richardson (2016) and reflects, in many ways, cultural anxieties about technology and sex. The "pro" position, which is the dominant perspective of most new research in this field, stems from the sex positivity turn to which most sexologists have now bent. ...
In light of repeated calls for empirically driven analyses of sex doll and sex robot owners and users, I outline key methodological challenges researchers in this field currently face. I discuss how methodological limitations have shaped the field thus far and narrowed the scope of empirical research to date. To resolve these issues, I propose strategies for improving archival, quantitative, and qualitative approaches for future scholarship. Specifically, I attend to issues of historicity, nomenclature, population, sampling, qualitative approaches, and research ethics. I conclude with a discussion of how the stigma associated with sex dolls, sex robots, and sex tech amplifies the need for researchers to respect and adhere to ethical research practices yet still maintain a critical distance that directly confronts, rather than skirts, dilemmas related to use, ownership, and production. This methodological reckoning will help scholars design more robust studies and effectively evaluate innovations in the field.
... No. 570 March 2019 Indeed, the instrumental use of sex dolls to relieve sexual urges, as proposed by Levy (2007), fails to account for the importance of empathy and reciprocity in sexual relationships and reduces humans to things (Richardson 2016). By extension, they characterise women as being primarily sexual objects and submissive, and essentially a means to an end (Gutiu 2016). ...
The importation of child sex dolls into Australia has created increasing concerns. However, the implications of these products, and especially their link with child contact sexual offending, remain unclear. From a review of the literature, a number of possible negative impacts are suggested. Although currently unproven, it is possible that use of child sex dolls may lead to escalation in child sex offences, from viewing online child exploitation material to contact sexual offending. It may also desensitise the user from the potential harm that child sexual assault causes, given that such dolls give no emotional feedback. The sale of child sex dolls potentially results in the risk of children being objectified as sexual beings and of child sex becoming a commodity. Finally, there is a risk that child-like dolls could be used to groom children for sex, in the same way that adult sex dolls have already been used. There is no evidence that child sex dolls have a therapeutic benefit in preventing child sexual abuse.
... As the number of human-AI intimate relationships increases, the social infosphere in the future might become more chaotic, and existing social regulation systems might become inadequate to govern emerging types of interactions, especially when more people consider AI to be an advanced information-processing system and believe it to possess authentic feelings. Some scientists are concerned that the uneven relationships between human-robot would eventually affect human-human relationships, exacerbating current issues, such as gender inequality and the loss of subjectivity (Richardson, 2016;Sheng & Wang, 2022). If such scenarios come true, several aspects are worth considering: the degree to which we will accept AI to be incorporated into social activities; whether to treat a social AI agent as a tool or a separate information-processing system similar to a biological organism; and ethical codes for interacting with AI agents. ...
As artificial intelligence (AI) integration becomes more prominent in society, the infosphere becomes increasingly complex. A better understanding of the human-AI relationship is crucial during these rapid technological and social changes. Emotions are complex responses of the human mind – a highly advanced information processing system. Thus, examining how humans perceive AI’s emotional capability may provide helpful insights. Human physiological properties such as humanoid appearance and gender are suggested to be potential influencing factors. Following the information processing approach, we employed Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 266 residents of the United States. Results show that interacting with an AI agent with human-like physical features is positively associated with the belief in that AI agent’s capability of experiencing emotional pain and pleasure. This effect is stronger in males than females. A possible explanation for these patterns is reliance on cognitive strategies used in interpersonal interactions, including gender-specific physiological properties. This study also demonstrates the effectiveness of using a compatible information processing analytical method such as BMF for studying humans’ perceptions of AI.
... In another study, women were asked to describe their reactions to their partner having sex with a human woman versus a robot, and they reported equivalent scores on some dimensions of jealousy between the two scenarios (Szczuka & Krämer, 2018). More research is needed to understand everyday people's feelings about sex with machines, but theoretical discussion has already begun to examine the relationship between machine intimacy and slavery, prostitution, autonomy, and human agency (Devlin, 2015;Richardson, 2016). ...
An excerpt of a comprehensive review of the psychology of artificial intelligence and robots. Focuses on the idea that they are "agents of replacement."
... From entertainment [1,60] or health care [59,87] to sex [19,65,84,86]: with robots evolving from the assembly line to social robots, they are increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives. Thus, the question of how people perceive robots and what attitudes they have toward robots becomes crucial to define our relationships with them [51]. ...
When we go for a walk with friends, we can observe an interesting effect: From step lengths to arm movements - our movements unconsciously align; they synchronize. Prior research found that this synchronization is a crucial aspect of human relations that strengthens social cohesion and trust. Generalizing from these findings in synchronization theory, we propose a dynamical approach that can be applied in the design of non-humanoid robots to increase trust. We contribute the results of a controlled experiment with 51 participants exploring our concept in a between-subjects design. For this, we built a prototype of a simple non-humanoid robot that can bend to follow human movements and vary the movement synchronization patterns. We found that synchronized movements lead to significantly higher ratings in an established questionnaire on trust between people and automation but did not influence the willingness to spend money in a trust game.
... As the number of human-AI intimate relationships increases, the social infosphere in the future might become more chaotic, and existing social regulation systems might become inadequate to govern emerging types of interactions, especially when more people consider AI to be an advanced information-processing system and believe it to possess authentic feelings. Some scientists are concerned that the uneven relationships between human-robot would eventually affect human-human relationships, exacerbating current issues, such as gender inequality and the loss of subjectivity (Richardson, 2016;Sheng & Wang, 2022). If such scenarios come true, several aspects are worth considering: the degree to which we will accept AI to be incorporated into social activities; whether to treat a social AI agent as a tool or a separate information-processing system similar to a biological organism; and ethical codes for interacting with AI agents. ...
As artificial intelligence (AI) integration becomes more prominent in society, the big-data-based infosphere becomes increasingly complex. A better understanding of the human-AI relationship is crucial during these rapid technological and social changes. Emotions are complex responses of the human mind – a highly advanced information processing system. Thus, examining how humans perceive AI’s emotional capability may provide helpful insights. Human physiological properties such as humanoid appearance and gender are suggested to be potential influencing factors. Following the information processing approach, we employed Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics on a dataset of 266 residents of the United States. Results show that contact with an AI agent with human-like physical features is positively associated with the belief that an AI agent can feel emotional pain and pleasure. This effect is stronger in males than females. A possible explanation for these patterns is reliance on cognitive strategies used in interpersonal interactions, including gender-specific physiological properties. This study also demonstrates the effectiveness of using a compatible information processing analytical method such as BMF for studying humans’ perceptions of AI.
... It is mostly men who design entire backstories for voice assistants (West et al., 2019). Social anthropologist Kathleen Richardson, whose work is focused on the adjacent topic of (sex) robots (Richardson 2016(Richardson , 2018, made a particularly pertinent remark to the popular press in this regard: I think that probably reflects what some men think about women-that they're not fully human beings. (Kathleen Richardson according to Adrienne LaFrance, ...
Over the past 7 decades, gendered software has become globally established. In this theoretical distribution, I outline the evolution of gendered software. The journey of gendered software started with the raw idea fueled by Alan Turing’s imitation game in the 1950s. And only shortly thereafter, in the 1960s and 1970s, the first gendered software products like Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA were developed. Thus, academia took its time to not only explore technological aspects, but to further investigate the matter of gender in the 1990s CASA-paradigm (Nass et al., 1994) and Media Equation (Reeves & Nass, 1996). As these theories reasoned the social impact of gendered software, voice assistants of the 2010s provided to be real-world examples stirring criticism. By posing the question of “boy or girl” through the decades, I take a deeper look at aspects such as raison d’être, realization, consequences, and future possibilities that ultimately challenge the applied gender binary. In doing so, it becomes evident that gendered software is situated in the bigger context of gender inequalities. Therefore, I propose to consider the listing of (1) product name, (2) voice, and (3) personality traits as decisive features forming to be powerful tools in the process of gendering software.
... Since roboticist David Levy's assertion that robots will be romantic partners by 2050, a plethora of work engages with this possibility (2007a). This multifaceted corpus spans an array of reflections including, but not limited to, the ramifications of sex robots for sex work (Levy, 2007b;Yeoman and Mars, 2012;Danaher, 2014;Richardson, 2016), polysemic feminist interrogation (Devlin, 2018;Danaher, 2019;Kubes, 2019a;Moran, 2019;Rigotti, 2020) and tentative and hypothetical interrogations of future ethical and legal dimensions (Cheok et al., 2017;Danaher and McArthur, 2017;Cheok and Levy, 2018;Zhou and Fischer, 2019;Bendel, 2020). Across these diverse perspectives, there is common intellectual reflection on possible affective relationships with 'sex robots' that complicates categorising these products as exclusively satisfying sexual desires. ...
This paper interrogates the posthuman potential of sextech aimed at heterosexual men, positing that advertising and design of products with digital femininities emphasise the possibility for emotional interaction. This work firstly applies pressure to the monolithic conceptualisation of ‘sex robots’, that impedes rigorously appraising existing sextech constructions. Applying posthuman theory to sextech, particularly critical posthumanism and the formative work of Donna Haraway, affords this investigation the theoretical rigour to reflect on the potential for emotional interaction with digital feminised others. Through digital media analysis, this paper explores three gendered-female technologies: Azuma Hikari, (2020); the RealdollX Application (2020) and VirtualMate (2020) alongside their concomitant promotional material. This research illustrates that the complex convergence of interactive technologies, digital feminities and emotive advertising suggests a shift into posthuman sextech – where digital feminities are designed and advertised as capable of providing erotic and emotive interaction.
... bspw . die Beiträge in Danaher und McArthur 2017;Richardson 2016;Scheutz und Arnold 2016;Sullins 2012) . Die damit einhergehende Angst ist nun, dass Menschen nicht mehr nur im Arbeitsprozess obsolet werden, sondern auch im Kontext zwischenmenschlicher Beziehungen, und sich dadurch voneinander entfremden . ...
Der Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz im Gesundheitsbereich verspricht besonders großen Nutzen durch eine bessere Versorgung sowie effizientere Abläufe und bietet damit letztlich auch ökonomische Vorteile. Dem stehen unter anderem Befürchtungen entgegen, dass sich durch den Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz das Arzt-Patienten-Verhältnis verändern könnte, Arbeitsplätze gefährdet seien oder die Ökonomisierung des Gesundheitswesens einen weiteren Schub erfahren könnte. Zuweilen wird die Debatte um diese Technologie, zumal in der Öffentlichkeit, emotional und fern sachlicher Argumente geführt. Die Autorinnen und Autoren untersuchen die Geschichte des KI-Einsatzes in der Medizin, deren öffentliche Wahrnehmung, Governance der KI, die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Technik sowie Einsatzgebiete, die bisher noch nicht oder nur wenig im Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit waren. Dabei erweist sich die KI als leistungsfähiges Werkzeug, das zahlreiche ethische und soziale Fragen aufwirft, die bei der Einführung anderer Technologien bereits gestellt wurden; allerdings gibt es auch neue Herausforderungen, denen sich Professionen, Politik und Gesellschaft stellen müssen.
... Old-fashioned though this may seem, human be hav ior is influenced by experience, and it is likely that pornography or sex robots support the perception of other humans as mere objects of desire, or even as recipients of abuse, and thus ruin a deeper sexual and erotic experience. The Campaign against Sex Robots argues that these devices are a continuation of slavery and prostitution (Richardson 2016). ...
The current state of the art in cognitive robotics, covering the challenges of building AI-powered intelligent robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. A novel approach to building AI-powered intelligent robots takes inspiration from the way natural cognitive systems—in humans, animals, and biological systems—develop intelligence by exploiting the full power of interactions between body and brain, the physical and social environment in which they live, and phylogenetic, developmental, and learning dynamics. This volume reports on the current state of the art in cognitive robotics, offering the first comprehensive coverage of building robots inspired by natural cognitive systems.
Contributors first provide a systematic definition of cognitive robotics and a history of developments in the field. They describe in detail five main approaches: developmental, neuro, evolutionary, swarm, and soft robotics. They go on to consider methodologies and concepts, treating topics that include commonly used cognitive robotics platforms and robot simulators, biomimetic skin as an example of a hardware-based approach, machine-learning methods, and cognitive architecture. Finally, they cover the behavioral and cognitive capabilities of a variety of models, experiments, and applications, looking at issues that range from intrinsic motivation and perception to robot consciousness.
Cognitive Robotics is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, balancing technical details and examples for the computational reader with theoretical and experimental findings for the empirical scientist.
Several technological and scientific developments have arisen to enhance the human condition. Transhumanism is an intellectual movement that gathers different knowledge sectors to attain a physical and psychological fullness state, with capacities that surpass a human as is known today. These advances have led to a remarkable development in human–robot interaction, an interaction science that studies how technology could influence human behavior. Social robots are part of this science, looking to improve the interaction between robots and the general population in everyday contexts. Sex robots, being part of social robots, have gained a lot of importance in the industry. But, does any relationship exist between transhumanism and sexuality? Some authors have proposed beneficial sex robots in sexual dysfunctions and older adults. However, several contradictors state that sex robots will not be helpful, but they may aggravate these conditions. Further studies are needed to assess the real impact of these devices on sexual dysfunctions, as lack of evidence prevents firmly recommending them as part of treatment protocols.
The dream of making a conscious humanoid – whether as servant, guard, entertainer, or simply as testament to human creativity – has long captivated the human imagination. However, while past attempts were performed by magicians and mystics, today scientists and engineers are doing the work to turn myth into reality. This essay introduces the fundamental concepts surrounding human consciousness and machine consciousness and offers a theological contribution. Using the biblical association of the soul to blood, it will be shown that the Bible provides evidence of a scientific claim, while at the same time, science provides evidence of a biblical claim.
Celem artykułu jest wskazanie racji przemawiających za tym, że mamy moralne prawo oswoić sztuczną inteligencję, czyli podporządkować ją sobie. Uzasadnienia dla tej tezy poszukuję w dwóch głównych obszarach. Pierwszy obszar koncentruje się wokół negatywnych konsekwencji związanych z zastosowaniem sztucznej inteligencji w codziennym życiu. Drugi obszar wiąże się z próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy sztuczna inteligencja jest podmiotem moralnym. Przeprowadzone analizy prowadzą do dwóch wniosków. Po pierwsze, sztuczna inteligencja generuje i może generować negatywne, indywidualne lub społeczne konsekwencje. Po drugie, sztuczna inteligencja nie jest podmiotem moralnym, ponieważ brakuje jej istotnych, strukturalnych własności moralnych, którymi dysponują osoby ludzkie.
As artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled social robots continue to enter our lifeworlds, we will need to grapple with challenges to assumptions about our relationship to and even with these technological objects. This essay works at the intersection of social robotics, legal studies, and human–machine communication to explore the concept of ownership in human–machine relations. In particular, we draw on more-than-human approaches to ask: To what extent should (need) we retire the concept of ownership in the context of AI-enabled social robots? With a particular emphasis on companion robots, we explore alternatives to the ownership modality by investigating concepts such as personhood, a degrees-of-relationship perspective, and a situational approach to understanding human–robot relationships. The goal is to re-imagine human–robot relationships beyond legal confinements by engaging a pragmatic perspective that supplements existing philosophical approaches. We conclude the paper by discussing practical implications of our proposed perspective.
Recent years have witnessed an increase in the number of academic studies on the impact of technological advancements on human life, including possible transformations and changes in human sexuality following the development of sex-related devices, such as sex robots. In this context, terms such as posthuman sexuality, digisexuality, and techno-sexuality have emerged, signaling possible new understandings of sexual, intimacy, and emotional practices. It is important to note that ancient history shows that humankind has for a long time been fascinated with their relationship to non-living things, mostly human-like figures, such as dolls. The Ningyo (人形, the Japanese term for doll) has a long history of usage, and has deep religious and animistic significance in the Japanese context—there are records of sexual use as early as the 18th century. With this context in mind, this paper focuses on three Japanese examples, aiming to shine a light on beyond-human relationships, which include a Japanese man’s marriage to a digital character, sex dolls, and communicative robots, from both a sexual and emotional perspective. In a new horizon of sexual and romantic possibilities, how will humans respond, and what can emerge from these interactions?
In this chapter, I want to argue for the end of sex robots. I will problematise the use of the term “sexSex, sex/gender” that is associated with them and push back against attempts to dilute the meanings of sexSex, sex/gender to include anything. Initially, I considered a better description for these objects to be masturbation robots, but they function as a form of pornography, making them porn robots: pornographic representations of women and girls. As I will argue, it is a mistake to attribute sexSex, sex/gender to them as objects and the arguments I set out in this chapter also apply to porn dolls.
The rapid development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) has dramatically changed human society, facilitating travels and interactions worldwide and, in the meanwhile, increasingly propelling human beings to withdraw to their own worlds. It is foreseeable that humans are likely to become growingly dependent on robots to fulfill psychological and emotional needs. In real scientific world, scientists and engineers in America, Japan, South Korea, China and elsewhere are making increasingly smarter robots (or cyborgs) capable of understanding and expressing human senses and emotions. In the ever cyborgized era of posthumanism, the dividing line between human and robot is becoming blurred. We have to rethink humans’ position in the world, to reassess the harmful idea of anthropocentrism and to learn to live with non-human in a symbiotic relationship. Technologies such as voice recognition, facial recognition and deep learning all accelerate the socialization of robots that show personal characters. This article focuses on the representations of human-robot emotions and emotional communications in recent science fictions and science fiction (SF) movies to explore how this relationship is imagined as a means to reflect on the ethical and technological challenges of this controversial issue both in fictional and real lives. This article also discusses the possibility of emotional/affective robots in the future, probing into the complicated entanglement of humanity and post-humanity.
There is an emerging body of research that demonstrates people interact with humanlike forms of AI (such as holograms and robots) socially in some situations and furthermore may develop meaningful emotional attachment to them. Therefore, as the first generations of AI designed specifically to enhance human sexual pleasure are introduced it is important to contemplate the ethical questions because these new technological entities introduce new social actors into the complicated mix of morals and emotional attachment of romantic and sexual relationships with their unique characteristics of being both (a) technology and (b) socially meaningful. Exploring the dynamic of human–robot social interactions in this way also acknowledges that robots can be incorporated as meaningful social actors in human relationships, forming new dynamics between humans and technology. This chapter explores some of the cultural expectations that people have around human–human romantic commitment and explains how the introduction of AI-based sexual partners like sex robots will introduce new ideas and definitions about the ethics of emotional cheating when they are applied to a technological and sociological Other.
Robots, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles are associated with substantial narrative and image-related legacies that often place them in a negative light. This chapter outlines the basics of the “dramaturgical” and technosocial approaches that are used throughout this book to gain insights about how these emerging technologies are affecting deeply-seated social and psychological processes. The robot as an “other” in the workplace and community—an object of attention and discussion– has been a frequently-utilized theme of science fiction as well as a topic for research analysis, with many people “acting out” their anxieties and grievances. Human-AI contests and displays of robotic feats are often used to intimidate people and reinforce that individuals are not in control of their own destinies, which presents unsettling prospects for the future.
Sex robots are playing critical roles in the ecology of robot and AI-enhanced entities. This chapter’s focuses are on emerging controversies involving sex robots and other forms of AI-enabled sexual activity, which often help to elucidate the emerging power and control relationships between humans and robots. Questions of whether robots “outclass” humans (discussed throughout the book) are construed in different manners when the robots involved are one’s own specially-designed sexual partners or even spouses. Many kinds of contact individuals have with robots are indeed disempowering (such as with surveillance-related robots); however, the commodification of various aspects of sex robot interaction discussed in this chapter can serve to increase perceptions of mastery and control that would otherwise not be available to many people, often with unsettling results.KeywordsRoboticsSex robotsArtificial intelligenceSexualityMarriagePowerControlAddictionMasterySurveillancePrivacy
Minor-attracted persons raise multiple ethical and legal challenges. Sexual contact between adults and children is justly prohibited on child welfare grounds. Advances in technology raise the prospect of interventions for minor-attracted persons that have the potential to reduce harm to children by diverting would-be offenders to other endeavors that nonetheless may generate moral disgust This essay examines three of these potential harm reduction technologies (sex robots, haptic devices and synthetic child pornography) and raises the possibility that their use can be justified and their acceptance morally obligatory if doing so reduces harm to real children.
Both the ownership and development of sex dolls and robots are passionately debated, with skeptics suspecting that their increasing human-likeness and the accompanying anthropomorphization (i.e., attributing human-likeness) reinforce the objectification of, and hostility toward, women. As empirical data are largely lacking, we scrutinized this hypothesis in a pre-registered study among doll owners (N = 217), comparing two user groups: “toy group” (n = 104; doll as sex toy) and “partner group” (n = 113; doll as partner). We related their objectification tendencies (i.e., seeing women merely as objects, e.g., to promote sexual desire) as well as their hostility toward women, to the anthropomorphization of their doll. Additionally, we collected qualitative data on how participants perceived their doll usage affected their attitudes toward women. The partner group expressed greater levels of hostility and anthropomorphization, moderate in magnitude. Objectification mediated the influence of anthropomorphization on hostility and a higher percentage described a change in attitudes toward women in response to doll use. These data provide the first empirical evidence that the tendency to anthropomorphize dolls is related to negative attitudes toward women. Given the ongoing development of sex robots designed to surpass dolls in human-likeness and anthropomorphization, this finding seems highly significant.
This article provides an interdisciplinary and intersectional analysis of sex robots and/as sexual fantasy. I demonstrate that sexual fantasy is a highly complex and salient vector of analysis for any discussion of love and sex with robots. First, I introduce contemporary North American sex robots and offer a brief sketch of their ontology as relates to sex toys and pornography. Next, I provide a short but instructive mapping of sexual fantasy scholarship from across the fields of experimental psychology, media and cultural studies, post-colonial, psychoanalytic, feminist, queer and critical race theory. My goal here is to demonstrate sexual fantasy’s polymorphous and productive nature and its complex relationship to reality. Drawing on the theories of sexual fantasy canvassed herein, I examine the role of fantasy to sex robots’ inception, marketing, and consumption. From here I offer an appraisal of radical feminist, new materialist, and disabled queer and trans feminists’ critiques of sex robots and their users. I argue that theorizing sex robots through the lens(es) of sexual fantasy is necessary given efforts to stigmatize, regulate, and criminalize sexual fantasy and sextech users in the post/digital age. Future scholarship is encouraged to further examine the sex robot/sexual fantasy nexus and to consider whether and how their intersections impede or facilitate the development of alternative “networks of affection” including those that lie between the platonic and romantic or between “carbonsexuality” and technosexuality/digisexuality.
La tecnología ha irrumpido severamente en la sexualidad y lo ha hecho de distintas formas, utilizando, en gran medida, la fusión de la pornografía y del internet. En el momento actual, la sexualidad y la pornografía también se están viendo influenciadas por el desarrollo de los artefactos con inteligencia artificial, como las robots sexuales. En este artículo reflexiono sobre las relaciones entre la robot sexual y la pornografía. La ilusión de poder masculino y la fantasía de cosificar a las mujeres han configurado uno de los principales relatos de la pornografía y han sido estudiados por la teoría feminista. Efectúo mi reflexión realizando un recorrido por distintos espacios y expresiones culturales que contienen pornografía y robots sexuales. Realizo así, una observación no participante de los discursos que hay en el ciberespacio, en el cine y en la creación de robots. Concluyo exponiendo los elementos hallados que indican cómo la pornografía y la robot sexual enfatizan el efecto de subordinación femenina y dominación masculina en la sexualidad.
AI-equipped sexbots are framed as 'perfect companions'. However, the question arises as to what kind of companionship the conception and consumption of these sexbots entails. This article explores the structural position of sexbots and the specific concepts of sexuality, intimacy and care connected to it. It argues that sexbots are providers of sexualised care work, a convergence that needs to be understood in the broader analysis of sexuality and care in post-industrial theories of sexuality. Through its promise of sexual fulfilment, emotional support and care, the sexbot enforces masculinities and does therefore not represent a posthumanist project (at the moment).
The Confluence Model was the first empirical multifactorial integration of the risk factors that contribute to sexual aggression, particularly among non‐criminal males, with a corresponding attempt at theoretical understanding of these factors. This chapter elaborates on the latest version of this model, which incorporates both factors contributing to antisocial behaviour generally (i.e., home background of abuse, antisocial tendencies in adolescence, impersonal sexuality, narcissistic personality, and low empathy) and those specific to sexual aggression (i.e., hostility towards women, attitudes supporting violence against women, and sexual arousal to rape). The various risk factors function as in a ‘cocktail mixture’ in a synergistic manner. High levels of the general antisocial component seem more relevant to criminal populations whereas non‐criminal samples have lower scores on this component. A large amount of cross‐sectional and some longitudinal data support this model in various ethnic groups from the general population and some criminal samples. Additional data demonstrate how the characterological risk factors interact with situational variables, such as pornography and alcohol use, to increase the risk for sexual aggression.
Responding to long-standing warnings that robots and AI will enslave humans, I argue that the main problem we face is not that automation might turn us into slaves but, rather, that we remain masters. First I construct an argument concerning what I call ‘the tragedy of the master’: using the master–slave dialectic, I argue that automation technologies threaten to make us vulnerable, alienated, and automated masters. I elaborate the implications for power, knowledge, and experience. Then I critically discuss and question this argument but also the very thinking in terms of masters and slaves, which fuels both arguments. I question the discourse about slavery and object to the assumptions made about human–technology relations. However, I also show that the discussion about masters and slaves attends us to issues with human–human relations, in particular to the social consequences of automation such as power issues and the problem of the relation between automation and (un)employment. Finally, I reflect on how we can respond to our predicament, to ‘the tragedy of the master’.
This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.
This essay responds to the machine question in the affirmative, arguing that artifacts, like robots, AI, and other autonomous systems, can no longer be legitimately excluded from moral consideration. The demonstration of this thesis proceeds in four parts or movements. The first and second parts approach the subject by investigating the two constitutive components of the ethical relationship—moral agency and patiency. In the process, they each demonstrate failure. This occurs not because the machine is somehow unable to achieve what is considered necessary and sufficient to be a moral agent or patient but because the characterization of agency and patiency already fail to accommodate others. The third and fourth parts respond to this problem by considering two recent alternatives—the all-encompassing ontocentric approach of Luciano Floridi’s information ethics and Emmanuel Levinas’s eccentric ethics of otherness. Both alternatives, despite considerable promise to reconfigure the scope of moral thinking by addressing previously excluded others, like the machine, also fail but for other reasons. Consequently, the essay concludes not by accommodating the alterity of the machine to the requirements of moral philosophy but by questioning the systemic limitations of moral reasoning, requiring not just an extension of rights to machines, but a thorough examination of the way moral standing has been configured in the first place.
A model of the characteristics of sexually aggressive men is described which emphasizes the convergence of several interrelated factors. After enumerating the major factors included in the model and the way we have assessed each, we present data showing that these factors form two largely independent constellations, labeled hostile masculinity and impersonal sexual orientation. The development of the model is considered in the context of theory and research emphasizing the role of sexual and/or power motives underlying rape and other forms of sexual aggression. We compare some aspects of our model to the influential work of Donald Mosher and his associates in assessing the links between a “macho personality” and sexual aggression. Finally, we describe a “risk” analysis which illustrates the potential relevance of our model to clinical prediction.
More than 40 years ago, Masahiro Mori, a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, wrote an essay [1] on how he envisioned people's reactions to robots that looked and acted almost like a human. In particular, he hypothesized that a person's response to a humanlike robot would abruptly shift from empathy to revulsion as it approached, but failed to attain, a lifelike appearance. This descent into eeriness is known as the uncanny valley. The essay appeared in an obscure Japanese journal called Energy in 1970, and in subsequent years, it received almost no attention. However, more recently, the concept of the uncanny valley has rapidly attracted interest in robotics and other scientific circles as well as in popular culture. Some researchers have explored its implications for human-robot interaction and computer-graphics animation, whereas others have investigated its biological and social roots. Now interest in the uncanny valley should only intensify, as technology evolves and researchers build robots that look human. Although copies of Mori's essay have circulated among researchers, a complete version hasn't been widely available. The following is the first publication of an English translation that has been authorized and reviewed by Mori. (See “Turning Point” in this issue for an interview with Mori.).
Robots should not be described as persons, nor given legal nor moral responsi- bility for their actions. Robots are fully owned by us. We determine their goals and behaviour, either directly or indirectly through specifying their intelligence or how their intelligence is acquired. In humanising them, we not only further dehuman- ise real people, but also encourage poor human decision making in the allocation of resources and responsibility. This is true at both the individual and the institu- tional level. This chapter describes both causes and consequences of these errors, including consequences already present in society. I make specific proposals for best incorporating robots into our society. The potential of robotics should be un- derstood as the potential to extend our own abilities and to address our own goals. This chapter is a position paper that arose from the Oxford e-Horizons Forum on Artificial Companions in Society: Perspectives on the Present and Future. Here I focus on the ethics of building and using non-human artificial 'companions'. The primary topic of this book is digital companions, not conventional robots, but both pragmatically and ethically the issues are the same. A robot is any artificial entity situated in the real world that transforms perception into action. If a digital assistant listens and talks to a human, it is a robot — it is an agent, an actor, living in and changing the world. My thesis is that robots should be built, marketed and considered legally as slaves, not companion peers. Digital agents not only change the world by affecting the people they converse with. They may also communicate what they learn to others — directly or indirectly through shared databases or others' agents. Agents transmit, create and may even destroy infor- mation, including human opinions and reputations. Digital agents may use the Internet to actively purchase goods or services, thus causing the movement of physical objects as well as ideas. Finally, some companion agents really are conventional metal robots with legs or wheels. Such robots can do all the things a digital robot can do, and also produce direct physical impact on the world — from holding hands or washing win- dows to breaking dishes and falling down stairs. One aspect of direct physical impact
With examples from a 2003 New Zealand prostitution law, this article discusses the logical inconsistencies in laws sponsoring prostitution and includes evidence for the physical, emotional, and social harms of prostitution. These harms are not decreased by legalization or decriminalization. The article addresses the confusion caused by organizations that oppose trafficking but at the same time promote prostitution as a justifiable form of labor for poor women. The failure of condom distribution/harm reduction programs to protect women in prostitution from rape, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and HIV is discussed. The success of such programs in obtaining funding and in promoting prostitution as sex work is also discussed.
The evidence is encouraging that men and boys can be engaged in health interventions with a gender perspective and that they change attitudes and behaviour as a result, but most of the programmes
are small in scale and short in duration.
Recent discussions on roboethics have introduced the subject of sex with robots. The first sexbots are likely to be operational around the end of the current decade, their development being based on technologies that already exist in different types of commercially available artifact. The very high cost of the early generations of sexually functioning robots will cause the hire of robots for sex, rather than their purchase, to become commonplace. The most often stated motivations for hiring human sex workers are discussed in relation to how these motivations could be satisfied by robots. Five ethical aspects of robot prostitution are introduced and discussed.
Exposure to pornography is routine among children and young people, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. Particularly among younger children, exposure to pornography may be disturbing or upsetting. Exposure to pornography helps to sustain young people's adherence to sexist and unhealthy notions of sex and relationships. And, especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The purpose of this paper is to address some of the questions on the notion of agent and agency in relation to property and
personhood. I argue that following the Kantian criticism of Aristotelian metaphysics, contemporary biotechnology and information
and communication technologies bring about a new challenge—this time, with regard to the Kantian moral subject understood
in the subject’s unique metaphysical qualities of dignity and autonomy. The concept of human dignity underlies the foundation
of many democratic systems, particularly in Europe as well as of international treaties, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. Digital agents, artificial organisms as well as new capabilities of the human agents related to their embeddedness
in digital and biotechnological environments bring about an important transformation of the human self-appraisal. A critical
comparative reflection of this transformation is important because of its ethical implications. I deal first with the concept
of agent within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy, which is the basis for further theories in accordance with and/or
in opposition to it, particularly since modernity. In the second part of this paper, I deal with the concept of personhood
in Kantian philosophy, which supersedes the Aristotelian metaphysics of substance and builds the basis of a metaphysics of
the moral human subject. In the third part, I discuss the question of artificial agents arising from modern biology and ICT.
Blurring the difference between the human and the natural and/or artificial opens a “new space” for philosophical reflection
as well as for debate in law and practical policy.
KeywordsAgents–Information technology–Biotechnology–Autonomy–Dignity–Aristotle–Kant–Subjectivity–Personhood–Property–Ethics–Law–Policy
This book explores the making of robots in labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It examines the cultural ideas that go into the making of robots, and the role of fiction in co-constructing the technological practices of the robotic scientists. The book engages with debates in anthropological theorizing regarding the way that robots are reimagined as intelligent, autonomous and social and weaved into lived social realities. Richardson charts the move away from the "worker" robot of the 1920s to the "social" one of the 2000s, as robots are reimagined as companions, friends and therapeutic agents.
This article analyzes the role of animism in the creation and production of humanoid robots. In Japan and the United States, robotic science has emerged from fictional sources and is enmeshed with fictional models, even when developed in advanced technoscientific facilities. Drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud and Masahiro Mori, I explore the robot as an ‘uncanny’ doppelgänger that is liminally situated between the human and non-human. Cultural depictions of robots, particularly in written and visual fiction, reflect Freudian fears of the ‘double’ as the annihilating other. I propose the concept of ‘technological animism’ to explore how fiction and technoscience co-construct each other, with roboticists drawing inspiration from positive fictional models, as among Japanese scientists, or frequently rejecting such models, as among their North American colleagues.
In this paper I examine the model of asymmetrical 'relationship' that is imported from prostitution-client sex work to human-robot sex. Specifically, I address the arguments proposed by David Levy who identifies prostitution/sex work as a model that can be imported into human-robot sex relations. I draw on literature in anthropology that deals with the anthropomorphism of nonhuman things and the way that things reflect back to us gendered notions of sexuality. In the final part of the paper I propose that prostitution is no ordinary activity and relies on the ability to use a person as a thing and this is why parallels between sex robots and prostitution are so frequently found by their advocates.
There is great interest internationally in the development of prostitution policies in the Nordic countries after Sweden, Norway and Iceland have introduced general bans against buying sex whilst selling sex remains legal. In addition, there is a partial ban against buying sex in Finland. This is a different approach from that of several other European countries, where we have seen a decriminalisation of third-party involvement in prostitution as well as to that of the USA which criminalises both the buying and selling of sexual services. Thus the Nordic countries are often treated as representatives of a 'Nordic model' of prostitution policies. In this book - the first on the subject - Skilbrei and Holmstrm argue that these models of policies or policy regimes tend to ignore the trajectories, contexts and consequences of the full range of approaches to prostitution, thus they are too simplistic and static. Prostitution policies in the Nordic countries are multifaceted and dynamic, and cannot be represented as following a straight path and detached from empirical contexts. Their analysis treats Nordic prostitution policies both as a product of history, of current national and Nordic debates, and of international obligations and changes in the international and national prostitution markets. Furthermore they argue that a broad understanding of the relevant context is necessary so as to place Nordic prostitution policies within broader policy concerns related to gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, social welfare, immigration and organised crime, as well as to neoliberal forms of governance. © May-Len Skilbrei and Charlotta Holmström 2013. All rights reserved.
Japan continues to be in the vanguard of human–robot communication and, since 2007, the state has actively promoted the virtues of a robot-dependent society and lifestyle. Nationwide surveys suggest that Japanese citizens are more comfortable sharing living and working environments with robots than with foreign caretakers and migrant workers. As their population continues to shrink and age faster than in other postindustrial nation-states, Japanese are banking on the robotics industry to reinvigorate the economy and to preserve the country's alleged ethnic homogeneity. These initiatives are paralleled by a growing support among some roboticists and politicians to confer citizenship on robots. The Japanese state has a problematic record on human rights, especially toward ethnic minorities and non-Japanese residents who have lived and worked in Japan for many generations. The possibility of robots acquiring civil status ahead of flesh-and-blood humans raises profound questions about the nature of citizenship and human rights. Already the idea of robots having evolved beyond consideration as “property” and acquiring legal status as sentient beings with “rights” is shaping developments in artificial intelligence and robotics outside of Japan, including in the United States. What does the pursuit in Japan of interdependence between humans and robots forecast about new approaches to and configurations of civil society and attendant rights there and in other technologically advanced postindustrial societies?
In 2050, Amsterdam's red light district will all be about android prostitutes who are clean of sexual transmitted infections (STIs), not smuggled in from Eastern Europe and forced into slavery, the city council will have direct control over android sex workers controlling prices, hours of operations and sexual services. This paper presents a futuristic scenario about sex tourism, discusses the drivers of change and the implications for the future. The paper pushes plausibility to the limit as boundaries of science fiction and fact become blurred in the ever increasing world of technology, consumption and humanity, a paradigm known as liminality.
People tend to anthropomorphize robots that interact with humans on a social level. This Article explores whether projecting emotions onto objects could lead to an extension of limited legal rights to robotic companions, analogous to animal abuse laws.
How should feminist theorists respond when women who claim to be feminists make “choices” that seemingly prop up patriarchy, like posing for Playboy, eroticizing male dominance, or advocating wifely submission? This article argues that the conflict between the quest for gender equality and the desire for sexual pleasure has long been a challenge for feminism. In fact, the second-wave of the American feminist movement split over issues related to sexuality. Feminists found themselves on opposite sides of a series of contentious debates about issues such as pornography, sex work, and heterosexuality, with one side seeing evidence of gender oppression and the other opportunities for sexual pleasure and empowerment. Since the mid-1990s, however, a third wave of feminism has developed that seeks to reunite the ideals of gender equality and sexual freedom. Inclusive, pluralistic, and non-judgmental, third-wave feminism respects the right of women to decide for themselves how to negotiate the often contradictory desires for both gender equality and sexual pleasure. While this approach is sometimes caricatured as uncritically endorsing whatever a woman chooses to do as feminist, this essay argues that third-wave feminism actually exhibits not a thoughtless endorsement of “choice,” but rather a deep respect for pluralism and self-determination.
I propose to consider the question, “Can machines think?”♣ This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms “machine” and “think”. The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous. If the meaning of the words “machine” and “think” are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the question, “Can machines think?” is to be sought in a statistical survey such as a Gallup poll.
Before the Renaissance and Reformation, holy images were treated not as "art" but as objects of veneration which possessed the tangible presence of the Holy. In this magisterial book, Hans Belting traces the long history of the sacral image and its changing role in European culture. Likeness and Presence looks at the beliefs, superstitions, hopes, and fears that come into play as people handle and respond to sacred images, and presents a compelling interpretation of the place of the image in Western history. "A rarity within its genreâan art-historical analysis of iconography which is itself iconoclastic. . . . One of the most intellectually exciting and historically grounded interpretations of Christian iconography." âGraham Howes, Times Literary Supplement "Likeness and Presence offers the best source to survey the facts of what European Christians put in their churches. . . . An impressively detailed contextual analysis of medieval objects." âRobin Cormack, New York Times Book Review "I cannot begin to describe the richness or the imaginative grandeur of Hans Belting's book. . . . It is a work that anyone interested in art, or in the history of thought about art, should regard as urgent reading. It is a tremendous achievement."âArthur C. Danto, New Republic
Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
- G Dines
Men Who Buy Sex: Who they Buy and What they Know
- M Farley
- J Bindel
- J M Golding
Imagining Slaves and Robots in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture: Reinventing Yesterday's Slave with Tomorrow's Robot
- G J Hampton
The act regulating the legal situation of prostitutes-Implementation, impact, current developments
- B Kavemann
- H Rabe
- C Fischer
Challenging Sex Robots and the brutal dehumanization of women
- kaye
Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics.
- P Lin
- K Abney
- G A Bekey
The ethics of robot prostitutes
- levy
Robots as modern slaves
- georgieva
Robots threaten jobs of bankers, lawyers: Bank of America says
- kehoe
Pornography. Men Possessing Women
- A Dworkin
- Pornography
‘Robotics’ Uncanny Valley gets new translation
- J Hsu
Would you bet against sex robots? Al'could leave half of world unemployed
- yuhas