"And This, Kids, Is How I Met Your Mother": Consumerist, Mundane, and Uncanny Futures with Sex Robots

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Maria Troiano ◽  
Matthew Wood ◽  
Casper Harteveld
Keyword(s):  
Sex Robots

scholarly journals Sex care robots

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga ◽  
Adam Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Service Robots ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Physical Touch ◽  
Potential Use

AbstractThe creation and deployment of sex robots are accelerating. Sex robots are service robots that perform actions contributing directly towards improvement in the satisfaction of the sexual needs of a user. In this paper, we explore the potential use of these robots for elder and disabled care purposes,which is currently underexplored. Indeed, although every human should be able to enjoy physical touch, intimacy, and sexual pleasure, persons with disabilities are often not in the position to fully experience the joys of life in the same manner as abled people. Similarly, older adults may have sexual needs that public healthcare tend to ignore as an essential part of their well-being. We develop a conceptual analysis of how sex robots could empower persons with disabilities and older adults to exercise their sexual rights, which are too often disregarded in society. Our contribution seeks to understand whether sex robots could serve as a step forward in enhancing the care of (mainly but not exclusively) persons with disabilities and older adults. By identifying the potential need to incorporate sex within the concept of care, and by exploring the use of robot technology to ease its materialization, we hope to inform the policy debate around the regulation of robots and set the scene for further research.

scholarly journals Sex with robots: A not-so-niche market for disabled and older persons

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-232
Author(s):  
Adamantios Koumpis ◽  
Thomas Gees
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Older People ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Value System ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Sex Toys

AbstractIn this article, we present our experiences from research into the healthy ageing and well-being of older people and we report on our personal opinions of robots that may help the elderly to have sex and to cope with isolation and loneliness. However, and while there is a growing industry for sex robots and other sex toys and gadgets, there is also a growing concern about the ethics of such an industry. As is the case with pornography, the concept of sex robots may be criticized, yet it has deep roots in human civilization, with erotic depictions that date back to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Ages. So the need for an artefact that would offer sexually relevant functionality is not new at all. But what might be new and worrying is the potential for using artificial intelligence in sex robots in ways that might cause a repositioning of our entire value system. Such a threat is not related to the proliferation of sex robots per se but to the use of robots in general and in a variety of other fields of application.

scholarly journals Should society accept sex robots?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 428-442
Author(s):  
Eleanor Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Radical Feminist ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Moral Objection ◽  
Current State ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Informed Opinion

AbstractIn early 2015, Kathleen Richardson announced the arrival of the world’s largest, organised resistance group against the production of sex robots in society: The Campaign Against Sex Robots (CASR). Since the birth of the CASR, Richardson and other feminists have manipulated a combination of radical feminist rhetoric and sex industry abolitionist narratives, in order to promote the criminalisation of sex robots. Moreover, the CASR and Richardson have also made some rather unique claims regarding the “similarities” between sex workers and sex robots, which have not previously surfaced within the narratives of radical feminists in recent years. This article seeks to analyse if their analogous reference to sex workers and sex robots has credibility and viability in the context of the digitalised sex industry and in the wider teledildonic and sex robot market. Furthermore, this article will also formulate solutions for the ethical and social contentions surrounding the merge of sex dolls and robots within the contemporary sex industry. In order to disentangle the radical feminist arguments surrounding sex robots and the sex industry, the following contentions will be addressed:Is moral objection to female sex robots using client-sex worker analogies from feminists justified?Is opposition to sex robots based on informed opinion about the digitalised sex industry?To what extent are the positive considerations around sex robots/dolls and sex-technology ignored in the narratives of radical feminists and the CASR?What practical applications recommendations can be made to the sex robot industry from the stipulations of the CASR and the current state of sex dolls/robots in the sex industry?

scholarly journals Moral psychology of sex robots: An experimental study − how pathogen disgust is associated with interhuman sex but not interandroid sex

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mika Koverola ◽  
Marianna Drosinou ◽  
Jussi Palomäki ◽  
Juho Halonen ◽  
Anton Kunnari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Sex Worker ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Monogamous Relationship ◽  
Attitudes Toward Sex ◽  
First Time ◽  
And Robotics ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe idea of sex with robots seems to fascinate the general public, raising both enthusiasm and revulsion. We ran two experimental studies (Ns = 172 and 260) where we compared people’s reactions to variants of stories about a person visiting a bordello. Our results show that paying for the services of a sex robot is condemned less harshly than paying for the services of a human sex worker, especially if the payer is married. We have for the first time experimentally confirmed that people are somewhat unsure about whether using a sex robot while in a committed monogamous relationship should be considered as infidelity. We also shed light on the psychological factors influencing attitudes toward sex robots, including disgust sensitivity and interest in science fiction. Our results indicate that sex with a robot is indeed genuinely considered as sex, and a sex robot is genuinely seen as a robot; thus, we show that standard research methods on sexuality and robotics are also applicable in research on sex robotics.

scholarly journals Me, My Bot and His Other (Robot) Woman? Keeping Your Robot Satisfied in the Age of Artificial Emotion

Robotics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Rousi
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Artificial Emotions ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Robotics

With a backdrop of action and science fiction movie horrors of the dystopian relationship between humans and robots, surprisingly to date-with the exception of ethical discussions-the relationship aspect of humans and sex robots has seemed relatively unproblematic. The attraction to sex robots perhaps is the promise of unproblematic affectionate and sexual interactions, without the need to consider the other’s (the robot’s) emotions and indeed preference of sexual partners. Yet, with rapid advancements in information technology and robotics, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence and indeed, artificial emotions, there almost seems the likelihood, that sometime in the future, robots too, may love others in return. Who those others are-whether human or robot-is to be speculated. As with the laws of emotion, and particularly that of the cognitive-emotional theory on Appraisal, a reality in which robots experience their own emotions, may not be as rosy as would be expected.

The Ethics of Sex Robots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aksel Braanen Sterri ◽  
Brian D. Earp
Keyword(s):  
Harm Reduction ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
Reduction Approach

What, if anything, is wrong with having sex with a robot? For the sake of this chapter, we will assume that sexbots are ‘mere’ machines that are reliably identifiable as such, despite their human-like appearance and behaviour. Under these stipulations, sexbots themselves can no more be harmed, morally speaking, than your dishwasher. However, there may still be something wrong about the production, distribution, and use of such sexbots. In this chapter, we examine whether sex with robots is intrinsically or instrumentally wrong and critically assess different regulatory responses. They defend a harm reduction approach to sexbot regulation, analogous to the approach that has been considered in other areas, concerning, for example, drugs and sex work.

Intimacy, Bonding, and Sex Robots: Examining Empirical Results and Exploring Ethical Ramifications

Robot Sex ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Scheutz ◽  
Thomas Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Sexual Interaction ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Physical Intimacy ◽  
Attitudes Toward Sex ◽  
The Impact

Robots designed for sexual interaction present distinctive ethical challenges to received notions of physical intimacy, pleasure, social relationships, and social space. In this chapter, we build upon our recent survey on attitudes toward sex robots with the results from a second, expanded survey that broaches possible advantages and disadvantages of interacting with such robots, both individually and socially. We show that the first study’s results were replicated with respect to appropriate forms, contexts, and uses for sex robots; in addition, we find a systematic concern with how robots might risk harming human relationships. We conclude that ethical reflection on sex robots must include a wider consider-ation of the impact of social robots as a whole, with finer-grained examination of how intimacy and companionship define human relationships.

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