User:Com337/sandbox

Love and Sex with Robots by David Levy, first published in 2007, is a book about the future development of sex robots: robots that will have sex with humans. Levy claims that this practice will be routine by 2050. His central argument is if a robot makes you feel better, than why not encourage the behavior? The book takes the reader on the path of how humans love their pets (animals) regardless of their non human-like nature. That the owner gives their pet a personality, much like technology users give their computers characteristics and/or other traits Thus a human can, and will, do the same to a robot companion.

Reception

Kathleen Richardson of the Campaign Against Sex Robots wrote a position paper arguing "that Levy’s proposal shows a number of problems, firstly his understanding of what prostitution is and secondly, by drawing on prostitution as the model for human-robot sexual relations, Levy shows that the sellers of sex are seen by the buyers of sex as things and not recognized as human subjects." She goes on to argue that "[t]his legitimates a dangerous mode of existence where humans can move about in relations with other humans but not recognize them as human subjects in their own right."

Even those outside of the specific context of sex with robots have offered push back to the arguments David Levy makes. Sherry Turkle, the author of The Second Self which Levy heavily cites in his own work and arguments, is not convinced robots lovers will play the role of fulfilling the human need Levy suggests.

Future Work

Levy's work has inspired other entrepreneurs and researchers to join the conversation. The International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots has both gained popularity in researcher attendance and press coverage. Presenters yearly dive deeper into Levy's arguments from legal, moral, and empirical standpoints.

References

Achenbach, Joel (2007-12-23). "Programmed for Love". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-09-07.

Choi, Charles Q. (2007-10-12). "Sex and marriage with robots? It could happen". Retrieved 2016-09-07.

Lloyd, Seth (2007-11-25). "Wired for romance". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-09-07.

Richardson, Kathleen (September 2015). "The asymmetrical 'relationship': parallels between prostitution and the development of sex robots". ACM: Special Interest Group on Computers and Society (SIGCAS) Newsletter, special issue: Ethicomp. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library. 45 (3): 290&ndash, 293. doi:10.1145/2874239.2874281. View online.