Robot Sex, Danaher and McArthur

Review, notes, and reflections on Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications, edited by John Danaher and Neil McArthur.

“Should We Be Thinking About Robot Sex”

• There is a long history of artificial human sexual stimulation.
• Sex dolls have a longer history compared to sex robots, which must possess the following three qualities:
  • Humanoid form
  • Human-like movement and behavior
  • Some degree of Artificial Intelligence - interpretation and environmental adaptability
• Sex robots are novel and not fully realized technologies.
• Sex robots pose a number of interesting philosophical questions.
  • What is the personhood of a sex robot?
  • Do sex robots have ‘rights’?
  • Is there a significant distinction between the concept of innate being and the being we may endow in sex robots, as members of society and/or their lovers?
    • Is a visible deconstruction between innate and imposed informative here?
  • What sociological role do sex robots fulfill?
  • Where do sex robots stand in relationship to gender theory? Are sex robots liberating or degrading?
    • Are sex robots characteristically female? To what extent are they an other gender, a mechanical gender which alludes but is and always will remain distinctly different?
    • What is the sexuality of the sex robot?
  • How will sex robots shape the future of human reproduction?