| Abstrakt: |
Cybersexual developments are challenging many of our social concepts--intimacy, fidelity, monogamy, sexuality, consent, virginity--and none more so than sex robots. While we might be tempted to see robots as 'relational artifacts' (Turkle, 2006), rather than true partners, the tendency to project human emotions and needs onto them--and the growing number of people in digisexual relationships--is raising significant and complex questions about robots' roles, rights and responsibilities in society. If tabloid coverage of sexbot developments is to be believed, traditional social institutions such as marriage, family, and parenthood are already at risk. Is it possible to have a genuine dyadic relationship between a human and a robot, or is a relationship with a sex robot a form of auto-eroticism? The concept of intimacy is complicated--even more so at the time of a global pandemic with lockdowns and social distancing--and encompasses a range of relationships, from romantic partnership to community, but generally depends on mutual responsiveness, subjectivity and emotional reciprocity. What conditions would need to be met for a robot to consent and engage in an intimate relationship? In what ways are sex robots challenging social institutions, or are they being designed to conform to them?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
