Love + Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships

#173
Title: Love + Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships
Author: David Levy
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2007
334 pages

The structural problem with the delivery of an otherwise fine idea is that Levy's writing is rarely exciting. I appreciate his effort to construct his argument slowly and methodically, yet the result is a fairly boring work, considering the subject matter. Levy spends a lot of time building evidence for the contention that people would have love and sex with androids. Perhaps because I read a lot of science fiction, or perhaps because this conceit does not seem very far-fetched to me, I found much of the book to be plodding and over-explained. The amount of material could be halved with no loss of data and an increase in readability.

The main content problem is that Levy spends much time on this initial point and gives short shrift to the implications of love and sex with robots. He barely addresses the issue of jealousy. As a psychologist, I'm well aware that people are jealous not just of partners' friendships, but also of their online flirtations, use of sexually-oriented chat, online and real life use of pornography, and even the objects euphemistically referred to as "marital aids." Levy's very brief discussion of jealousy is unsatisfactory and would have been very interesting, especially since one of his chief contentions is that people will fall in love with these robots. How then is jealousy not a critical part of this discussion?

As to the love aspect of the book, while I agree with the evidence Levy musters about people falling in love with their robot, I do wonder at his almost quaint coupling of love and sex with robots. I have struggled with how to write this section of my review in a satisfactory way. I will merely say that if I were to imagine myself in the near future when robots with sexual functions were available, if I were to avail myself of this opportunity, I would be less distressed by C3PO than by Data. What I mean by this is that I do not think the appeal of a robot would be its human-like qualities or personality, but its machine-ness and its lack of pretense. Others may not agree, and indeed, I have never liked cosmetic interventions (such as coloring one's hair or getting plastic surgery) that seem to me to be physical lies. Levy presents sufficient evidence to the contrary that I recognize that I might be in a minority.

The other issue that troubles me is that though Levy makes many efforts to include homosexuality in his discussion, it is usually as an example of a cultural taboo that has been progressively normalized (at least in the US and EU). He makes mention of the possibility of same-sex (sic) robots, but his robot/human love story is heavy on love, light on sex, and generally heterosexually recuperative--that is, the examples he gives are "heterosexual." It is as if robots must be gendered in order to be sexual objects. Robots constructed for sexual purposes are built as male or female, and sexual orientation is implied to carry over to sex with them. This seems strangely prudish, or at least evinces a surprising lack of imagination.
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I'll add two other issues, since I've come back to edit:

1. My computer is failing even as I type. My iPod holds only a 2-hour charge. My previous truck expired in a great gout of oily smoke. Get the picture?

2. Levy is big on the idea that we will program out sexbots with our preferences. I can't imagine that when one takes the robot in for repairs one's personal sexual preference information will remain private. Levy is naive if he thinks it will.