Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships
Author: David Levy
Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots.
From Pygmalion falling for his chiseled Galatea to Dr. Frankenstein marveling at his "modern Prometheus" to the man-meets-machine fiction of Philip K. Dick and Michael Crichton, humans have been enthralled by the possibilities of emotional relationships with their technological creations. Synthesizing cutting-edge research in robotics with the cultural history and psychology of artificial intelligence, Love and Sex with Robots explores this fascination and its far-reaching implications.
Using examples drawn from around the world, David Levy shows how automata have evolved from the mechanical marvels of centuries past to the electronic androids of the modern age, and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Along the way, Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and to virtual pets such as the Tamagotchi, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots. He also examines the needs we seek to fulfill through sexual relationships, tracking the development of life-sized dolls, machines, and other sexual devices, and demonstrating how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.
Shocking but utterly convincing, Love and Sex withRobots provides insights that are surprisingly relevant to our everyday interactions with technology. This is science brought to life, and Levy makes a compelling and titillating case that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. Anyone reading the book with an open mind will find a wealth of fascinating material on this important new direction of intimate relationships, a direction that, before long, will be regarded as perfectly normal.
The Washington Post - Joel Achenbach
"Levy's book is entertaining in parts, such as the eye-opening (even climactic) section on the evolution of vibrators."..."But throughout Love and Sex with Robot's, there's a recurring sense of the writer trying a little too hard: Every brick must be carefully laid as he builds the great edifice of his thesis. Thus, we must labor through long sections on why people fall in love, why they love their pets, how they become attached to their computers, and so on, before we can get to the good stuff on sex toys. And it's not clear that Levy -- described on the book jacket as "an internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence" -- is truly an expert on the subject of human love. He seems more like a partisan in a technological debate most of us didn't realize was going on."
Diana Hartle - Library Journal
Levy, a renowned expert on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and author of Robots Unlimited, gives us an awe-inspiring and frightening peek into the future, to imagine a society where humans have deep psychological and physical relationships with robots. Rather than focusing on the current state of the art, Levy explores both the technological breakthroughs and the evolutionary changes in human behavior necessary to achieve his utopian dream. Our psychological knowledge of relationships is used as design specifications to develop animate creations that can play a major role in the advancement of humankind. Levy uses today's robots (e.g., ASIMO, AIBO, Repliee Qi, the RealDoll) and research into human behavior with technology to argue that love and sex with robots on a grand scale is inevitable. While Levy asks and answers a lot of intriguing questions, he does not acknowledge whether, just because we can, we should. Although reading the book in public would not raise eyebrows in Japan, here, be prepared to cause a major stir. Strongly recommended for academic and public libraries.
Kirkus Reviews
By mid-century, people will be marrying robots, asserts Levy, author of numerous books on chess, computers and artificial intelligence (Robots Unlimited: Life in a Virtual Age, 2005, etc.). To doubt that, he writes, is to be unaware of the rapid progress being made in artificial intelligence, materials science and other relevant technological areas. Levy explores the changing relationship between humans and robots, from industrial and service robots to children's toys and virtual pets-think Tamagotchi-to the caregiver robots being developed in Japan to help the elderly. Once a more human-like appearance can be achieved, says Levy, robots will move on to roles as companions and lovers. He analyzes the reasons people fall in love with each other and finds the same reasons applicable to human-robot relationships. He notes that social mores regarding marriage are changing, and he predicts that the combination of dynamic changes in social and cultural thinking with major advances in technology will move society toward acceptance of human-robot marriage. The advantages-a partner programmed to one's individual desires, one that can never truly die or fall out of love-are considerable. As for sex with a robot, Levy devotes an illustrated chapter to technological solutions to the problems facing the amorous human partner, ranging from old-fashioned mechanical devices to virtual-reality software systems. It's easy for the casual reader to be swept along by Levy's assumptions and arguments, so that statements such as, "If we can accept that a robot can think, then there is no good reason we should not also accept that it could have feelings of love and feelings of lust" may seem reasonable on firstreading, but highly questionable upon deeper reflection. Levy is willing to go far out on a limb with his predictions, and even the reader who remains unconvinced may well enjoy this thought-provoking and entertaining ride into the future. Agent: Molly Glick/Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency
See also: Comunicazioni di Digitahi
Creating Vista Gadgets: Using HTML, CSS and JavaScript with Examples in RSS, Ajax, ActiveX (COM) and SilverLight
Author: Rajesh Lal
A one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Explores one of the super cool features new to Windows Vista -- the Sidebar
- It is a one-stop resource for each aspect of designing and developing Sidebar gadgets, perfect for anyone who wants to create killer gadgets
- Includes complete design instructions for four never-before-seen gadgets
Windows Vista Sidebar is a panel located on the desktop of a PC where gadgets can be placed for easy access and reference. These gadgets are small, single-purpose applications, such as clocks, calendars, games, RSS notifiers, search tools, stock tickers, etc, that reside on the Windows desktop and on the Windows Sidebar. The book will be a tutorial to design and develop a gadget. It will provide ready-to-use samples using .NET, XML, CSS and AJAX. After reading the book, a web developer/designer will be confident enough to start developing gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar. The beginner portion of the book shows an overview of the subject with the design pattern, the architecture and implementation details. The later sections will have solid examples for instant results. In short, the book will tell how to do everything with Sidebar Gadgets using solid, unique examples. Brief outline: " Brief background on Gadgets " Define architecture, design consideration and implementation to give a clear view to the developer " Step by step, create a useful Gadget sample "My Blogs" " Elaborate the architecture design constraint and implementation details for the sample " Detail the standard practices " Recheck the gadget created forstandard practices " Improvise and Improve with compare and contrast " Add advanced samples with .NET, AJAX and XHTML.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
Pt. I The Foundation
1 Innovate with Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets 7
2 The Architecture 29
3 An Approach to Design 49
4 Selling Your Gadget 75
Pt. II Developing a Gadget
5 Creating a Simple Gadget with RSS/Atom Feed 91
6 Design Patterns and Standard Practices 115
7 The MyBlog Gadget Revisited 139
8 Debugging and Deploying a Gadget 159
Pt. III Advanced Samples
9 Site Statistics Gadget with Ajax - An Information Gadget 183
10 Most Recent Used .NET Projects - An Application Gadget 211
11 Radio Gadget and YouTube Video Gadget - Fun Gadgets 237
12 Silverlight World Clock - Utility Gadget 261
Pt. IV Appendixes
App. A Tips and Tricks 289
App. B Extras 315
Index 321
