Hardware and software designed to serve human sexual enjoyment - it is an interesting subject and one that invariably induces giggling - even among adults - when first raised. Get past that stage and fascinating ideas are sparked. Toys and technologies that people use to jazz up their sex lives have long been a fixture. During the corona pandemic and with social distancing the popularity of these technologies has soared. Is this what we want? A sex doll that after a night in bed makes breakfast for your children? A smart vibrator that poses a risk to your privacy because it holds data on you?

Let’s talk about it

In the discussion initiated by CH&T, streamed on YouTube on May 31st starting at 8 PM, the main focus will be the ethical aspects of sex with robots. The audience can join in the discussion via a chat channel. Moderator Lily Frank is well versed in this subject. In her capacity as Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences she has even delivered lectures on sex and love robots and dating apps.

Frank is keen to raise the following subjects: the therapeutic value of sex robots; the influence of feminism; and the consequences for the human psyche. When she speaks, Kathleen Richardson, Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots at Montfort University and founder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, will argue a different case than Kate Devlin, author of the book ‘Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots’ and a lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at London's King’s College.

“We must prevent sex robots becoming a substitute for relationships with women,” Richardson writes on her website. “We must embrace robots. And there's nothing to stop you having sex with an object that is not humanoid, has a different texture and moves differently,” Devlin says in her speech at TEDxWarwick.

Value

“I'll be asking the speakers for their thoughts on the use of sex robots in a medical or therapeutic context,” Frank says. “There are people whose physical or mental disabilities or traumatic (youth) experiences make sex problematic. Can they be helped with the latest technologies?”

Like Frank herself, both speakers identify as feminists. Yet Devlin and Richardson have utterly opposing views of the relationship between intimacy and technology. Frank is keen to hear from them how they are influenced by different strains of feminist thought in relation to this technology.

She will also draw attention to the fact that as well as the life-sized Barbie-like sex dolls with oversized busts there is also a huge range of technologies that help facilitate sex between two people. “Just think of cyber sex using virtual reality, say. Do these technologies create new kinds of intimacies or are they merely facilitating the same kinds of interactions that we can have in person? Do they raise unique ethical issues or change our psychology in particular ways?”