Desire in the Age of Robots and AI

This book examines how science fiction’s portrayal of humanity’s desire for robotic companions influences and reflects changes in our actual desires. It begins by taking the reader on a journey that outlines basic human desires—in short, we are storytellers, and we need the objects of our desire to be able to mirror that aspect of our beings. This not only explains the reasons we seek out differences in our mates, but also why we crave sex and romance with robots. In creating a new species of potential companions, science fiction highlights what we already want and how our desires dictate—and are in return recreated— by what is written. But sex with robots is more than a sci-fi pop-culture phenomenon; it’s a driving force in the latest technological advances in cybernetic science. As such, this book looks at both what we imagine and what we can create in terms of the newest iterations of robotic companionship.

• AI
• artificial intelligence
• cyborgs
• sexuality
• human-robot relationships
• robot sex
• science fiction
• bioanthropology
• desire and companionship
• Philip K. Dick

“Gibson’s book is a masterclass in how to analyze literature and film and turn them into useful bits of evidence for a larger ethnographic study. I would recommend Desire in the Age of Robots and AI for both undergraduate and graduate courses in Anthropology, Folklore, Sociology, Film Studies, Literary Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Human Sexuality, and so much more.” (Wayne Fife, Anthropologica, Vol. 63 (1), 2021)

“Half of the time I plug into the world through technology I am wondering about the “people” of the other side…. As the online space expands, we become increasingly less sure where we stand in relation to digital simulacrums. Gibson’s book is a delightful and dirty look on what separates us from the machines, and exactly what those differences say about us if they even exist anymore.” (Jef Rouner, author of The Rook Circle)

 “Well researched, engaging, and thought provoking, Dr. Gibson has given humanity a lot to consider when it comes to our desires and creations. The dance between science fiction and advances in technology is always complex and uniquely intertwined, but the threads here are neatly pulled apart and examined in such an insightful way that the reader can't help but find new understanding of their own inner world and the desires inherent to the human condition. A winning combination of entertaining and well documented information and analysis!” (Eli Girvin, Talent Analytics Strategy Consultant with IBM)

• Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA

  Rebecca Gibson

Rebecca Gibson, PhD, is Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, USA. She specializes in bioanthropology, and serves as a juror for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Working Class Writers grant. Her work has been published in NEXUS, and in Sexuality & Culture.          

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