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For the Love of Artifice 2: Attachment

An Extension of the Paper ‘for the Love of Artifice: Why We Need Robot Sex Dolls and Why There Is a Growing Sub Culture of Real People Trying to Become Them’

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Love and Sex with Robots (LSR 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10237))

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Abstract

This work is an extension to the original paper written for the AISB 50 Conference Symposium by the author ‘For the Love of Artifice: why we need robot sex dolls and why there is a growing subculture of people trying to become them’ where ‘evolutionary sexual strategies according to Buss and Schmidt were introduced as a lens for discussing relations with artificial humans. In addition, this paper has combined Money’s discussion of love mapping with Schwartz and White’s theoretical approaches to attachment as a framework to explore our individual sexual strategies with artificial partners. It is argued in this extended paper that such theoretical approaches should be combined to facilitate discourse on the impact of robotic and technological intimacy on the end user. This need not necessarily be solely seen in terms of psychological aspects, but also in relation to Jenkins’ notion of contemporary participatory culture, associations with multi-mediated geek fandoms and fetishes, and concepts of social acceptance. As a consequence of this, elements of attachment explored as a sexual project rather than an emotional one, as in erotic countertransference onto robots and technology for example, will be developed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ferguson (2010, p. 3).

  2. 2.

    Bellmer 1902–1975. For a general overview of his work see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bellmer.

  3. 3.

    de Fren (2009, p. 409).

  4. 4.

    Khan et al. (2010, p. 124).

  5. 5.

    For a definition and further discussion on transmedia see: http://henryjenkins.org/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html.

  6. 6.

    Venus Angelic: How to look like an android doll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU5NzchNkng.

  7. 7.

    Snog Marry Avoid (2008-) BBC 3. Remarkable Television. UK.

  8. 8.

    Devlin (2016), Keynote Address. Second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots. Goldsmiths University. London. UK. http://loveandsexwithrobots.org/.

  9. 9.

    Buss and Schmidt (1993, p. 205).

  10. 10.

    Buss and Schmidt (1993, p. 216).

  11. 11.

    Buller (2005, p. 213).

  12. 12.

    Scheutz and Arnold (2016, p. 358).

  13. 13.

    Money (1986, p. 290).

  14. 14.

    Downing (2010, pp. 277–278).

  15. 15.

    Benestad et al. (2015, p. 27).

  16. 16.

    See: http://futureofsex.net/robots/lilly-inmoovator-engaged-human-robot-couple-want-right-marry/.

  17. 17.

    Schwarz and White (2005, p. 7).

  18. 18.

    Bowlby (1979, p. 129).

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Mitchell (1988, p. 107).

  21. 21.

    Birnbaum et al. (2016, p. 417).

  22. 22.

    Dewitte (2012, p. 119).

  23. 23.

    Dewitte (2012, p. 120).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, School of Media and Performing Arts, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 2DJ, UK

    Trudy Barber

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  1. Trudy Barber
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Correspondence to Trudy Barber .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. City, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Adrian David Cheok

  2. Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Kate Devlin

  3. Intelligent Toys Ltd., London, United Kingdom

    David Levy

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Barber, T. (2017). For the Love of Artifice 2: Attachment. In: Cheok, A., Devlin, K., Levy, D. (eds) Love and Sex with Robots. LSR 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10237. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57738-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57738-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57737-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57738-8

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