Artificial Intimacy
Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Algorithmic Matchmakers
Published on 7. September 2021
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-231-20094-3 (ISBN)
Description
What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the ways people make friends, gossip with neighbors, and grow intimate with lovers. Sex robots present the humanoid face of this technological revolution-yet although it is easy to gawk at their uncanniness, more familiar technologies based in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are insinuating themselves into human interactions. Digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Will these machines, fueled by masses of user data and powered by algorithms that learn all the time, transform the quality of human life?
Artificial Intimacy offers an innovative perspective on the possibilities of the present and near future. The evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider the interaction of new technologies and fundamental human behaviors. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs-and are getting better at what they do. Brooks combines an understanding of core human traits from evolutionary biology with analysis of how cultural, economic, and technological contexts shape the ways people express them. Beyond the technology, he asks what the implications of artificial intimacy will be for how we understand ourselves.
Artificial Intimacy offers an innovative perspective on the possibilities of the present and near future. The evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider the interaction of new technologies and fundamental human behaviors. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs-and are getting better at what they do. Brooks combines an understanding of core human traits from evolutionary biology with analysis of how cultural, economic, and technological contexts shape the ways people express them. Beyond the technology, he asks what the implications of artificial intimacy will be for how we understand ourselves.
Reviews / Votes
Fantastic, funny, informative, and very, very timely. -- Kate Devlin, author of <i>Turned On: Science, Sex, and Robots</i> Artificial Intimacy is a great example of how to use an evolutionary perspective on human nature to illuminate an emerging, evolutionarily unprecedented area of modern life. -- Steve Stewart-Williams, author of <i>The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve</i> Rob Brooks weaves an engaging story of how this near future may look, drawing deeply on both his background as an evolutionary biologist and his skill as a scientific storyteller. Get ready for a roller-coaster ride into love and intimacy in your digital future. -- Toby Walsh, author of <i>2062: The World That AI Made</i> Witty, accessible, always fascinating but surely contentious, this is popular science that will appeal to readers of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens. -- <i>Books + Publishing</i> 'Artificial Intimacy' leaves the reader with a new understanding - and a million curiosities - about how technology influences our intimate relationships, and how that might change in the future. * AIPT Science * An in depth and well-researched narrative. An excellent book. * Nicole Barbaro, PhD * Artificial Intimacy weaves an engrossing story on the future that awaits us, without predicting whether or not it will be promising or dystopian. * The Hindu Business Line * Very accessible work...recommended. * Choice * This nuanced book written in clean, clear prose makes for compelling reading. * vijee venkatraman *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
2 figures
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
594 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-231-20094-3 (9780231200943)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2021
1st Edition
Columbia University Press
€33.99
Available for download
Person
Rob Brooks is Scientia Professor of Evolution at the University of New South Wales, where he founded and directed the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre. He is the author of Sex, Genes, & Rock 'n' Roll: How Evolution Has Shaped the Modern World (2011).
Content
Introduction: In the beginning ...
1. Meet the dollbots
2. It's not about the robot
3. Groom your friends
4. The intimacy algorithm
5. How did sex become so complicated?
6. When artificial intimacy goes bad
7. Ploughs, pills and porn: How technology changes sex
8. Tomorrow's moral panic will be just like yesterday's
9. Make war not love
10. A Fembot army to disarm the InCel insurrection
11. There's no such thing as free love
12. A future in four fictions
Acknowledgments
References
Notes
Index
1. Meet the dollbots
2. It's not about the robot
3. Groom your friends
4. The intimacy algorithm
5. How did sex become so complicated?
6. When artificial intimacy goes bad
7. Ploughs, pills and porn: How technology changes sex
8. Tomorrow's moral panic will be just like yesterday's
9. Make war not love
10. A Fembot army to disarm the InCel insurrection
11. There's no such thing as free love
12. A future in four fictions
Acknowledgments
References
Notes
Index