I/O
Sex With Robots Was Never the Point
Why are we so obsessed with screwing machines? Notable sci-fi writers weigh in.
Whenever I mention that I write about sex and technology, I wind up in a conversation about sex robots. Over the past few years, digital assistants like Siri and Alexa have become fixtures in our daily lives, acclimating many of us to the idea of intimacy with a virtual intelligence. And as movies and TV shows like Her, Ex Machina, and, of course, Westworld have explored what an intimate relationship with a robot might look like, it has become easier to believe that it’s only a matter of time until robot sex is de rigueur.
But as commentators eagerly launch into debates about the ethics of it all, they tend to neglect some important points. For starters, the technology that would make realistic humanoid droid lovers a reality is still out of reach. Perhaps more significant, the sci-fi canon depicting future relationships with robotic lovers was never meant to be taken literally.
Stories about sex with robots were “a way to think of women’s rights and what it would mean to have sex with a woman who wasn’t your slave.”
