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or years, the concept of humans having real, emotional relationships with robots has been a symbol of technology's final horizon, partially because it seems totally implausible. But is it any more absurd than falling in love with someone thousands of miles away who you've only talked to via keyboard? Or crushing on a celebrity you've never met? Not according to David Levy, the author of the new book Love and Sex With Robots, which makes a persuasive argument that people can normalize anything, given enough time. "As people get more and more accustomed to having electronics as a very big part of their lives, they will also become accustomed to the intellectually and emotionally amazing things some of these electronic products do."

Levy, a fifty-two-year-old Scottish chess champion, first became interested in artificial intelligence in 1968, when he bet four A.I. experts that they couldn't develop a computer that could beat him at chess within ten years. He won the bet in a highly publicized match at Northwestern University (though lost his first match to a computer in 1989), and went on to study A.I. himself. Today, he believes we're on the cusp of sex between humans and robots — by 2050, he says, robots will be so similar to us that sex and relationships with them will be largely accepted by society. Today, Levy is the CEO of Intelligent Toys Ltd., creating artificially intelligent toys for children. He spoke to Hooksexup about the ethics of robot relationships, and why he wouldn't mind if his wife had an affair with an android. — Sarah Harrison

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Why should people want to have relationships with robots instead of with other people?
There are a huge number of lonely people out there who, for one reason or another, cannot form normal relationships, either platonic relationships or sexual relationships. This is a big segment of the population that will find the idea appealing, and I think once it becomes publicized in the media — once people start being interviewed about, and writing about, their experiences of these relationships, sexual relationships in particular — the idea will catch on through curiosity.

What happens when a person who's had a relationship with a robot has to then have one with a human again? Do you think it's going to be difficult for people to transition back and forth?
In many ways I believe robots will actually make it easier for people to interact with other humans. For example, people who have psychological problems or psychosexual problems could be given therapy by robots. But the downside is, if someone has a relationship with a robot, they might have higher expectations of their relationships with humans. I'm thinking particularly of women who might find robots are much better lovers than they're used to, and women who have fantastic orgasms courtesy of robots might then become more dissatisfied with their human partners. And the human partners of course could develop some sort of complex — performance anxiety.

In the book, you write that if a robot appears intelligent or appears to have a conscience, then we should accept that it is in fact intelligent and has a conscience. Is it realistic to expect people to make this mental leap?
In the 1950s, when people were talking about if a computer could play chess better than the world champion, they said, "This is a ridiculous idea. In order to play chess one has to have true intelligence." But over time, people got used to the idea of computers performing mental and intellectual feats normally associated with human intelligence, so the idea of artificial intelligence grew within society very slowly. I think the slowness of the growth made it much more acceptable, so that when Kasparov was defeated by Deep Blue in 1997, it wasn't even surprising for most people. I think people are already beginning to think about the idea of robot consciousness, and over the next twenty, thirty, forty years, the population will come to find the idea acceptable.

It's true that there's a lot of science-fiction writing about robot consciousness, but it's usually presented as a frightening idea.
That's fine, and with good reason. Lots of what used to be science-fiction fifty or sixty years ago is now science-fact. Robot consciousness is outside our normal frame of reference.

Do you think people will have very long-term relationships with robots, like marriages?
I think in some cases, yes. I've done research into the forum of people who have bought sex dolls, and who have had these dolls for years, almost since the RealDoll company started. Some people clearly enjoy their relationships with their sex dolls and create in their minds some kind of persona for the doll. So I think if relationships can last for years with a completely inanimate doll, then I think a relationship with a talking, intelligent, humorous robot that appears to be loving, kind, gentle — everything somebody wants in a partner — can last a very long time.

What happens if a robot malfunctions in one of these relationships? Couldn't that be traumatic?
One could view it in the same way as your human partner having a sudden illness. And by the time robots have reached the level of sophistication I'm talking about, in the middle of the century, the robots will automatically have the contents of their memory uploaded and backed up in a massive store, so that if something dreadful happened to your robot, you could have its physical body replicated in a factory and have its personality downloaded into it. It'll be the equivalent of sending a human to the hospital.

What if your wife wanted to have sex with a robot, in addition to you — would you be comfortable with that?
I don't know. I never really discuss this with my wife because it's purely hypothetical. If these robots were here now, though, I would see nothing wrong with either my wife or myself trying out robot sex because I certainly would be very curious to find out what it's like. In comparison, my wife would be less so, because she's not interested in technology.

One of the things I write about is the idea that when one partner in a relationship goes off on a business trip, for example, if they have access to a robot, then the other partner doesn't have to worry about what they're doing in the evenings. And of course, there's always the classic, "Not tonight, darling. I've got a headache." If you have a robot in the cupboard, it doesn't matter if your partner has a headache.

But you don't get the same emotional satisfaction from sex with the robot as you do from sex with your partner, which is what a lot of people want from sex.
Absolutely, yes. But there are a lot of people who would find it a viable alternative. And there are also people who will enjoy the idea of threesomes and foursomes with the robot and their partner, and not have to feel jealous.

If your son or daughter wanted to marry a robot and asked you for advice, what would you tell them?
I would say they should try humans first, but that if they found for some reason they were unable to have satisfactory relationships with humans, they sure, why not experiment with a robot?

Do you worry robots might be more attracted to other robots than to humans?
That's just a matter of programming.  

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To order Love and Sex with Robots, click here.

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