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bookofclubs's review
3.0
Won't lie: got this in a Humble Bundle and the title was understandably eye-catching.
This book is essentially several interesting treatises on the ethical and social implications of this matter dragged down heavily by what can only be charitably described as a lack of real imagination. Most essays within seem to only really describe things covering the perspective of Male Human / Robot Female pairing, largely glossing over other kinds of coupling. (after all; who's ever heard of a woman using any kind of machinery for pleasure?)
By far the worst section of the book is the chapter is the consideration of the subject through the lens of New Natural Law Theory, both in terms of the style of writing and the implicit undercurrent of conservative politics surrounding sex and procreation, not even addressing the matter of sex that biologically can't produce offspring. Given what I could find about NNLT and its roots my suspicion is they didn't really want to address the existence of homosexuality in the first place, but I'll admit to a lack of enthusiasm contributing to me not knowing much about them in the first place.
It's also fairly obvious that a lot of the writing here comes from people who are approaching the matter from a more... philosophical than scientific background. That's not bad per se, as the entire point is that people should be considering the kinds of moral and ethical implications that sadly perspectives more immersed in hard science tend to overlook in the pursuit of progress. However, it also means many of the assumptions are grounded in a limited understanding of matters of AI and technology, conflations of machine learning with actual intelligence, and precious little imagination regarding potential ramifications outside of the final (and, of course, shortest) chapter.
I would still argue for this 3-star rating because what subjects it DOES cover that aren't through the lens of NNLT do require a lot of consideration and frankly most of the sections of this book are wise enough to conclude that we simply don't have enough data to provide a concrete answer on even the most unsavory topics covered.
I'm just glad I'm done reading it. It's not easy to have an ebook with section titles like: "LEGAL AND MORAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHILD SEX ROBOTS" plastered in giant, readable text sitting across my screen.
This book is essentially several interesting treatises on the ethical and social implications of this matter dragged down heavily by what can only be charitably described as a lack of real imagination. Most essays within seem to only really describe things covering the perspective of Male Human / Robot Female pairing, largely glossing over other kinds of coupling. (after all; who's ever heard of a woman using any kind of machinery for pleasure?)
By far the worst section of the book is the chapter is the consideration of the subject through the lens of New Natural Law Theory, both in terms of the style of writing and the implicit undercurrent of conservative politics surrounding sex and procreation, not even addressing the matter of sex that biologically can't produce offspring. Given what I could find about NNLT and its roots my suspicion is they didn't really want to address the existence of homosexuality in the first place, but I'll admit to a lack of enthusiasm contributing to me not knowing much about them in the first place.
It's also fairly obvious that a lot of the writing here comes from people who are approaching the matter from a more... philosophical than scientific background. That's not bad per se, as the entire point is that people should be considering the kinds of moral and ethical implications that sadly perspectives more immersed in hard science tend to overlook in the pursuit of progress. However, it also means many of the assumptions are grounded in a limited understanding of matters of AI and technology, conflations of machine learning with actual intelligence, and precious little imagination regarding potential ramifications outside of the final (and, of course, shortest) chapter.
I would still argue for this 3-star rating because what subjects it DOES cover that aren't through the lens of NNLT do require a lot of consideration and frankly most of the sections of this book are wise enough to conclude that we simply don't have enough data to provide a concrete answer on even the most unsavory topics covered.
I'm just glad I'm done reading it. It's not easy to have an ebook with section titles like: "LEGAL AND MORAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHILD SEX ROBOTS" plastered in giant, readable text sitting across my screen.
debo03's review
3.0
Whilst this delivers a lot of food for thought and is seemingly structured very well balanced, with sections for multiple different outlooks on the topic of sex robots, I do feel that the underlying vibe is the rejection of the concept throughout most of the essays, so it doesn’t feel all that impartial :D
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