Digital Stimulation explores the subject of intimacy, including romantic and sexual intimacy, between human and nonhuman entities, particularly technological entities. As relationships between humans and machines become increasingly prevalent, it is important to address the potential for such relationships to reflect, to reinforce, or to reinvent existing hierarchies. The distinction between man and machine, like the distinction between man and beast, between man and brute, between man and nature, between man and woman, and so on, is an expression of the anthropocentrism and androcentrism permeating western ideas of self and other.
Concerns about the representation (or misrepresentation) and treatment (or mistreatment) of machines are of consequence for other human and nonhuman others as well, and this book details many of the ways in which depictions of machines, especially robots, mirror ideas and attitudes about various human and nonhuman others. This book also addresses the ongoing development of machines designed explicitly for intimate engagement with humans, such as sex robots. As they become more and more lifelike, it becomes progressively more urgent to cultivate compassion toward such machines.
By:
Mimi Marinucci
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780755639816
ISBN 10: 0755639812
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 31 October 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter One: History of Robots from Fiction to Fact Chapter Two: History of Sexual Aids from Dildos to Dolls Chapter Three: New Developments in Social Robots and Sex Robots Chapter Four: Problems of Consciousness, Minds, and Moral Consideration Chapter Five: Exploring the Promise of Social Robots and Sex Robots Chapter Six: Exploring the Fear of Social Robots and Sex Robots Chapter Seven: Guiding the Queer Future of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Mimi Marinucci is Professor of Philosophy and of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Eastern Washington University, USA. Marinucci is the author of Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection Between Queer and Feminist Theory (Bloomsbury, 2010)
Reviews for Digital Stimulation: Fascination, Familiarity, and Fantasy in Human Relationships with Robots
Mimi Marinucci’s book addresses an incredibly timely topic with nuance and compassion. Digital Stimulation helps readers move beyond whatever fears they might have about new technologies such as robots and AI, and shows us how these technologies can be part of our intimate lives. And she gives us the context we need to make sense of the strange new world that is in fact already here. * Neil McArthur, University of Manitoba, Canada * Digital Stimulation adeptly reviews our current modes of interacting with robot others while calling for a more thoughtful approach to all our future relationships. * James M. Okapal, Missouri Western State University, USA *
