Digital Stimulation: The Promise and Problems of Sex and Intimacy Between Humans and Machines

Digital Stimulation considers the subject of intimacy, including sexual intimacy, between humans and machines, both in the imagination and in reality. In fiction and in fact, social robots are frequently gendered as women. It is therefore important to address their potential to reinforce, or perhaps to reinvent, existing attitudes and expectations about gender, including nonbinary and transgender identities, as well as race, class, disability, and other aspects of identity.

This book provides an overview of the history of robots as depicted in popular culture, especially science fiction, as well as an overview of the history of sex toys, including blow up dolls and lifelike sex dolls. This invites an examination of the current and ongoing development of robots designed explicitly for intimate engagement with humans. The book explores positive (and often overly optimistic) attitudes, as well as negative (and often overly sensational) attitudes about the potential impact of robots and artificial intelligence. Finally, Digital Stimulation considers the possible ways in which future robot design might consciously disrupt the limitations of a binary system of gender, sex, and sexuality.

Mimi Marinucci is Professor of Philosophy and of Women and Gender Studies at Eastern Washington University. She is the author of Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection Between Queer and Feminist Theory (Zed, 2010), the editor of Jane Austen and Philosophy (2016) and the author of numerous articles and book chapters that address the intersecting issues of gender, philosophy, and popular culture.