A “LOOMING” robot sex revolution is on the agenda for an adults-only event at an arts festival in the heart of a Scottish forest.
The age of robot sex is already on its way, according to guest speaker Vivienne Kuh, who is calling for artists and writers to take the lead in shaping the revolution.
She will warn this month’s Sanctuary festival in Dumfries and Galloway that huge social, ethical, psychological and even criminal issues are at stake.
The Bristol-based creative producer believes that nothing will prevent the advent of a world where sexual activity with machines, or in cyberspace, is commonplace – with manufacturers around the world competing to make the first artificially intelligent sex robot.
There are likely to be “enormous” consequences, according to Kuh.
“The age of robot sex is already on its way and at the moment it’s being driven by the market forces of pornography and sex dolls,” she said.
“It’s not something that can be stopped by people saying that it shouldn’t happen.
“One of the biggest worries is that we will be too prudish to discuss what the future should be like, so it will be decided by businessmen in search of profit.
“One thing we do know is that technology is used to create new things that are inspired by culture. Yesterday’s science fiction very often becomes the normality of today.
“Right now there is an opportunity for artists and writers to take a lead by thinking big about these issues and helping us consider what a whole new world of sex and sexual relations could be like.”
Her interest in the subject began when she saw 1973’s Westworld movie and was disturbed by the “cold, empty eyes” of cyborg sex workers created to be indistinguishable from real people.
Since then she has followed developments in the ways in which the worlds of sex and technology have increasingly overlapped.
This is leading to lots of tricky question, she says, such as where the border lies between a sex toy and a robot and whether cyborgs can give consent.
She also asks whether robot sex counts as infidelity and if it is psychologically damaging to have imagined relationships with machines built to look like people.
“Will our current ideas of what is or isn’t sex soon be completely obsolete?” asks Kuh.
A free event, Sanctuary takes place in the heart of Galloway Forest Park from noon on September 23 until noon the following day.
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