Turned On - with Dr. Kate Devlin
17 October 2018 | LIBRARY London, London, UK
Virtual Futures presents Dr. Kate Devlin (and some robotic guests) for the launch of her new book 'Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots' (Bloomsbury Sigma 2018).
The idea of the seductive sex robot is the stuff of myth, legend and science fiction. From the myth of Laodamia in Ancient Greece to twenty-first century shows such as Westworld, robots in human form have captured our imagination, our hopes and our fears. But beyond the fantasies there are real and fundamental questions about our relationship with technology as it moves into the realm of robotics.
Turned On explores how the emerging and future development of sexual companion robots might affect us and the society in which we live. It explores the social changes arising from emerging technologies, and our relationships with the machines that someday may care for us and about us. Sex robots are here, and here to stay, and more are coming.
Computer scientist and sex-robot expert Kate Devlin is our guide as we seek to understand how this technology is developing. From robots in Greek myth and the fantastical automata of the Middle Ages through to the sentient machines of the future that embody the prominent AI debate, she explores the 'modern' robot versus the robot servants we were promised by twentieth century sci-fi, and delves into the psychological effects of the technology, and issues raised around gender politics, diversity, surveillance and violence. This book answers all the questions you've ever had about sex robots, as well as all the ones you haven't yet thought of.
In conversation with Dr. Trudy Barber (University of Portsmouth).
Participants
Dr. Kate Devlin is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London. Having begun her career as an archaeologist before moving into computer science, Devlin's research is in the fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), investigating how people interact with and react to technology in order to understand how emerging and future technologies will affect us and the society in which we live.
Dr. Trudy Barber created the UK's first immersive Virtual Reality Sex environment during undergraduate Fine Art Degree studies at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London in 1992 and went on to complete her PhD:Computer Fetishism and Sexual Futurology: exposing the impact of arousal on technologies of cyberspace from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 2005. She joined the Creative and Cultural Industries Faculty at Portsmouth University in 2006, and is Course Leader for BA (Hons) Media and Digital Practice Degree in the School of Media and Performing Arts. Trudy lectures and writes on various aspects of Digital Culture. Her subjects are emergent media, cyber/digital culture, cybersexualities, Virtual Reality, robots, deviant leisure and innovation, theories of love and attachment, art practice and the digital future. She has lectured and broadcast world wide for over 25 years on her interests.