Unreal Sex

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From stone statues to silicone works of art, we have long sought solace and sex from inanimate objects. Time and technology have perfected the artificial lover: today we have life-size silicone love dolls so finely crafted they feel like works of art. Now, with the help of robotics and artificial intelligence, these dolls are becoming even more like humans. This week we talk with researcher Kate Devlin about the history of the artificial lover, and consider what love and sex look like in the age of robots.

Transcript

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0:00.0	A word of your listening with small children, this episode is about sex and sexuality.
0:08.2	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:11.9	In the summer of 2017,
0:13.5	Kate Devlin flew from London to Southern California,
0:16.8	rented a Mustang convertible,
0:18.9	and drove to an industrial park in San Marcos,
0:22.0	a city south of Los Angeles.
0:24.7	Her destination, Abyss,
0:26.8	creations, a company that makes life-size, sex dolls.
0:32.0	In her new book, Turn Dawn, Science, Sex, and Robots,
0:36.1	Kate describes the moment she first gazed up close,
0:39.9	at a life-size, silicone woman.
0:43.6	The detail is incredible.
0:45.8	My hand skims the ankle.
0:47.5	The toes are perfect,
0:48.9	little wrinkles on the joints, tiny ridges on the toenails.
0:52.2	The soul is crisscrossed with the fine skin lines of a human foot.
0:55.5	It's beautiful.
0:59.8	Today we explore the long history of the artificial lover.
1:03.7	From stone statues to silicone works of art,
1:06.8	we have long-sought solace and sex from inanimate objects.
1:15.5	As the gap between humans and machines narrows,
	...

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