What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the ways people make friends, gossip with neighbors, and grow intimate with lovers. Sex robots present the humanoid face of this technological revolution--yet although it is easy to gawk at their uncanniness, more familiar technologies based in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are insinuating themselves into human interactions. Digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Will these machines, fueled by masses of user data and powered by algorithms that learn all the time, transform the quality of human life?
Artificial Intimacy offers an innovative perspective on the possibilities of the present and near future. The evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider the interaction of new technologies and fundamental human behaviors. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs--and are getting better at what they do. Brooks combines an understanding of core human traits from evolutionary biology with analysis of how cultural, economic, and technological contexts shape the ways people express them. Beyond the technology, he asks what the implications of artificial intimacy will be for how we understand ourselves.
Industry Reviews
Fantastic, funny, informative, and very, very timely. -- Kate Devlin, author of Turned On: Science, Sex, and Robots
Artificial Intimacy is a great example of how to use an evolutionary perspective on human nature to illuminate an emerging, evolutionarily unprecedented area of modern life. -- Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
Rob Brooks weaves an engaging story of how this near future may look, drawing deeply on both his background as an evolutionary biologist and his skill as a scientific storyteller. Get ready for a roller-coaster ride into love and intimacy in your digital future. -- Toby Walsh, author of 2062: The World That AI Made
Witty, accessible, always fascinating but surely contentious, this is popular science that will appeal to readers of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens. -- Books + Publishing
'Artificial Intimacy' leaves the reader with a new understanding - and a million curiosities - about how technology influences our intimate relationships, and how that might change in the future. * AIPT Science *
An in depth and well-researched narrative. An excellent book. * Nicole Barbaro, PhD *
Artificial Intimacy weaves an engrossing story on the future that awaits us, without predicting whether or not it will be promising or dystopian. * The Hindu Business Line *
Very accessible work...recommended. * Choice *
This nuanced book written in clean, clear prose makes for compelling reading. * vijee venkatraman *
