Abstract
This chapter concludes this book, and looks at the way the stories are changing to be somewhat more inclusive, though acknowledging that there remains a long way to go. It begins by reiterating some of the themes from previous chapters, including that of the potential for self-replication and the potential for sex robot revolt, while discussing the perils of giving something an emotive capability, forgetting that rage, hatred, and the will to survive are also emotions. It also looks at the diversity of the emerging sci-fi and examines how such ideas fit into the greater narrative. It also contains a peek at the very newest of advancements in cybernetics and AI, examining biofeedback prosthetics, ‘learning’ AI, and following the latest news on Sophia, the Saudi citizen robot.
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Notes
- 1.
In the same interview, Sophia says that her ‘greatest love’ is her creator, David Hanson.
- 2.
Additionally ironic, though not cogent to the Sophia question, is that Hanson Robotics made a Philip K. Dick android, lost the first one on a plane, and made a second one—he is a repository of Dick’s oeuvre of work, and has the memory capacity to carry on limited conversations as well as reading/reciting any of Dick’s writing (Hornyak 2011). Presumably Dick himself would either be fascinated or horrified, or a combination of both. At the time of writing, Hanson Robotics refused repeated requests for comment on this chapter.
- 3.
It should be noted that one example of this extreme is the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie (Ancillary Justice (2013), Ancillary Sword (2014), and Ancillary Mercy (2015)), which uncoincidentally won every single sci-fi award in its first year.
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Gibson, R. (2020). Moving Toward an Acceptance of Robotic Sexuality Through Sci-Fi. In: Desire in the Age of Robots and AI. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24017-2_5
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