One of our faves, John Danaher, returns to the program. What do we talk about? Oh, nothing all that exciting: just SEX ROBOTS!

Seriously, John‘s the best. Listen to the chat, read the book (Robot Sex), follow the links, live happy life. Peace.

Notes

• Two years ago, the Malaysian government abruptly canceled the second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots. This year, the venue for the Congress was abruptly changed, seemingly “due to some very credible threats against participants…by Muslim extremists.” Damn, it’s hard being a sexbot.
• The state of the art of sexbots: Roxxxy and Harmony.
• Waking Up: “The Nature of Consciousness” (with Tom Metzinger, a guy we talked about one time)
• John’s TEDx talk: “Symbols and their Consequences in the Sex Robot Debate”
• “The Gamer’s Dilemma” by Morgan Luck
• The Circle fantasy John mentions, in which surveillance is thoroughly pervasive and invasive? That’s this The Circle.
• We can never show enough love for Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature.
• Steve Petersen’s essay “Designing People to Serve” and John’s reply “Is there a Case for Robot Slaves?”
• Once again, Douglas Adams’s Ameglian Major Cow.
• “Gut Feelings, Disgust, and Moral Dumbfounding”
• “Married to a Doll: Why One Man [Davecat] Advocates Synthetic Love”
• “The Japanese men who prefer virtual girlfriends to sex”
• “The Overdue Demise Of Monogamy” by Aubrey de Grey

Media Mentions

John

• Blade Runner 2049
• Behave by Robert Sapolsky
• Adcreep: The Case Against Modern Marketing by Mark Bartholomew
• Arrival (based on a tale in Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang)

Tom

• Blade Runner 2049

Scott

• Journey’s inimitable, impossible music video, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”
• Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications edited by John Danaher and Neil McArthur
• Blade Runner: The Final Cut
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• Tears For Fears: Songs From The Big Chair
• M83 made not one, not two, but three music videos in the style of Akira. All the songs can be found on their terrific album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.

Zach

• “Spotify Landmark: Tears For Fears”
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
• if John would make audio recordings of his writings
• Genesis: “Land Of Confusion”