From Sex Robots to Love Robots: Is Mutual Love with a Robot Possible?

Abstract

This chapter looks into the possibility of genuine loving relationships with robots (mutual love). Our primary aim is to offer a framework for approaching the question of mutual love. But we also sketch a tentative answer. Our tentative answer is that whereas mutual love between humans and sex-robots is not in principle impossible, it is hard to achieve. Nevertheless, building robots capable of mutual love may help to address concerns raised by critics of human-robot sexual relationships. Our discussion below generates a “job description” that advanced sex-robots would need to live up in order to be able to participate in relationships that can be recognized as mutual love.