My second book is to be published by NewSouth Books (Australia and New Zealand) on 1 May 2021. Columbia University Press are publishing it in the remainder of the English-Speaking World.
Description from the back cover ….
People have long told machines what to do by pushing buttons. Now, with advances in technology, machines are pushing our buttons.
In Artificial Intimacy, evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks takes us from the origins of human behaviour to the latest in artificially intelligent technologies, providing a fresh and original view of the very near future of human relationships.
Sex dollbots, digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Apps can sense when users are falling in love, when they are fighting, and when they are likely to break up. These machines, the ‘artificial intimacies’ already learn and exploit human social needs. And they are getting better at what they do.
So how will humanity’s future unfold as our ancient, evolved minds and old-fashioned cultures collide with twenty-first century technology?
What people are saying
‘In this fascinating exploration of the past, present, and future of sexuality, Rob Brooks shows how new technologies can expose ancient features of human nature.’ – STEVEN PINKER Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of How the Mind Works and Enlightenment Now.
‘Fantastic: Funny, informative, and very very timely.’ – KATE DEVLIN Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence, King’s College London, and author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots.
‘The AI we need to fear is, as Brooks rightly predicts, Artificial Intimacy not Artificial Intelligence. Get ready for machines to hijack our emotional lives. Indeed, read how they already are starting to do so.’ – TOBY WALSH, Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW Sydney, and author of 2062: The World that AI Made.
‘… a great example of how to use an evolutionary perspective on human nature to illuminate an emerging, evolutionarily unprecedented area of modern human life.’ – STEVE STEWART- WILLIAMS, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia, and author of The Ape that Understood the Universe.
‘From primatology to today’s incel culture of sexually frustrated young men, Artificial Intimacy takes a historical survey of human sexuality, employing the disciplines of economics, psychology and evolutionary science. Witty, accessible, always fascinating but surely contentious, this is popular science that will appeal to readers of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens.’ – CHRIS SALIBA, Books+Publishing.
‘Artificial Intimacy adroitly navigates some of the fear-mongering around new technology without falling into naive optimism, instead addressing the benefits and pitfalls of AI with a combination of objectivity and humanism. … 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.’ ROBERT REED in AIPT Science
While the book provides an excellent historic overview of how sexual practices change in tandem with technological advances, Natalia Kucirkova questions whether it fully grapples with the social issues and ethical questions raised by these transformations. LSE Review of Books
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