Imagine walking down the street of any city, turning the corner and seeing a new business between the restaurants, bars, and shops. It is not selling food or clothes but something much more carna and mechanisedâsex with robots. If this sounds like a far off dystopian future, think again. âRobot Brothelsâ are being planned to open in major cities such as London and Moscow across the world. In Toronto, this is already a reality, as the company revealingly titled âKinky S Dollsâ has designed human looking female robots with Artificial Intelligence to rent out an intimate room located in their warehouse for 30 minutes or an hour. By 2018, they had already attracted over 500 customers (Yuen 2018).
While seen as perhaps perverse oddity when first opened in Toronto, the idea of a ârobot brothelâ started a much larger and more profound debate when the company tried to expand their business to the US city of Houston. The owner Yuval Gavriel saw it merely as a business opportunity, declaring âThe States is a bigger market, and a healthier market, and God bless Trumpâ (quoted in Dart 2018: n.p.). However, community groups and the Mayor passionately opposed the move, starting a petition for its prevention signed by over 12,600 residents. According to a member of the group Elijah Risingâwho tries to raise awareness about the cityâs sex trafficking problemâthat âWe want to see the end of this systemic problem. We said, this robot thing looks very similar to pornography, in that when men engage with pornography it sort of detaches them from any sort of human relation, and weâve noticed that with sex buyersâ (ibid.: n.p.) Addressing the issue from a more global and future oriented perspective, Professor Kathleen Richardson (founder of the âCampaign Against Sex Robotsâ) declared:
Sex dolls are merely a new niche market in the sex trade. While these dolls are hidden from the public at the present there is nothing stopping any of the buyers taking their âsex dollâ to the supermarket, on the school run, or in any public space. Therefore we have to consider the dolls as a form of 3D pornography. There are also issues about what happens when you normalise a culture where women as the prostituted become visibly and openly interchangeable with dolls. (Ibid.: n.p.)
The above example is obviously extreme. Yet it is indicative of the ways we still view society and through a humanâcentric lense. Our focus remains firmly on how technology will impact humanity, in this respect. Missing is an enlarged perspective that considers the effects on non-humans-whether that be AI, animal, or even climatic. Such a âtranshumanâ perspective is especially urgent as human relations are rapidly evolving into âtranshumanâ relations. The gowring presence of robots, computerisation, and AI are forcing us to existentially rethink how we conceive of intelligence, interpersonal relations, and or social existence.
The first chapter will introduce the main theme of the bookâhow can humans prepare today for a âtranshumanâ tomorrow. In particular one where we share the world with a range of new and emerging forms of âsmart consciousnessâ. Questions will be asked such as whether existing perspectives on human relations are sufficient for a coming age where âthe internet of everythingâ is a daily and global reality. Will robots have âhuman rightsâ? Will individuals apply for the same jobs as a âconsciousâ automated employee? Can humans and A.I. learn from each other to create new forms of knowledge and social relations?
The chapter will begin by highlighting the imminent emergence of a âsmart worldâ and what this means. It will then explore the fears and hopes these changes will bringâranging from dystopian visions of a robot-controlled future to utopian hopes of a technologically enlightened society. Following this critical discussion, it will focus on the almost complete lack of thinking (either from academics or policy makers) surrounding the concrete cultural norms, ethical concerns, laws and public administration required to make this an empowering rather than disempowering shift. It will conclude by highlighting the need for humans to fundamentally evolve their thinking, practices and physical existence to meet the challenges and opportunities of this new âsmartâ revolution.
Aim
The twenty-first century is on the verge of a possible total economic and political revolution. Technological advances in robotics, computing and digital communications have the potential to completely transform how people live and work. Even more radically, humans will soon be interacting with artificial intelligence (A.I.) as a normal and essential part of their daily existence. What is needed now more than ever is to rethink social relations to meet the challenges of this soon-to-arrive âsmartâ world.
This book proposes an original theory of transhuman relations for this coming future. Drawing on insights from org studies, critical theory, psychology and futurismâit will chart for readers the coming changes to identity, institutions and governance in a world populated by intelligent human and non-human actors alike. It will be characterised by a fresh emphasis on infusing programming with values of social justice, protecting the rights and views of all forms of âconsciousnessâ and creating the structures and practices necessary for encouraging a culture of âmutual intelligent designâ. To do so means moving beyond our anthropocentric worldview of today and expanding our assumptions about the state of tomorrowâs politics, institutions, laws and even everyday existence. Critically such a profound shift demands transcending humanist paradigms of a world created for and by humans and instead opening ourselves to a new reality where non-human intelligence and cyborgs are increasingly central.
Towards Transhuman Relations?
In 2017 The World Economic Forum released a report tellingly entitled âAI: Utopia or Dystopiaâ (Boden 2017). Its findings were suitably cautious, warning people against fantasies or fears of a âsingularityâ in which machines overtake humans in intelligence and power. Yet it did strike a serious warning of the risks created by the rise of AI, declaring that
we should be prudently pessimisticânot to say dystopianâabout the future. AI has worrying implications for the military, individual privacy, and employment. Automated weapons already exist, and they could eventually be capable of autonomous target selection. As Big Data becomes more accessible to governments and multinational corporations, our personal information is being increasingly compromised. And as AI takes over more routine activities, many professionals will be deskilled and displaced. The nature of work itself will change, and we may need to consider providing a âuniversal income,â assuming there is still a sufficient tax base through which to fund it (Boden 2017: n.p.)
These insights reflect the growing awareness that humanity is rapidly approaching a fundamental transformation. More than a mere updating of our current social and economic order, emerging technologies will âdisruptâ for good or ill how we live, work, and even think. Even the most capitalist and elitist institutions, those at the heart of the current status quo, are acknowledging this coming radical change. According to a 2013 report released by the Mckinsey Global Institute entitled âDisruptive Technologies: Advances that will Transform Life, Business, and the Global Economyâ:
the results of our research show that business leaders and policy makersâand society at largeâwill confront change on many fronts: in the way businesses organize themselves, how jobs are defined, how we use technology to interact with the world (and with each other), and, in the case of next-generation genomics, how we understand and manipulate living things. There will be disruptions to established norms, and there will be broad societal challenges. Nevertheless, we see considerable reason for optimism. Many technologies on the horizon offer immense opportunities. We believe that leaders can seize these opportunities, if they start preparing now. (Manyika et al. 2013: 4â5)
Indeed, the theorist Francis Fukuyama (1999) who after the Cold War triumphantly announced the âend of historyâ and the assured global victory of Liberal Democracy, admitted only a decade later by the end of the century that humanity is undergoing a âGreat Disruptionâ. Tellingly, he still holds out optimism, given that in his view humans have a unique ability to confront these challenges and their own biological nature for a greater common good, as
It is, of course, both easy and dangerous to draw facile comparisons between animal and human behavior. Human beings are different from chimpanzees precisely because they do have culture and reason, and can modify their genetically controlled behavior in any number of complex ways. (Ibid.: 165)
Yet what actually is being disrupted? How will these technologies really impact society? On the one hand, AI promises no less than to revolutionize firms and society (Makridakis 2017). In the face of this revolution, there is an increasing desire to ensure that above all these disruptive changes remain âhuman centredâ. Yet underneath this growing wave of voices wanting to save humanity from a technological takeover, is an undercurrent of critical perspectives embracing the possibilities to go beyond current human assumptions and limitations. In fields such as architecture, this could have profound and quite revolutionary philosophical and practical effects as:
In this age of unprecedented technologica...