Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner. From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships: with robots.

From Pygmalion falling for his chiseled Galatea to Dr. Frankenstein marveling at his "modern Prometheus" to the man-meets-machine fiction of Philip K. Dick and Michael Crichton, humans have been enthralled by the possibilities of emotional relationships with their technological creations. Synthesizing cutting-edge research in robotics with the cultural history and psychology of artificial intelligence, Love and Sex with Robots explores this fascination and its far-reaching implications.

Using examples drawn from around the world, David Levy shows how automata have evolved from the mechanical marvels of centuries past to the electronic androids of the modern age, and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Along the way, Levy explores many aspects of human relationships: the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and to virtual pets such as the Tamagotchi, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots. He also examines the needs we seek to fulfill through sexual relationships, tracking the development of life-sized dolls, machines, and other sexual devices, and demonstrating how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed (and will continue to change), as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.

Shocking but utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots provides insights that are surprisingly relevant to our everyday interactions with technology. This is science brought to life, and Levy makes a compelling and titillating case that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. Anyone reading the book with an open mind will find a wealth of fascinating material on this important new direction of intimate relationships, a direction that, before long, will be regarded as perfectly normal.

"In this wide-ranging examination of the emotional and physical relations between humans and the inanimate objects of their desire, AI guru Levy (Robots Unlimited) first addresses the question of love with robots, and moves on to consider the mechanics of actually having sex with them. In order to put the reader at ease with the possibility of human-robot love, Levy compares the phenomenon to the ways in which humans fall in love with each other, their pets, and even their motorcycles. From there, Levy argues, it is a short emotional step to the affection people can be expected to display towards robots. Some readers may be turned off by Levy's fairly graphic descriptions of the mechanics of having sex with robots, and may wonder why Levy chose not to include recent research on the human genome that could one day lead to replacing human 'parts,' potentially making us more robot-like ourselves. Though Levy's topic is undeniably on the fringe, it will appeal to readers keen on pondering futuristic scenarios." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Here's a prediction that'll make you squirm: In the future, people will fall in love with robots. Robots will not be cold, predictable machines, but actual lovers — precocious, sexy, and remarkably humanlike in appearance. Humans will even marry robots in certain obliging jurisdictions. Now send the kids into the other room while we mention the obvious, bizarre implication: Someday, people will have..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) sex with robots.

And not just cold, mechanical sex that barely incites a feeble meep-meep-meep from your robot lover: No, we're talking about real elbow-pads-and-helmets sex. Electrifying sex! (And afterward the robot will take a drag on a cigarette and say, 'That really recharged my batteries.')

We learn all this from robot enthusiast David Levy in his intriguing but very strange new book, 'Love and Sex with Robots,' which if nothing else gets points for the straightforward title. Levy, whose previous book, 'Robots Unlimited,' outlined the coming era of ubiquitous robotics, has taken his scenario to its logical, if not entirely persuasive, conclusion:

'Love with robots will be as normal as love with other humans,' Levy writes, 'while the number of sexual acts and lovemaking positions commonly practiced between humans will be extended, as robots teach us more than is in all of the world's published sex manuals combined.'

Levy goes on to imagine a world of robot prostitutes, or 'sexbots,' which would offer people a chance to practice their technique before entering a human relationship. 'With a robot prostitute,' he writes, 'the control of disease is implicit — simply remove the active parts and put them in the disinfecting machine.'

At this point you are likely holding up both hands with palms outward in the internationally recognized gesture meaning 'Stop.' This sounds crazy. Clearly robots are not going to become plausible objects of sexual relationships, much less actual romance and genuine love, until they have a serious makeover. Human love isn't so shallow that we'll fall for the first machine with a nice pair of antennae.

But Levy's thesis isn't as silly as you might initially think. We are living in a period of revolutionary advances in computer software and processing speeds. The Japanese already have a multibillion-dollar robot industry, including robots used to keep an eye on — and even bathe — the elderly. Sony has invented a robotic dog named AIBO. Honda has created an android that can climb stairs. Carnegie-Mellon University invented a robot, Grace, that managed to register by itself (herself?) for an academic conference. Meanwhile, researchers are experimenting with flexible polymers that can be used as artificial skin, an essential leap for the creation of robots you might actually want to cuddle. Most important, robots will have to learn to act like humans; one researcher, Levy reports, has designed robots that can exhibit 77 human behavior patterns.

The key is that these technological advances will someday be complemented by cultural changes, and cavorting with robots just won't seem weird anymore. 'It would not surprise me if a significant proportion of readers deride these ideas until my predictions have been proved correct,' Levy writes, and then makes a cheap analogy to people who once were hostile to the idea that the Earth was round rather than flat.

Levy's book is entertaining in parts, such as the eye-opening (even climactic) section on the evolution of vibrators. 'A steam-driven vibrator invented in the United States in 1869 was inconvenient for doctors to use because they repeatedly had to shovel coal into its boiler,' he writes. (Who among us has not heard the command, 'Keep shoveling'?)

But throughout 'Love and Sex with Robots,' there's a recurring sense of the writer trying a little too hard: Every brick must be carefully laid as he builds the great edifice of his thesis. Thus, we must labor through long sections on why people fall in love, why they love their pets, how they become attached to their computers, and so on, before we can get to the good stuff on sex toys. And it's not clear that Levy — described on the book jacket as 'an internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence' — is truly an expert on the subject of human love. He seems more like a partisan in a technological debate most of us didn't realize was going on.

No doubt it is a good bet that technology and sexual desire will continue to have a mutually supporting relationship. But Levy is not merely saying that sex toys will be more elaborate in the future. He is envisioning robots as essentially interchangeable with people. The problem is, a robot programmed to fall in love with a person is essentially a fancy inflatable doll. Imagine the awkward moments:

Robot: I love the clever way you comb those few, thin, feeble locks of hair all the way over the vast bald region of your head.

Human: You're just saying that.

Levy stipulates, near the end of the book, that an important part of sexuality is 'the possibility of failure or denial,' and thus sexbots will need to be able to mimic human 'capriciousness.' But at some point you wind up with sexbots out of control, which, come to think of it, is a great idea for a science-fiction movie.

If Levy is right, the era of rambunctious robot love is not far in the future. But I'd advise everyone to hang on to a flesh-and-blood backup.

Joel Achenbach is a Washington Post staff writer and blogs at washingtonpost.com/achenblog."

Reviewed by Joel Achenbach, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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"Levy is willing to go far out on a limb with his predictions, and even the reader who remains unconvinced may well enjoy this thought-provoking and entertaining ride into the future." Kirkus Reviews

From the story of Dr. Frankenstein to the man-machine fiction of Philip K. Dick, readers have been enthralled by the possibilities of interaction between technological creations and themselves. This work builds on that fascination to show how technological entities may very well turn out to be objects of real, human desire.

Synthesizing breaking news in the field of robotics with the cultural history, technological development, art, literature, and psychology of artificial intelligence, Love and Sex with Robots is popular science at its diverting andndash;andndash; and eyeandndash;opening andndash;andndash; best. Starting with the ways in which robots have supplemented human domesticity from the Renaissance to the modern age, David Levy proceeds to document the ways in which humans form affection for animate things, from pets to common household devices that employ responsive technology. He then explains how conditioning oneself to interact with such things engenders both communication and dependence in their owners andndash;andndash; and how such interaction can lead to amorous feelings. In the second part of the book, Levy uses that amorous connection as a springboard to explore how physical intimacy between humans and robots is the next logical step in an ageandndash;old correlation between love and sex. Toss in the rapidly expanding sex toy industry andndash;andndash; and its far reach from the US to Japan and everywhere in between andndash;andndash; and you have a global trend, one that is by turns surprising, troubling, and titillating.

From Pygmalion falling for his chiseled Galatea to Dr. Frankenstein marveling in both awe and terror at his "modern Prometheus" to the manandndash;meetsandndash;machine fiction of Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, and Michael Crichton, readers have been enthralled by the possibilities of interaction between technological creations and themselves. Shocking yet wildly informative, Love and Sex with Robots builds on that fascination to show how entities we once deemed benign and unresponsive may very well turn out to be objects of real, human desire.

David Levy is an internationally recognized expert on artificial intelligence. He is president of the International Computer Games Association and in 1997 led the team that won the Loebner Prize — the world championship for conversational computer software. In 2006 he became the first person ever to present papers on intimate relationships with robotic partners at an international conference. He is also the author of Robots Unlimited. Levy lives in London with his wife, Christine, and their cat.