Uncanny Beauty: Aesthetics of Companionship, Love, and Sex Robots

Abstract

In the last few years there has been a lively debate on humanoid robots interacting with humans in fields where human appearance and likeness may be essential. The debate has been bolstered by advancing AI technologies as well as increasing economic interest and public attention. The feasibility, inevitability, or ethical opportunity of companionship, love, and sex robots has been discussed. I propose a philosophical and cultural approach, applying the strategies of aesthetics and literary theory to the field of artificial beings, in order to understand reasons, use, limits, and possibilities expressed by the technology applied to companionship, love, and sex robots in the contemporary cultural and social context. In dealing with aesthetics, I will state how cognitive, biological, and ethical aspects are involved, how beauty is relatable to a robot's physical appearance, and how the aesthetics of artificial beings may offer new existential experiences.