Sex Robots

The End of Love

Kathleen Richardson (De Montfort University)

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Paperback

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English

Polity Press
19 September 2025

Electronics & communications engineering

There are more ways of connecting and communicating via technology than ever before. Yet loneliness is on the rise as we begin to experience an 'attachment crisis' in forming and maintaining intimate relationships. Enter sex robots. Built from the bodies of sex dolls, they are created to help humans – particularly men – cope with our inability to connect. In this bold and trenchant critique, Kathleen Richardson explores important questions surrounding this emerging technology. What does the rise of sex robots tell us about the way that women and girls are imagined? To what extent are porn, prostitution and child sexual exploitation driving the attachment crisis? The author argues that sex robots are produced within a framework of 'property relations' – in which egocentric Man (and his disconnection from Woman) shapes the building of robots and AI. Can this tide of destruction and disconnection be turned, and what would a revolution for the love of humanity look like? Presenting a passionate case for the abolition of practices that cast women as property, Sex Robots: The End of Love is essential reading for students and scholars of robot ethics, anthropology, gender studies, philosophy of technology, sociology and related fields, as well as anyone concerned for the future of human relationships.

By: Kathleen Richardson (De Montfort University)
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781509530298
ISBN 10: 1509530290
Pages: 241
Publication Date: 19 September 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Acknowledgements Introduction: The Politics of Dissociation Chapter 1: Pornography Chapter 2: Prostitution Chapter 3: Child Sex Abuse Chapter 4: Aristotle’s Slave Ontology: Ethics and the Egocentric I Chapter 5: Cyborg Companions: Anthropology and the Undifferentiated We Chapter 6: Love: I-you Attachment Conclusion: The Politics of Love Bibliography Index

Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University.