When Aldous Huxley published Brave New World, many people probably thought his novel was outlandish, that his ideas seemed like impossible and futuristic imaginings. Today’s Christians may have a similar reaction when they read the words “sex robots.”
But social change often comes in sudden jolts. We consider something “impossible,” so we ignore it. The next thing we know, society is arguing that some new technology is inevitable and must therefore be accepted. We’re left wondering how this world got turned upside down. As Huxley lamented in 1958, “The prophecies made in 1931 are coming true much sooner than I thought they would.” The same seems to be true in the rise of sex robots.
In Sex Robots: The End of Love, Kathleen Richardson, cofounder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, writes “to argue that ‘sex’ robots and their adjacent versions (companion robots, AI girlfriends, sex dolls) are our time’s Trojan horse, a ‘gift’ that will cause irrevocable harm to human beings and signify the end of love” (2–3). She writes not as a Christian but as a radical feminist philosopher. Nevertheless, her warnings about how sex robots will tear the social fabric of human society are timely.
Sex Robots: The End of Love
Kathleen Richardson
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. 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.
Distorting Technology
Sex robots are technologies that physically offer sexual pleasure to humans without contact with another human. These inventions look, sound, and act like humans, but they’re not humans. We shouldn’t think of them as sex robots but rather “sex” robots. As Richardson argues,
The “sex” before the word “robot” is something of a misnomer. . . . There is no biological sex of male or female; there are no large or small gametes, nor hormonal or bodily sex in the plastic. . . . There is no sex as in sexual intercourse. (33, emphasis original)
For decades, Christians have warned about the negative effects of disconnecting sex from reality. Dissociative technologies like pornography warp humans physically, socially, physiologically, and emotionally. Sex robots function like “3D porn” (35). Though they seem realistic, these companionship technologies substitute reality for sexual fantasy. Thus, sex robots are like pornography on steroids.
Sex robots and other companionship technologies disrupt the way humans relate to one another as sexual beings. These technologies replace reality with fantasy. Though some experts argue that a “child sex-abuse doll” could be prescribed to prevent actual abuse, Richardson provides evidence that points toward the opposite effect (79). Technologies like sex robots will train users to act on unhealthy sexual appetites because they remove the relational virtues of love, compassion, respect, and care from the sexual experience (Eph. 5:33).
Dissociative technologies also depersonalize human beings by imaging humanlike experiences without real human interactions. Thus, sex robots discourage seeing real people as image-bearers and encourage withdrawing from natural sexual activity because they provide erotic pleasure divorced from the burden of human interaction. There’s little positive on the balance sheet for sex robots.
Identifies Human Depravity
Though Richardson identifies a real problem, she argues this form of sexual immorality is really rooted in the patriarchy. Sex robots, companionship technologies, prostitution, and pornography exist because men desire to dominate others. According to her calculus, these sex industries exist because patriarchal systems view people as property. Though she’s right about dangers of sex robots, the Bible reveals the cause of this misdirected sexuality—human depravity.
As Scripture shows, when sexual ethics escape God-given boundaries, society tends toward its worst and most exploitative state (Rom. 1:24–32). History is replete with evidence that any sex act conducted outside God’s design harms both the individual and society. The Bible includes extensive regulations for sexual activity because of the power of human desires to distort God’s good gift of sex (e.g., Lev. 18; 20; 1 Cor. 6:12–7:16). Ultimately, prostitution, sexual abuse, and technologies like sex robots exist because of human depravity.
The road to sex robots has been paved by the sexual revolution. In pursuit of the liberation of sex from the confines of marriage, the “free love” movement advocated avoiding the natural consequences associated with sexual intercourse through birth control, “safe” sex practices, and legalizing abortion. A central goal of the sexual revolution was maximizing sexual pleasure by normalizing and fulfilling every individual’s wildest sexual fantasies. Sex robots are a big leap along the same negative trajectory.
A central goal of the sexual revolution was maximizing sexual pleasure by normalizing and fulfilling every individual’s wildest sexual fantasies.
Ironically, advocates for sex robots claim these “representational technologies” will overcome the problem of loneliness. “If anything,” Richardson argues, “the trend is to entrench human withdrawal, to produce more of what is causing it” (120).
Advocate for Order
Though the book’s content is uncomfortably detailed at times, Richardson offers a wake-up call to the church. We need to identify clear ethical boundaries drawn from an unwavering commitment to Scripture. The time to establish those boundaries is now—before our culture has normalized sex robots.
Resisting the lure of sex robots within the church begins with reinforcing a robust sexual ethic. As Christians, we affirm the Bible’s teaching that humans are created as sexual beings, and we affirm the goodness of sex within the marriage covenant (Gen. 2:24–25; 4:1).
Resisting the lure of sex robots within the church begins with reinforcing a robust sexual ethic.
Sex within the confines of marriage is meant to be freeing. Rightly ordered physical intimacy within marriage is superior to manufactured pleasure because it includes something sex robots can’t provide—love. Furthermore, sex within God’s design contributes to the flourishing of society.
Though sex robots may seem like a fringe topic to many Christians today, the technology is already available and is raising significant ethical concerns even as it grows in popularity. Just as Huxley warned that his concerns came true much faster than expected, so might the church end up behind in our ethical reasoning if we don’t tackle topics like this one early.
In Sex Robots, Richardson demonstrates that technology isn’t neutral and offers compelling evidence that the widespread adoption of sex robots will be harmful for individuals and society.
