Artificial Intimacy

"What happens when the human mind, evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the way people make friends, gossip with neighbors, and grow intimate with lovers. Sex robots present the humanoid face of this technological revolution-yet although it is easy to gawk at their uncanniness, more familiar technologies based in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are insinuating themselves into human interactions. Digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage…