Book Review: Turned On
Katie 
Turned On is a book about Science, Sex and Robots. Yes, Sex Robots. This book piqued my interest when it mentioned Robots, and maybe a little because it mentioned Sex as well. It was a lot more indepth, technical and interesting than I was expecting. Like, I didn’t realize that Corn Flakes were created to be a part of a bland diet to try and reduce masturbation urges. Or that most sex dolls are made in the image of women and while there are some men ones, they are much harder to come by. And that sex toys are getting smarter and smarter and some even use AI to become who the user wants them to become. But there is also a risk with AI because some are programmed to reach their goal – and HOW they go about it is really cared about which can be dangerous. I’m also particularly intrigued by the “incel” community and there was some information on that in here as well and if a solution for their problem could be a sex robot?
And since I am now in grad school for Cyber Security, I couldn’t ignore the part where some of the sex toys were keeping data on the user – and it wasn’t stored anonymously so when it was ultimately hacked and obtained by someone who wasn’t supposed to have it, they had all sorts of interesting and NON ANONYMOUS data from the sex toys. Yikes!! I didn’t even think about that before then but I think that is the sort of “personal” data that users would really want to be kept secure and anonymous and encrypted!
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated. This book was released December 18 2018 by Bloomsbury USA.
About the Book
The idea of the seductive sex robot is the stuff of myth, legend and science fiction. From the ancient Greeks to twenty-first century movies, robots in human form have captured our imagination, our hopes and our fears. But beyond the fantasies there are real and fundamental questions about our relationship with technology as it moves into the realm of robotics. Artificial intelligence raises very real concerns. Sexual activity is central to our very existence; it shapes how we think, how we act and how we live. With advances in technology come machines that may one day think independently. What will happen to us when we form close relationships with these intelligent systems?
Chapter by chapter, this book will build on the science and the philosophy surrounding our most intimate relationship with technology. The scene is set with the history of the artificial sexual companion, then goes on to explore the “modern” robot and the twentieth century sci-fi that promised us our own robot slaves. An explanation of artificial intelligence and the urge to create sentient machines delves into our own psychology: how does desire affect our own behavior, and can we become attached to an inanimate object? Can robots make society a better place? And what can go wrong?
Sex robots are here, and here to stay–and more are coming. This book explores how the emerging and future development of sexual companion robots might affect us, and our society. It explores the social changes arising from emerging technologies, and our relationships with the machines that may someday care for us and about us.