research-article

"And This, Kids, Is How I Met Your Mother": Consumerist, Mundane, and Uncanny Futures with Sex Robots

Authors:

Giovanni Maria Troiano,

Casper HarteveldAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1 - 17

https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376598

Published: 23 April 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Sex Robots are no longer science fiction and may soon be-come widespread. While much discussion has developed in academia on their moral and social impact, sex robots have yet to be examined from a critical design perspective and are under-explored in HCI. We use the Story Completion Method(SCM) to explore commonplace assumptions around futures with sex robots and discuss those from a critical design perspective. Thirty five participants completed a story stem of a human encountering a sex robot or vice-versa. Through thematic analysis, we show narratives of consumerist relation-ships between humans and sex robots, stories that describe sex robots as highly-efficient sex workers that (out)perform humans in routinal sex activities, and narratives that explore sex robots as empathetic and sentient beings. Our participant-created stories both reinforce and challenge established norms of sex robots and raise questions that concern responsible design and ethics in HCI. Finally, we show opportunities and limitations of using multiple-perspective story stems in SCM

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Han BNawaz SBuchanan GMcKay D(2025)Students’ Perceptions: Exploring the Interplay of Ethical and Pedagogical Impacts for Adopting AI in Higher EducationInternational Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education10.1007/s40593-024-00456-4Online publication date: 9-Jan-2025
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Index Terms

"And This, Kids, Is How I Met Your Mother": Consumerist, Mundane, and Uncanny Futures with Sex Robots
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Social and professional topics
  1. User characteristics
    1. Sexual orientation

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CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2020

10688 pages

ISBN:9781450367080

DOI:10.1145/3313831

General Chairs:
Regina Bernhaupt
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
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Monash University, Australia
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Newcastle University, UK
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RMIT, Australia
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University of British Columbia, Canada
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Andy Cockburn
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
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University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
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Grenoble Alpes University, France
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Pernille Bjørn
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Shengdong (Shen) Zhao
National University of Singapore, Singapore
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Briane Paul Samson
Future University Hakodate, Japan & De La Salle University, Philippines
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University of Washington, USA

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00456-4
Prpa MTroiano GYao BLi TWang DGu HFarzan RLópez CCardoso Llach DQuercia DMustafa MNiu SWong-Villacrés M(2024)Challenges and Opportunities of LLM-Based Synthetic Personae and Data in HCICompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3681826(716-719)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3676511
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Delgado FYang SMadaio MYang Q(2023)The Participatory Turn in AI Design: Theoretical Foundations and the Current State of PracticeProceedings of the 3rd ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization10.1145/3617694.3623261(1-23)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2023
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Mehrnezhad MAlmeida T(2023)"“My sex-related data is more sensitive than my financial data and I want the same level of security and privacy\": User Risk Perceptions and Protective Actions in Female-oriented Technologies"Proceedings of the 2023 European Symposium on Usable Security10.1145/3617072.3617100(1-14)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
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Hua DBardzell JBardzell S(2023)Embodied Embroidery: Somaesthetic Interaction Design for Women's MasturbationProceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3569009.3572803(1-15)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2023
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