num_pages: 159
description: This book argues that robots are enchanting humans (as potential intimate partners) because humans are enchanting robots (by performing magical thinking) and that these processes are a part of a significant re-enchantment of the modern world. As a foundation the author examines arguments for and against intimate relationships with robots particularly sex robots and care robots. Moreover the book provides a consideration of human-robot interactions and philosophical reflections about robots through the lens of magic and magical thinking as well as theoretical and practical re-evaluations of their status and presence. Furthermore the author discusses the abovementioned issues in the context of disenchantment and re-enchantment of the world characterizing modernity as a coexistence of these two processes. The book closes with a consideration of future scenarios regarding the meaning of life in the age of rampant automation and the possibility that designing robots becomes a sort of new eugenics as a consequence of recognizing robots as persons.
language: English
title: Enchanting Robots: Intimacy, Magic, and Technology
publisher: Palgrave Macmillan