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‘Love and Sex with Robots’ Conference Re-launches After Malaysian Ban

By Jenna Owsianik, Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net

October 20, 2016

1916

It’s take two for the academic congress, but this time in the UK.

Around this time last year, organizers of the Second International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots were in a predicament: cancel the workshop or risk arrest.

Apparently, picking Malaysia as the host country was a misguided choice—a point that really hit home when Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar declared the event illegal.

The senior officer warned he could use many laws against the organizers if the workshop, originally scheduled for November 2015 as part of the 12th Advances in Computer Entertainment (ACE) Conference, went forward. Feeling so strongly the event violated the country’s conservative values, he said he’d move against them even without a lodged police report. Heeding this heavy caution, organizers Adrian Cheok and David Levy called off the workshop.

A second shot at (robot) love

With that unfortunate drama over, registration has now re-opened for the Second International Love and Sex with Robots Congress. It’s set to take place from December 19 to 20 in a more amenable location: London, England.

Joining last year’s chairs is Dr. Kate Devlin, a computing lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, the institution hosting the conference. In a news release, she said she wants to refocus and expand the discussion on human-robot relationships.

“Our research aims to carve a new narrative, moving away from sex robots purely defined as machines used as sex objects, as substitutes for human partners, made by men, for men,” she said.

“Cutting edge research in technology and ethics is vital if we want to reframe ideas about the human-tech relationship.”

Session topics will include:

Robot Emotions
Humanoid Robots
Clone Robots
Entertainment Robots
Robot Personalities
Teledildonics
Intelligent Electronic Sex Hardware
Gender Approaches
Affective Approaches
Psychological Approaches
Sociological Approaches
Roboethics
Philosophical Approaches

Full registration costs £200 and student registration costs £125. The complete speaker list is expected to be confirmed later this month.

Image source: Love and Sex with Robots

Jenna Owsianik

Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech expert. Since 2014 she has been Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net, the world’s leading publication on how technology is changing human sexuality, today and tomorrow.

Jenna is the primary author of the Future of Sex Report (2016).

Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.

A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.

As a sex tech industry consultant, she is especially passionate about helping companies deliver accessible services and products to people with disabilities and other underserved communities.

Jenna also runs the sites SexforEveryBody.com, a sex-positive, body-positive online magazine that promotes inclusive sex education; and DisabledSexGuide.com, an adult resource on sex, disability, and erotica.

In 2013, Jenna won two Canadian Online Publishing Awards for her work on The Pain Project, a multimedia site on global access to palliative care.

She won second place at the 2011 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism’s Public Health category for her participation in the documentary Freedom From Pain.

Jenna has an Honors BA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research as well as a French minor from The University of Western Ontario. She spent a year studying at L’Université Lumière Lyon 2 in Lyon, France.