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Turned On
- Science, Sex and Robots
- Narrated by: Kate Devlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
The idea of the seductive sex robot is the stuff of myth, legend and science fiction. From the ancient Greeks to 21st-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.
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? Sex robots are here and here to stay, and more are coming.
This audiobook explores how the emerging and future development of sexual companion robots might affect us and the society in which we live. It explores the social changes arising from emerging technologies and our relationships with the machines that may someday care for us and about us.
Chapter by chapter, this audiobook 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 20th-century sci-fi that promised us our own robot slaves.
This is followed by an explanation of artificial intelligence and the urge to create sentient machines. It delves into our own psychology: how does desire affect our own behaviour, and can we become attached to an inanimate object? This then leads to a discussion of the good (robots making society a better place) and the bad (the potential for all to go wrong).
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- By: David Sumpter
- Narrated by: David West
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Our increasing reliance on technology and the Internet has opened a window for mathematicians and data researchers to gaze through into our lives. Using the data they are constantly collecting about where we travel, where we shop, what we buy, what interests us, they can begin to predict our daily habits, and increasingly we are relinquishing our decision making to algorithms - are we giving up this up too easily?
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A good reality check for "Cambridge Hyperbolitica"
- By Haggai Elkayam on 08-06-18
By: David Sumpter
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Ha!
- The Science of When We Laugh and Why
- By: Scott Weems
- Narrated by: Kalen Allmandinger
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Humor, like pornography, is famously difficult to define. We know it when we see it, but is there a way to figure out what we really find funnyand why? In this fascinating investigation into the science of humor and laughter, cognitive neuroscientist Scott Weems uncovers what’s happening in our heads when we giggle, guffaw, or double over with laughter. While we typically think of humor in terms of jokes or comic timing, in Ha! Weems proposes a provocative new model.
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Good place to start in the study of humor
- By Amazon Customer on 05-26-17
By: Scott Weems
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You Are Now Less Dumb
- How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself
- By: David McRaney
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality - except we’re not. But that's okay, because our delusions keep us sane. Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of 15 more ways we fool ourselves every day. This smart and highly entertaining audiobook will be wowing listeners for years to come.
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Not a lot of guidance
- By A. Yoshida on 02-08-14
By: David McRaney
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Mindwise
- Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want
- By: Nicholas Epley
- Narrated by: Nicholas Epley
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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You are a mind reader, born with an extraordinary ability to understand what others think, feel, believe, want, and know. It's a sixth sense you use every day, in every personal and professional relationship you have. At its best, this ability allows you to achieve the most important goal in almost any life: connecting, deeply and intimately and honestly, to other human beings. At its worst, it is a source of misunderstanding and unnecessary conflict, leading to damaged relationships and broken dreams. How good are you at knowing the minds of others?
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Finally gave up - no real point
- By Thomas on 05-12-14
By: Nicholas Epley
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The Mind Club
- Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters
- By: Daniel M. Wegner, Kurt Gray
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club". It's easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of minds do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds - while incredibly important - are a matter of perception.
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Who is the self in me? Am I part of something bigger?
- By Philomath on 03-24-16
By: Daniel M. Wegner, and others
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Before You Know It
- The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do
- By: John Bargh PhD
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than three decades, Dr. John Bargh has been responsible for the revolutionary research into the unconscious mind, research that informed best sellers like Blink and Thinking Fast and Slow. Now, in what Dr. John Gottman said "will be the most important and exciting book in psychology that has been written in the past 20 years", Dr. Bargh takes us on an entertaining and enlightening tour of the forces that affect everyday behavior while transforming our understanding of ourselves in profound ways.
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Political jab
- By Brad on 10-20-17
By: John Bargh PhD
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The New Breed
- What Our History with Animals Reveals About Our Future with Robots
- By: Kate Darling
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, and that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better.
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The book is interesting, and makes good points, but Kate darling forgot about slavery in history
- By jeremy on 10-24-21
By: Kate Darling
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What Do Women Want?
- Adventures in the Science of Female Desire
- By: Daniel Bergner
- Narrated by: Charles Pasternak
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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When it comes to sex, common wisdom holds that men roam while women crave closeness and commitment. But in this provocative, headline-making book, Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's arousal and desire inside out. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with renowned behavioral scientists, sexologists, psychologists, and everyday women, he forces us to reconsider long-held notions about female sexuality.
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Masterfully read, depressing yet thoughtful book
- By Boom Depleter on 10-10-14
By: Daniel Bergner
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Cool
- How the Brain's Hidden Quest for Cool Drives Our Economy and Shapes Our World
- By: Steven Quartz, Anette Asp
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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In Cool, the neuroscientist and philosopher Steven Quartz and the political scientist Anette Asp bring together the latest findings in brain science, economics, and evolutionary biology to form a provocative theory of consumerism, revealing how the brain's "social calculator" and an instinct to rebel are the crucial missing links in understanding the motivations behind our spending habits.
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Some Useful Ideas
- By Carson on 07-20-17
By: Steven Quartz, and others
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The Secret Life of Pronouns
- What Our Words Say About Us
- By: James W. Pennebaker
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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We spend our lives communicating. In the last 50 years, we've zoomed through radically different forms of communication, from typewriters to tablet computers, text messages to tweets. We generate more and more words with each passing day. Hiding in that deluge of language are amazing insights into who we are, how we think, and what we feel.
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Sticks and Stones and Words Can Really Help You
- By Lynn on 09-24-12
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The Filter Bubble
- What the Internet Is Hiding from You
- By: Eli Pariser
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years: the rise of personalization.
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Now in the top 3 best books I've ever read
- By Brian Esserlieu on 05-26-11
By: Eli Pariser
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Virus of the Mind
- The New Science of the Meme
- By: Richard Brodie
- Narrated by: Richard Brodie
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Abridged
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Virus of the Mind is the first popular work devoted to the science of memetics, a controversial new field that transcends psychology, biology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Memetics is the science of memes, the invisible but very real DNA of human society. Here, the author carefully builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett, and others who have become fascinated with memes and their potential impact on our lives.
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The "Memes Explain Everything" Meme.
- By Nelson Alexander on 02-20-10
By: Richard Brodie
What listeners say about Turned On
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pavel
- 01-23-20
Itching for More
A great look into the future of sex and robotics. I am excited to delve further into the topic with more similar titles. Lots of interesting questions.
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- Malcolm H. Field
- 02-27-24
Creating the conversation
Timely work supporting a discussion I have been asking students to have for many years asking similar questions but not from a “feminist” perspective but from a “what kind of future society do you want?”
Very interesting topics discussed and will be a reference material for my course. I only hope the author can update the book given the rapid developments since the book was published. Worth the read as we need to be constructive with our futures and not let them be created for us by default.
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- Karen
- 01-20-19
Nuanced, Smart, and Compassionate
Dr. Devlin is clearly an expert and has deeply explored the research and philosophy of sex with robots at our current point in history. This book is an uninhibited, nonjudgmental dive into the kind of relationships we have with companions, with lovers, and with technology. The author does not gloss over the disturbing doors that have been opened by creating sex objects and machines in human likenesses, but also does not go off into overly lurid speculation about the potential impacts of such devices. Furthermore, Dr. Devlin’s reading of the text was pleasant and added nuance to my understanding of her intent with the work and my enjoyment of her humor. I highly recommend this book!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Richard Aiken
- 02-25-19
Accent Was Occasionally Challenging
There were a few points where (even after a couple of rewinds) my Southern American ears just could not parse the author/narrator's Irish accent. But I don't think I missed anything important. On the whole, I found the book very interesting and informative, even though I don't completely agree with the author. Unlike her cautious disbelief regarding sentient robots, I think we will get them and sooner than anyone expects. Whether *we* will be interesting enough to such beings to be potential companions for *them* is a different question, though.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Lizzie Fokkens
- 09-16-19
A Great Read, But I Found It A Little Lacking
Considering how often the author questioned the hypersexualized female form of existing sex dolls and of sex robots depicted in media, I kept expecting her to delve deeper into why this is. She also seems to make the assumption that this would only be appealing to men, but as a lesbian, I can tell you that that isn't so. In the final chapter, I get the impression that she thinks that sex dolls and robots ought to be designed to optimize sexual pleasure. But from what I've seen, and from my own experience, people who own or want to own one view it as an idealized fantasy made "real." Hence why sex dolls typically look the way they do. Aside from that, I really enjoyed the book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the subject. Kate Devlin has some really interesting views, and I honestly wish I could hear her thoughts on my concerns above.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Mark Applegate
- 05-15-23
Biased while trashing bias from an echo chamber
Hoping for objectivity. Got none. Extremely biased. Could be called click bait based on the title. Marxist technique was on point...
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