Sex Robots and Vegan Meat: Adventures at the Frontier of Birth, Food, Sex, and Death

by Jenny Kleeman

Overview

A timely investigation into the forces that are driving innovation in the four core areas of human experience: birth, food, sex, and death.

In Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, award-winning journalist and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey into the world of the people who are changing what it means to be human. Focusing on the central pillars of the human experience–birth, food, sex, and death—Kleeman examines the people who are driving some truly amazing (and perhaps worrying) innovations. We are on the brink of seismic changes in the ways we live and die, from babies grown in artificial wombs to lab-produced meat; from sex robots able to hold polite conversation (and otherwise) to being able to choose to end our days with the perfect, painless, automated death. Our journey from cradle to grave is developing in ways which involve more and more technology, and less and less human interaction. Might these advances in technology serve to rob us of our humanity?

In this book Jenny Kleeman takes a profound look at what the future might have in store—and asks some provocative questions along the way. Jenny Kleeman places these scientists front and center and asks what is driving and motivating them? Are they entrepreneurs in it for the greater good of human advancement, or might there be more sinister—i.e. monetary—motivations in play? Kleeman is a skilled and subtle interrogator and travels with the reader on a fascinating exploration of the changes afoot, their implications for who we are as a society—and as human beings. It's an immersive, eye-opening, and hugely entertaining journey into a world of extraordinary visionaries on the frontline of a social revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643135724
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jenny Kleeman is a journalist and documentary filmmaker who travels the world finding eye-catching, thought-provoking stories and compelling characters. Her articles appear regularly in the Guardian and also in the Sunday Times (London), The Times of London, The New Statesman and VICE. She has reported for BBC One’s Panorama and HBO’s VICE News Tonight. She won the One World Media Television Award for her work on Unreported World and was nominated for the Amnesty International Gaby Rado Award. She lives in England.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Part 1 The Future of Sex 3

Chapter 1 'Where the magic happens' 5

Chapter 2 'The illusion of companionship' 28

Chapter 3 'It won't feel a thing' 50

Chapter 4 'All of our relationships are at stake' 69

Part 2 The Future of Food 89

Chapter 5 Cowschwitz 91

Chapter 6 The Vegans Who Love Meat 112

Chapter 7 Fish Out of Water 135

Chapter 8 Aftertaste 153

Part 3 The Future of Birth 175

Chapter 9 The Business of Baby-Carrying 177

Chapter 10 The Biobag 194

Chapter 11 Immaculate Gestation 217

Chapter 12 'Finally. Women made obsolete' 240

Part 4 The Future of Death 261

Chapter 13 DIY Death 263

Chapter 14 'The Elon Musk of suicide' 284

Chapter 15 'The means to an end' 308

Epilogue 330

Acknowledgements 337

Notes 339

Editorial Reviews

06/15/2020

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Kleeman debuts with a funny yet disturbing report on the science, technology, and marketing strategies reshaping some of the most basic human urges and drives. Predicting sex robots—“handmade in a custom blend of silicone, fully poseable and customizable”—will soon be “normal rather than niche,” she visits manufacturers and notes improvements such as “vaginal inserts,” a “kind of ribbed rubber sock.” (Though she hears of one woman creating her own “android fiancé,” the industry largely caters to heterosexual male fantasy.) Kleeman also registers security concerns, such as robots being hacked to spy on or assault their human partners. Elsewhere, she visits a start-up where meat is being grown from animal cells, challenging scientists about the ethics of using serum extracted from the hearts of calf fetuses as a culture and about the final product’s taste; the “chicken” nuggets she taste-tests have “the texture of the most low-grade processed food imaginable.” Finally, Kleeman researches the “biobag,” an artificial womb used to gestate lamb fetuses—which may eventually make giving birth, even for humans, “as simple as opening a Ziploc bag.” Readers will be fascinated by this preview of the possible future of sex, birth, and food. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Thoroughly entertaining and written with humor and sly intuition, Sex Robots and Vegan Meat is an account of the future that will have you questioning whether technology is helping or hindering human progress.

BookPage - Sarojini Seupersad

An unforgettable journey into the near future by a fabulously gifted writer.

Will Storr

"In Sex Robots and Vegan Meat, Jenny Kleeman looks toward the future from a very different vantage point. Kleeman is interested in technologies of sex, reproduction, gender and death; she also takes on food, investigating the cluster of start-ups that are engineering artificial meat. She approaches the future as a reporter firmly grounded in the present; her method is to journey to the frontier and take a long look around. Kleeman’s capacious curiosity opens up a kaleidoscopic view. She recognizes that technology has the power to shape human life, of course, but she is also interested in interrogating that power, and understanding who exactly gets to wield it."

The New York Times Book Review - Amanda Hess

This eye-opening debut is a compelling investigation into the implications of the cutting-edge technologies that aim to deliver the perfect partner, the perfect gestation, the perfect meat and the perfect death. The sceptical Kleeman makes a witty and tenacious guide.

The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice - Caroline Sanderson

The future is a fairly scary place, but there is no better guide to it than Jenny Kleeman. By turns alarming, funny, thought-provoking and fascinating, this is a book that brilliantly shows us where much of our life (and death) is heading.

Stig Abell

A fascinating examination of what the future holds, and of what it means to be human. Jenny Kleeman writes with wit and a wealth of knowledge that ensures you will never look at a chicken nugget in quite the same way again.

Elizabeth Day

A brilliant, thought-provoking book full of strange details, fascinating people and challenging ideas. A necessary book that wears its wealth of research lightly. As Jenny Kleeman says, this isn't science fiction, and yet some of the images will haunt me for years to come.

Nell Frizzell

2020-05-27
Intriguing updates from the protean worlds of food, companionship, death, and beyond.

Chronicling a far-flung, five-year research project, journalist and documentary filmmaker Kleeman provides a vigorous introduction to several inventions poised to alter essential industries. In Southern California, the author visited Abyss Creations, “the home of RealDoll, the world’s most famous hyperrealistic silicone sex doll.” One model, “Harmony” (cost: $15,000), was embroiled in a competitive frenzy to perfect a “synthetic companion convincing enough that you could actually have a relationship with it.” Kleeman also relates her interview with a man who lives with three synthetic playmates, one of whom is his “wife.” In other sections, she creatively spotlights pioneering advancements in the production of sustainable, plant-based food systems and vegan “clean meat” and fish. An unrepentant carnivore, the author addresses six key reasons why an increasing proportion of the populace considers meat and fish production indefensible industries. The author is a focused and charming tour guide, with the kind of breezy writing skills that make each section immensely intriguing. Even readers with no interest in reproduction or childbirth will be intrigued by the section on fertility specialists who offer unique “social surrogacy” options and fetuses incubated in an ectogenetic “biobag.” Besides clinical risks, this particular subject encompasses complex ethical dilemmas, which Kleeman explores. In the morbid yet fascinating concluding section, the author looks at rational euthanasia options like Sarco, described by its developer as a “world-first 3D Printed Euthanasia Machine.” Though most of these initiatives are male-driven, women do appear throughout the narrative, most notably as neonatologists and/or fierce advocates for voluntary euthanasia. Behind Kleeman’s profiles and research lies the belief that life can be vastly enriched with the aid of technology and without discomfort, inconvenience, or sacrifice even as these modernizations remain in development. Fans of Mary Roach will be pleased.

Provocative, exuberant perspectives on the “disrupting technologies” primed to enhance the human experience.

Kirkus Reviews