Robots will become so much like people in the future that we could fall in love with them, have sex with them, and even marry them, according to a British expert in artificial intelligence. David Levy has just finished a doctorate at the University of Maastricht entitled "Intimate relationships with artificial partners". His book, , will be published in November by HarperCollins.

Mr Levy bases his forecast on current trends in robotics and artificial intelligence. Virtual pets like the popular Tamagotchi foreshadow human emotions towards robots. Emotions, he believes, can be computerised so that robots can detect them in human and respond to them.

"Once the reader has accepted this notion, it is only a short mental step to the concept of humans feeling emotions for robots, together with all that implies, including fears such as: ‘I think my wife is having an affair with her hairdresser robot’," says Mr Levy.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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