Taking note of covid-19 concerns and uncertainty over what the pandemic situation might be in December, it has been decided that the 5th annual ‘Love and Sex with Robots conference‘ will be a virtual and completely online affair. Perhaps this is a particularly wise move on the part of David Levy and the other organizers, as the annual event has a history of cancellations due to poor location choice and a lack of forward planning. In 2018 the event was postponed after SJWs took exception to an infamous ‘alt-right’ speaker sharing the stage during the conference dates (although the controversial figure – Steve Bannon – was actually not speaking at the sex robot conference itself). And in 2015 the event was cancelled all-together after the unsurprising reaction of local hardline Muslim clerics to the event planned to take place in their Islamic country of Malaysia in December 2015.
According to their website, an additional conference theme this year will be ‘Robotics and Electronic Sex Startups’. Although virtual, the conference will be Germany/Berlin based, officially hosted by Virtual Brain City Berlin. The event is scheduled to run on the days of Decemeber 7th, and 8th, so still nearly 6 months away and plenty of time for anyone interested to submit a paper for consideration.
The founder of the conference – David Levy – is the author of the book of the same name (Love and Sex with Robots).