Synopsis
‘A tour of the lurid fringes of the tech world’ – The Times
‘Entertaining . . . like Louis Theroux channelling Margaret Atwood’ – New Statesman
What if we could have babies without having to bear children, eat meat without killing animals, have the perfect sexual relationship without compromise or choose the time of our painless death?
To find out, Jenny Kleeman has interviewed a sex robot, eaten a priceless lab-grown chicken nugget, watched foetuses growing in plastic bags and attended members-only meetings where people learn how to kill themselves.
Many of the people Kleeman has met say they are finding solutions to problems that have always defined and constricted humankind. But what truly motivates them? What kind of person devotes their life to building a death machine? What kind of customer is desperate to buy an artificially intelligent sex doll – and why? Who is campaigning against these advances, and how are they trying to stop them? And what about the many unintended consequences such inventions will inevitably unleash?
Sex Robots & Vegan Meat is not science fiction. It’s not about what might happen one day – it’s about what is happening right now, and who is making it happen. In the end, it asks a simple question: are we about to change what it means to be human . . . for ever?
Details
Reviews
“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, author of How to Fail and The Party
“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
“An unforgettable journey into the near future by a fabulously gifted writer”Will Storr, author of Selfie and The Science of Storytelling
“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, author of The Panic Years
