Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny

As ALOUD examines the delicate balancing act of power and value in a special series this fall, we’ll consider how technology tips the scales to redefine the dynamics of our human relationships. What will happen to our notions of marriage and parenthood as reproductive technologies allow for new ways of creating babies? What will happen to our understanding of gender as medical advances enable individuals to transition from one set of sexual characteristics to another or to remain happily perched in between? What will happen to love and sex and romance as our relationships migrate from the real world to the Internet? Can people fall in love with robots? Harvard Business School Professor Debora Spar explores these questions in her new book, Work, Mate, Marry, Love. Discussing how technology is transforming the intimacies of our lives, Spar will be joined in conversation by Michele Bratcher Goodwin. A Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, Goodwin is a leading voice on civil liberties, civil rights, reproductive rights and justice, and cultural politics. Listen to this provocative imagining of our future humanity.