Chapter 38 Further Reading

AI Companions and Technology

Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books. Prescient and deeply researched analysis of how people relate to technology and robots; a foundational text for thinking about AI companionship before AI companions existed at scale.

Earp, B. D., & Savulescu, J. (2020). Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships. Stanford University Press. The most rigorous philosophical treatment of pharmaceutical love enhancement; takes the question seriously and argues more permissively than critics.

Fogg, B. J. (2002). Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. Morgan Kaufmann. Important background reading for understanding how technology platforms are designed to influence behavior and emotion — useful for evaluating AI companion design ethics.

Asexuality and Aromanticism

Bogaert, A. F. (2006). Toward a conceptual understanding of asexuality. Review of General Psychology, 10(3), 241–250. The most accessible academic overview of asexuality from the researcher who first estimated its prevalence systematically.

Bogaert, A. F. (2012). Understanding Asexuality. Rowman & Littlefield. Full-length academic treatment; readable and comprehensive.

Jay, D. (2003–present). AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network). www.asexuality.org The primary community resource and the source of the largest accumulated community data on asexual experience.

MacInnis, C. C., & Hodson, G. (2012). Intergroup bias toward "Group X": Evidence of prejudice, dehumanization, avoidance, and discrimination against asexuals. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 15(6), 725–743. The key empirical study on stigma against asexual people; finding that dehumanization of asexual people exceeds that of other minority groups is striking and sobering.

Consensual Non-Monogamy

Conley, T. D., et al. (2013). A critical examination of popular assumptions about the benefits and outcomes of monogamous relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 139(6), 1347–1381. Rigorous review of the evidence comparing monogamous and CNM relationships; challenges assumptions of monogamy's superiority.

Veaux, F., & Rickert, E. (2014). More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory. Thorntree Press. From the polyamory community itself; useful for understanding the norms and practices from practitioner perspectives.

Future of Matchmaking and Technology

Finkel, E. J., et al. (2012). Online dating: A critical analysis from the perspective of psychological science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(1), 3–66. Rigorous academic analysis of what online dating can and cannot offer; the foundational academic critique of matching algorithm claims.

Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364(1535), 3549–3557. Primary source on VR's capacity to produce genuine behavioral and physiological responses; essential background for the VR intimacy section.