Sex Robots & Vegan Meat by Jenny Kleeman review – the future of food, birth and death?

A pleasingly sceptical investigation into the innovations that could change the way we eat, have sex and die

In a plain factory building in the San Marcos hills, north of San Diego in California, a technological revolution is under way. There, a team of AI experts are developing a new brand of woman that can smile, flutter her eyelids, make small-talk and remember the names of your siblings. Harmony - for that is her name - is a cut above your average sex doll. More than merely a masturbatory aid, she is a friend, lover and potential life partner.

In Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, Jenny Kleeman examines the innovations that promise to change the way we love, eat, reproduce and die in the future. What you are about to read is not science fiction," she warns in her preface. We are on the brink of an age when technology will redefine ... the fundamental elements of our existence." First on her list of apocalyptic developments is the production of AI-enabled, animatronic sexbots, which, depending on your viewpoint, provide warmth and comfort to socially isolated men or allow misogynist incels to live out their rape fantasies. Her research takes her to Abyss Creations, the throbbing heart of the industry where hyperrealistic dolls are created complete with custom-made hair, nipples and vaginal inserts.