Do androids dream of human lovers? Or only electric sheep? Do humans dream of sex with robots? While we don’t know the answer to the first two questions, author and artificial intelligence expert David Levy was clearly thinking about the third question when he wrote his new book, ‘Love and Sex with Robots’.

Available through Harper Collins, Levy predicts that by the end of the century, love and sex with robots will be commonplace, in a book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships with machines.

Far from machines taking over the world Terminator style, it sounds like some robots’ only conquests will be in the bedroom, where 21st century battles with technology may simply be over who gets to be on top.

According to the Harper Collins site, David Levy has “used examples drawn from around the world, David Levy shows how automata have evolved from the mechanical marvels of centuries past to the electronic androids of the modern age, and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years”.

In his book, Levy “explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and to virtual pets such as the Tamagotchi, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots”.

So, who would want to use the services of a sex robot? Please read onto page 2.

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Levy's book also "examines the needs we seek to fulfill through sexual relationships, tracking the development of life-sized dolls, machines, and other sexual devices, and demonstrating how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated”.

The line on the last page of Levy’s book promises “Great sex on tap for everyone, 24/7”, but the question is, who would want to use the service?

Levy says that many lonely people – men and women – could well jump at the chance to experience some electronic intimacy.

He told the Houston Chronicle that these people could well be lonely and miserable. He said: “I think society will be a much better place when they have an alternative that satisfies them without doing any harm to other people. But by and large, it will be very good for society, very beneficial, and I think that will be the majority view within a relatively short space of time."

Canada.com quotes Levy saying in his book that "Love with robots will be as normal as love with other humans. While the number of sexual acts and lovemaking positions commonly practised between humans will be extended, as robots teach us more than is in all of the world's published sex manuals combined. Love and sex with robots on a grand scale are inevitable."

Quoting again from the Houston Chronicle, Levy says that the Japanese are already working on love robots, quoting Levy saying that: "I think the Japanese are probably working on this more than one would realize from the little that's been published so far”, while the Associated Press says a Japanese company Axis already produces the world’s first sex robots called ‘Honeydolls’, for men, is already on sale for US $7000.

Does this mean the end of the human sex worker? Please read onto page 3.

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There’s also speculation that the practitioners of the world’s oldest profession, sex workers, might one day be put out of business, while others wonder if it will ever truly be possible for humans to fall in love with their robotic companies, as opposed to simply ‘loving’ their latest gadgets and toys.

Harper Collins unsurprisingly says the book is “shocking but utterly convincing”, and that it “provides insights that are surprisingly relevant to our everyday interactions with technology. This is science brought to life, and Levy makes a compelling and titillating case that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire”.

They finish be saying that: “Anyone reading the book with an open mind will find a wealth of fascinating material on this important new direction of intimate relationships, a direction that, before long, will be regarded as perfectly normal”.

So, one day this century, when artificial intelligence can rival our own, rather than the rather simpler 'fuzzy logic' employed by some technologies, we may well find out from the androids themselves whether they dream of making love to humans, or if they only dream of electric sheep.