TY - JOUR
T1 - Touching at a Distance
T2 - Digital Intimacies, Haptic Platforms, and the Ethics of Consent
AU - Ley, Madelaine
AU - Rambukkana, Nathan
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The last decade has seen rise in technologies that allow humans to send and receive intimate touch across long distances. Drawing together platform studies, digital intimacy studies, phenomenology of touch, and ethics of technology, we argue that these new haptic communication devices require specific ethical consideration of consent. The paper describes several technologies, including Kiiroo teledildonics, the Kissenger, the Apple Watch, and Hey Bracelet, highlighting how the sense of touch is used in marketing to evoke a feeling of connection within the digital sphere. We then discuss the ambiguity of skin-to-skin touch and how it is further complicated in digital touch by remediation through platforms, companies, developers, manufacturers, cloud storage sites, the collection and use of data, research, satellites, and the internet. Lastly, we raise concerns about how consent of data collection and physical consent between users will be determined, draw on examples in virtual reality and sex-robotics, and ultimately arguing for further interdisciplinary research into this area.
AB - The last decade has seen rise in technologies that allow humans to send and receive intimate touch across long distances. Drawing together platform studies, digital intimacy studies, phenomenology of touch, and ethics of technology, we argue that these new haptic communication devices require specific ethical consideration of consent. The paper describes several technologies, including Kiiroo teledildonics, the Kissenger, the Apple Watch, and Hey Bracelet, highlighting how the sense of touch is used in marketing to evoke a feeling of connection within the digital sphere. We then discuss the ambiguity of skin-to-skin touch and how it is further complicated in digital touch by remediation through platforms, companies, developers, manufacturers, cloud storage sites, the collection and use of data, research, satellites, and the internet. Lastly, we raise concerns about how consent of data collection and physical consent between users will be determined, draw on examples in virtual reality and sex-robotics, and ultimately arguing for further interdisciplinary research into this area.
KW - Communication technologies
KW - Digital intimacy
KW - Ethics of technology
KW - Haptics
KW - Platform studies
KW - Teledildonics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115246563&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11948-021-00338-1
DO - 10.1007/s11948-021-00338-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115246563
SN - 1353-3452
VL - 27
JO - Science and Engineering Ethics
JF - Science and Engineering Ethics
IS - 5
M1 - 63
ER -