Sexbots: sex slaves, vulnerable others or perfect partners?

This article describes how sexbots: sentient, self-aware, feeling artificial moral agents created soon as customised potential sexual/intimate partners provoke crucial questions for technoethics. Coeckelbergh's model of human/robotic relations as co-evolving to their mutual benefit through mutual vulnerability is applied to sexbots. As sexbots have a sustainable claim to moral standing, benefits and vulnerabilities inherent in human/sexbots relations must be identified and addressed for both parties. Humans' and sexbots' vulnerabilities are explored, drawing on the philosophy and social science of dehumanisation and inclusion/exclusion. This article argues humans as creators owe a duty of care to sentient beings they create. Responsible innovation practices involving stakeholders debating ethicolegal conundrums pertaining to human duties to sexbots, and sexbots' putative interests, rights and responsibilities are essential. These validate the legal recognition of sexbots, the protection of their interests through regulatory oversight and ethical limitations on customisation which must be put in place

Equation of state, structural behaviour and phase diagram of synthetic MgFe2O4, as a function of pressure and temperature

The behaviour of synthetic Mg-ferrite (MgFe2O4) has been investigated at high pressure (in situ high-pressure synchrotron radiation powder diffraction at ESRF) and at high temperature (in situ high-temperature X-ray powder diffraction) conditions. The elastic properties determined by the third-order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state result in K0 = 181.5(\ub1 1.3) GPa, K\u2032 = 6.32(\ub1 0.14) and K\u2033 = -0.0638 GPa-1. The symmetry-independent coordinate of oxygen does not show significant sensitivity to pressure, and the structure shrinking is mainly attributable to the shortening of the cell edge (homogeneous strain). The lattice parameter thermal expansion is described by \u3b1a0 + \u3b1a1 *(T-298) + \u3b1a2/(T-298)2, where \u3b1a0 = 9.1(1) 10-6 K-1, \u3b1a1 = 4.9(2) 10-9 K-2 and \u3b1a2 = 5.1(5) 10-2 K. The high-temperature cation-ordering reaction which MgFe-spinel undergoes has been interpreted by the O'Neill model, whose parameters are \u3b1 = 22.2(\ub1 1.8) kJ mol-1 and \u3b2 = -17.6(\ub1 1.2) kJ mol-1. The elastic and thermal properties measured have then been used to model the phase diagram of MgFe2O4, which shows that the high-pressure transition from spinel to orthorombic CaMn2O4-like structure at T < 1700 K is preceded by a decomposition into MgO and Fe2O3