‘Futurama’ Already Taught Us In 2001 Not To Date Robots
February 15, 2021
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Intelligence Squared hosted a debate on its “Agree to Disagree” podcast series. This episode, titled “Agree to Disagree: Sex Robots?,” pitted Kate Devlin against Joanna Bryson, with Devlin arguing the pro-robot relationship case and Bryson arguing the con. While technological advances mean this debate is necessary, and the episode of “Agree to Disagree” is great, “Futurama” answered this question back in 2001.
During the show’s third season, an episode revolving around that very question aired. In “I Dated a Robot,” Fry, the protagonist, gets a robot version of Lucy Liu. When he begins spending too much time with his robot girlfriend, his friends show him a public-service announcement titled “Don’t Date Robots” to try to convince him to rein himself in.