David Levy’s Love and Sex with Robots may have hit the shelves just a few years ago, but the idea of love and sex with robots is hardly a new one. Even as far back as the 1920’s, people were envisioning a future in which robots–or “automatic men”–would be available to tend to the needs of the lonely and unloved (and, naturally, put leagues and leagues of gigolos out of work).

Alas, eight decades later, we still haven’t perfected the human-robot love relationship…well, unless you count people falling for their Roombas.

Robots for Romantic Old Maids (1928) [paleofuture.com]