A futurist view --
The road to affective computing. The dawn of emotional machines ; How emotion bootstrapped the first technological revolution ; Building the future ; Tell us how you feel ; Launching the emotion economy ; Kismet and the robots --
The rise of emotional machines. The uncanny Valley of the Dolls ; Learning affectively ; Marching into a minefield ; Sentimental fools ; Who will really care? ; Mixing it up --
The future of artificial emotional intelligence. The love machines ; AI in the family ; FeelGood, Inc. ; Window in the dark : AIs in fiction ; For better and for worse ; Will AIs dream of electric sheep?

Futurist Richard Yonck argues that instilling emotions, the first, most basic, and most natural form of communication, into computers is the next leap in our centuries-old obsession with creating machines that replicate humans. But for every benefit this progress may bring to our lives, there is a possible pitfall. Emotion recognition could lead to advanced surveillance, and the same technology that can manipulate our feelings could become a method of mass control. And, as shown in movies like Her and Ex Machina, our society already holds a deep-seated anxiety about what might happen if machines could actually feel and break free from our control. Heart of the Machine is an exploration of the new and inevitable ways in which mankind and technology will interact.