Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
Proving that science fiction as ever, with the Westworld series and its nawty scenes and ideas of people paying to have sex with robots, does more to advance actual science than some without much imagination can imagine:
Sex will be just for special occasions in the future as robots will satisfy everyday needs (telegraph.co.uk).
Or so an international robotics conference hears and is in randy C-3PO tune with robotic sex future covered before (Latest Picks 4th April 2016).
“Sex between married couples will increasingly be saved for special occasions as robots step in to satisfy everyday needs, experts have predicted. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) devices in the bedroom will be socially normal within 25 years, an international robotics conference has heard. Comparing sex robots to the rise of the ebook, Dr Trudy Barber, a pioneer in the impact of technology on sexual intercourse, said the machines would enable people to greater appreciate ‘the real thing’.”
Although it might be said many are “preferring” a Dyson to the “real thing” already, perhaps not by choice, but because it’s unlikely the “real thing” ever comes back after a visit to their often rather trollish, “wimmins fault” ManOChat bondage chatroom and those that are “married” and presumably already saving sex for “special occasions” logged in as MWM65_Wife_Out are probably just as unlikely to get a RT meet up even if it it only to watch the Lost in Space box set while “wife” is at the bingo.
But, as with those “RealDolls”, robot sex is not just for men, with “male” versions being available for females… but then again, I read many of those male dolls are actually bought by guys too.
“Devices such as Rocky or Roxxxy True Companion can currently be bought for around £7,000, but advances in the field are predicted to make sex robots increasingly lifelike and affordable.”
As yet a price far in excess of those expensive “RealDolls” and so for most, or dare I say all, the Dyson will have do.
But, really, with the way the virtual has integrated itself indispensably into our lives—and you are far behind the times and probably wearing 50 Shades of Grey Cardigan or tangerine Trump “make the 80s great again” cap if you deny—it is only time and ethics seemingly similar to how masturbation was sanctimoniously derided and as out of date as said grey cardigan:
“Speaking yesterday at the International Congress of Love and Sex with Robotics, Dr Barber said people’s growing immersion in technology means it was only a matter of time before it takes a mainstream role in sex. ‘It could be that we are so busy with our lives, we are so embedded in our technological narrative that the idea of engaging in long-distance sex and robot sex is actually a natural process in our evolutionary cycle,’ she said. ‘I think what will happen is that they will make real-time relationships more valuable and exciting.’”
But then again, recalling that profit drives the virtual world, is that robot sex—like pornography—can be sold whereas sex with another human for money—or the procuring of—in nations where technology sells well is usually unlawful as much a bring on the robort future push as anything else?
“However, AI experts have been warning that a generation of adolescents risk ‘losing their virginity’ to humanoid devices and growing up with an unrealistic conception of sex. In June leading scientist Dr Noel Sharkey, a former advisor to the UN, called on governments to prevent robotics being hijacked by the sex industry.”
Indeed, similar to the generational “risk” pornography is often headline baitingly portrayed online and off in tabloids despite the fact that seemingly for many it is a wider social issue and not the porn itself which is the problem and others who actually see it—for better or worse—as the new sex education, just as it likely was when those now in grey cardigan were growing up with a copy of Knave or Mayfair too: Is Porn the New Sex Education? (ids.ac.uk).
So… would you? If you hadn’t voted already:
Poll: Survey finds one in six Brits would have sex with a robot, would you? (Pick of the Week 6th May 2014).
22nd December 2016
And… did we mention “RealDolls?” We surely did as, as said, one thing that the future will not change is grabbed opportunity to sell, the adult industry loving trend handles on which to grab:
Sex robots: Experts debate the rise of the love droids (bbc.co.uk).
“These were just a few of the questions being asked at the second Love and Sex with Robots conference hastily rearranged at Goldsmiths University in London after the government in Malaysia—the original location—banned it. … There were no representatives from the sex industry in attendance and no sex robots on display, leading some to question the point of the event. RealDolls, a Californian-based firm that makes lifelike sex toys, claimed that it would release an artificial intelligence-enhanced sex doll next year.”
Need I say, despite ever more poseable limbs and exotically customisable features I imagine it’s gonna take more than fixing a bad motivator (starwars.com) to get that out for next year, but a successful “test” has been achieved in that people are talking about it and the conversation has long since moved on from robots talking over to giving a handjob. Did they say a year or…
“‘In the next 10 years it is perfectly achievable in software to create a robot companion that is everything that people might want in a spouse—patient, kind, loving, trusting, respectful and uncomplaining,’ [Dr David Levy] said.”
Hmmm… “respectful and uncomplaining”; The Stepford Wives (Wikipedia) tropes that may appeal to alt-right “agenda watchin’” tangerine supporters or be looked forward to locking in Gorean ManOChat bondage stocks but… yeah, I though even porn had made some headway to get past that all too unattractive representation of reality in some parts of the world the US is highly critical of the human rights of.
I still think technical support for this is going to be the funniest job ever; “A bit tight and ‘she” wont let go… have you tried a reboot?” And, as suggested in caption below a picture but ignored in the actual article, “sex bots could raise new data security concerns” which, with us all waiting to see what Linux-powered Internet of Things hackerage we have waiting under the tree this year… (Latest Picks 3rd/21st Dec. 2016).
Updates/Follow Ups
15th January 2017
Give robots “personhood” status, EU committee argues (theguardian.com).
“The European parliament has urged the drafting of a set of regulations to govern the use and creation of robots and artificial intelligence, including a form of “electronic personhood” to ensure rights and responsibilities for the most capable AI. … “A growing number of areas of our daily lives are increasingly affected by robotics,” said the report’s author, Luxembourgish MEP Mady Delvaux. “In order to address this reality and to ensure that robots are and will remain in the service of humans, we urgently need to create a robust European legal framework”.”
A surely there’s the problem for, as sentient as their AI may be—which is frankly still not reality yet—that they will “will remain in the service of humans” is surely slavery in all but name. Perhaps well programmed “intelligent” but non-sentient automatons is not just more realistic but more preferable to our sensibilities too, as have been explored in Sci-Fi.
Recent/related stories
- Meet the “cyborg” who wants to turn his penis into a vibrator (Latest Picks 19th December 2016)
- Man builds Scarlett Johansson robot (Latest Picks 4th April 2016)
- Survey finds one in six Brits would have sex with a robot (Pick of the Week 6th may 2014)
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