That sounds at first very weird, like a "robot welfare" preoccupation, but it seems the point is would the use of such bots be a complement or substitute to actual prostitution? While you might have a strong opinion against prostitution, you might be ok about that involving bots. But once you do that, would you become more interested to try the "human thing"? If so, then it is a valid ethical issue.
BAN the ROBOT WHORES, says robot whore expert: 'These AREN'T BARBIES'
An expert has called for a ban on sex robots, saying that their introduction will, in some unspecified way, increase the damage to society caused by prostitution. Chatting with The Register, Dr Kathleen Richardson PhD contended that the possible AI sex droids of the future would strongly contribute to the continuing miserable …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 15:43 GMT TeeCee
Re: who decides
Tell you what, I will.
Unethical is pissing on somebody else's picnic just 'cos you think it's somehow wrong, against nature, defying god's law or very likely to slam your very own gravy train into the buffers[1].
There. That's all the ethicists, clergy and most of the lawyers out of a job, which goes a long way toward proving it's the right answer.
[1] Like this one.
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Wednesday 1st June 2016 00:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: We have to act now
> The sybian crisis is getting out of hand.
No, no, no. The lady doctor was explicit in her defense of womankind as not engaging in that sort of unseemly sex with inanimate anthropomorphised objects that men do. Women just want the good bits, delivered without the body attached. For women, it's all about "the d" as it were-- a vibrating, writhing one in various shapes, sizes and colours. Nothing at all unhealthy that women see men merely as a disembodied willy to use and put away whenever they need relief...
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Thursday 30th June 2016 16:00 GMT Asterix the Gaul
Re: We have to act now
"Women just want the good bits, delivered without the body attached. For women, it's all about "the d" as it were-- a vibrating, writhing one in various shapes, sizes and colours."
So, the women of today enjoy the by-product of using vibrators by growing hair on the palms of their hands,whereas we men have to cope with that by visiting the dentist for a 'haircut'.
I know which I prefer...hang on!, I just remembered, I've got an 'appointment'.
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 12:45 GMT Ru'
As it stands now, I bet the ratio of men who have used a "sex robot" compared to women who have is minuscule... Cyber dildonics (best term ever) is going to be a huge enabling industry for proper robotics in the same way porn has helped the video (and no doubt VR) industries. Luckily it's very easy to separate porn etc. from reality so I can't see it harming views on women. But I'm just some bloke so what do I know.
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 15:26 GMT Loyal Commenter
As it stands now, I bet the ratio of men who have used a "sex robot" compared to women who have is minuscule
It depends on what you define as a 'sex robot'. It could be argued that women (and indeed some men) have been using these for years and have refined them down to the point where they consist of only the essential 'part', and a place to put the batteries.
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 17:22 GMT James Micallef
Putting on my "I wonder how she came up with that" cap for a moment:
If porn robotics advances to such a stage where a pornbot will be physically as close to a woman* as makes no difference, then men* who get used to treating pornbots as objects, will start treating other women* (who look like the pornbots) as objects too.
That's a bit fallacious, since you could make the same argument for any type of humanoid robot, no matter what it's function. There are valid concerns in that direction, many of which explored in, for example, Asimov's 'spacer' worlds. But that is all based on massive 'what ifs'. Who knows, maybe humanoid robots that are undistinguishable from humans will make us all a bit more polite to each other.
Back in the real world, where pornbots are going to be easily distinguishable from humans for (guesstimate) centuries through behaviour alone, maybe it will work the other way, and use of pornbots that are readily identifiable as objects will lead to less objectification of humans.
Either way, my money is on these things reducing the 'back alley' cheap prostitution (the vast majority, including the more exploited women which I guess is what this lady should be more concerned about), while high-class escort services wouldn't be affected.
*potentially with genders reversed/mixed, but I'm pretty sure this is the main 'use-case'
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 12:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Of course its a sex object. If I owned one, it would be MY sex object. Like a vibrator, or squirmy rooter or bum thrustermatic 5000 or whatever else inhabits people's bedroom drawers or wardrobes or dungeons or whatever.
What business is it of her's that I have a sex object? Who is she to dictate what I use to pleasure myself in the privacy of my own bedroom, not affecting anyone else and doing nothing illegal.
As for it might reduce human interaction, erm, does that mean it might reduce casual sex? a robot isnt going to be a genuine fleshy companion, but surely it has to be better than waking up to someone unknown after 5 cans of tennants super down the local disco and a free exchange of virus or microbes which might have very bad long term concequences for their host? Or ending up with unwanted offspring and a lifeterm commitment to support said error of alcoholic judgement?
Please, FOAD back to the 19th centuary.
I think we should have a pettition to ban Kathleen Richardson for being stupid and judgemental, in the most glorous doubletake wording possible.
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 12:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Demarcation?
When I read this on the beeb this morning it looked like "woman ask for ban on sex toys for men".
Yet some stats put the sale of sex toys for women at over 1M per year (which does sound a little high) and most city high streets will have at least one store that sells them.
Perhaps she should go and read Asimov, she might find that it isn't men, or at least only men, who are the target market place.
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Tuesday 15th September 2015 13:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Demarcation?
I think her assertion that 80% of prostitutes being women with the other 20% being children and transgender men is complete bolllocks.
Although there is clearly going to be a high ratio of women, there are still _plenty_ of male prostitutes in the world of both gay and straight denominations - and these seem to be entirely missing from her data.
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