'Attitudes to robot sex will change' In Steven Spielberg’s AI (Artificial Intelligence), Jude Law plays smoking hot Gigolo Joe, a male prostitute “mecha” – a new class robot humanoids of the 22nd century. But according to New Zealand based academics, Ian Yeoman and Michelle Mars, a Gigolo Joe could be at our disposal in less than 30 years. In their paper Robots …
At present, sex tourism exists because these places are the only place you can do this stuff. Robots would change that. Moreover, if the first sexbots arrive in 30 years, they'll be cheap as chips in 50 and the majority of people will be able to afford one at home.
Sexbots will kill off the sex tourism industry, except for a few niches catering for those who get off on the exploitation rather than the physical act.
I'm guessing physical avatars before androids. Long distance gf/bf etc. Some may go for super-Siri but human element likely remains on top for a while.Perhaps rather than threatening, its a career extending opportunity for the red ladies of amsterdam. But what you have to ask is are you really sure your partner avatar controller is under 90.
"Bad" is subjective (though I agree the quoted material is pretty dull stuff - I haven't read the whole paper, though), but certainly this is well-traveled ground. The idea of a "sex robot" arguably goes back at least as far as the myth of Pygmalion.
I'm partial to George Barker's version:
O sometimes, nevertheless,
The labourer at his instrument or tractor,
Bending into a state of merge with objects,
Finds the same love that, from a machine of sex,
Steps down as Venus to her invoker.[1]
The alert reader will note that Barker is drawing an equivalence between sex and working with machines, much as the Thompson Twins did in "You Take Me Up".
[1] In some collections where this poem appears, the last word of this line is "invocator". Apparently Barker changed it at some point; I believe "invoker" is the later version. The poem is from 1943.
"L. Ron Hoover:
A Latent Appliance Fetishist
Is a person who refuses to admit to his or herself
That sexual gratification can only be achieved
Through the use of MACHINES . . .
Get the picture?"
"won't this require sex-droids that mimic human children? And if so, won't that fall foul of the law?"
Of course it will. I can't imagine a government that will voluntarily give up a stick with which they can beat us to surrender more and more freedoms, and the threat of "paedos" around every corner is just such a stick. Anything that will make the threat (real or perceived) go away will not be welcomed...
Perhaps that's where the "tourism" part comes in. Otherwise it would make more sense to ship the bots around the world and set up shop where the customers are. But if sex bots–or certain kinds–are outlawed in many countries, then customers would have have a reason to go to those where they aren't.
So the Italian built ones would be sleek, fast and beautiful but unreliable and require lots of maintenance,
The German ones would be powerful and efficient but soulless
The American ones would have a pair 4.8 liter V8 hemi funbags on the front but weigh 4tons
While the British ones would just leak oil.
Before you get too excited, consider the fact that;
A: Each sex-robot will be wirelessly connected to GCHQ –just in case you're prone to incriminating pillow talk
B: You'll only be able to afford the ad-supported version –and an offer made in flagrante to find you a guaranteed lowest motor insurance policy, might spoil the moment a bit.
C: hardware oneupmanship will mean the shine will soon wear off your crappy old Diddy-O-Tron 4,5, with a measley four knocker presets –when your workmate upgrades to a Miff-O-Matic 6,1, with the infinitely adjustable nipple girth.
@AC 23:24 One new keyboard please.
I can see these boinkbots (tm) being useful for other things.
Such as teleconferencing, why go 4000 miles for a meeting when you can just upload some basic AI to the thing and record + interact with the others at the meeting.
Although it would be hard to keep a straight face when talking to a clone of Betty Rubble complete with cartoon sized jugs.
-AC/DC and when will these be in stores already?
1. The software will never be reliable enough (no entendre intended)
2. Reality cliff - only people who have never, or rarely, had sex with a real person will consistently use the services of a sexbot - I've seen the latest "avengers assemble" trailers and the hulk still looks like a bluescreened add-on with unconvincing skin (ok, he's green, but see my point?). It'll take a lot longer for the reality cliff to get bridged (sorry about the metaphor) as the closer you get, the further away it seems (the more subtle the dissonance, the more unsettling it is).
Also, I reckon if it did ever happen (allowing this idea for a moment) it'd generate a whole new class of personality disorders and artificial psychoses resulting in a lot of very damaged individuals.
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