With this fast a pace in the way technology helps us in our daily life, our satisfaction levels are at an all-time high. The downside is that satisfaction, in time and time again, leads us to become too demanding; wherefore – in the long-term – not as easily satisfiable as before. That’s not all: thanks to contemporary automatization trends, we are surrounded by tech “performing” in place of humans, and not merely “helping” humans per se. As far as human performances and tech are concerned, the development of “sex robots” takes the top spot as the boldest idea humanity might have concocted. Ever. Saying that the discussion is rife with controversy would be an understatement. Sex life is still considered to be the most intimate aspect of our personal life, as well as one among the most confidential discussion topics in society. Yet, undeterred by conceptual and moral dilemmas, companies are tapping into the market. A.I. and servo-systems are gradually increasing in complexity, allowing humans to simulate interactions more and more faithfully. The most audacious futurologists – like professor Ian Yeoman – argue that, by 2050, robo-sex will supplant “old-fashioned” sex. Not that far in the future, huh? That is not to say getting this far has been easy, nor that going forward will be. And not just in an engineering sense. Today, emancipation and democratization might be the biggest hurdles for this blooming industry. Secondly, due to high production costs, it appears only high-income people would be able to afford these futuristic sexual companions. Physical safety and mental health of people using them is also a concern. But let’s not be all that negative. On the upside, who’s to say that that our friendly robotic companions could not “compete” with prostitution and help reducing human trafficking all over the world? Or become an alternative for people with disabilities and no partner? Would the elderly benefit from this kind of company in their retirement homes? Or might some kind of interactions with robots be a form of therapy, even, for sexually scarred people who dread the touch of another individual? If you cannot answer any of these questions… well, that’s the really exciting part about sex robots! It’s nearly impossible to predict how they are going to evolve: promises and hype aside, they’re still more sci-fi than reality. Developers, designers and manufacturers are all facing a hard time building them, let alone marketing them properly. It is doubtful politicians would know how to regulate them right off the bat. And it’s going to take a while for it to reach even a modicum of social acceptance. Assuming they get socially accepted, of course. However, for how unnatural the prospect of how shagging with a machine may sound, it might be used for good. Proper governance set in place and ethical factors need to be taken in account, our sex robots’ nature might be engineered to be a tad closer to Samantha’s warmth in “Her”, and not that of a frightful golem sent to destroy our concept of humaness and intimacy! One thing is for certain: the power to change the sex industry runs wild in these automatons! References Bendel, O. (2016, December). Sex robots from the perspective of machine ethics. In International Conference on Love and Sex with Robots (pp. 17-26). Springer, Cham. Cox-George, C., & Bewley, S. (2018). I, Sex Robot: the health implications of the sex robot industry. Yeoman, I. (2012). 2050: Tomorrow’s Tourism. Döring, N., & Pöschl, S. (2018). Sex toys, sex dolls, sex robots: Our under-researched bed-fellows. Sexologies, 27(3), e51-e55. Frank, L., & Nyholm, S. (2017). Robot sex and consent: Is consent to sex between a robot and a human conceivable, possible, and desirable?. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 25(3), 305-323. Richardson, K. (2016). Sex robot matters: slavery, the prostituted, and the rights of machines. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 35(2), 46-53.
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