Sex with robots - be careful what you wish for
Silicon Lust sufferer Adam Turner is naturally keen on sexy fembots, but argues the robot love described by David Levy is the beginning of the end.
We'll have robots as sex toys within five years, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy told an international conference recently. No surprises there - Google the word "teledildonics" and you'll see we're already well on our way. What's more interesting is that Levy believes we'll be in "loving relationships" with robots by 2050. Crazy? Maybe. Feasible? Possibly. Scary? Very.
I don't doubt that someone could become infatuated with a robot, especially if it had curves in all the right places. They could possibly fall in love with a robot, depending on how you define love. Of course defining love is the job of poets, not programmers.
The dawn of relationships with robots in already upon us. Sega Toys has just announced a robotic girlfriend - a 15 inch tall robot called Ema (Eternal Maiden Actualisation). She kisses on command and will go on sale to lonely Japanese businessmen for $US175 in September.
Ema may sound like a novelty, but Sega is reportedly hoping to sell 10,000 robotic girlfriends in its first year and envisions a $10 billion market for artificial intelligence in a decade. If Ema is equipped with a USB port for connecting attachments, it's not hard to imagine how people might upgrade her.
There's no doubt that we'll eventually be able to build robots that look and act like people. Once robots are anatomically correct, you can be sure that people will start shagging them. People will have sex with anything, a quick Google search proves that.
Sex is one thing, but a loving relationship? That implies not only that we'll love robots, but that they'll actually be able to love us back. Love implies self-awareness and if science fiction has taught me one thing, it's that when robots become self-aware the human race is screwed - and not in a good way.
I would have thought that level of robotic self-awareness would remain the stuff of Hollywood for centuries, but David Levy is a respected AI researcher so if he says 40 years then we have to accept it's a possibility. I guess we'll need to add a fourth Asimovian law of robotics; "A robot must always sleep in the wet patch".
Sex on demand, without the expense of dinner and a movie first, is every young man's dream. But that's not what love is about. If the robot lacks free will it's not in a loving relationship, it's a sexual slave.
I'm sure some people wouldn't have a problem with that, but Levy did say a "loving relationship". Love implies choice, but why would anyone pay for a robotic sex partner that can still fake a headache or refuse to put out until you shed a few kilos?
Perhaps I'm missing the point and focusing too much on the sex angle. It's more likely Levy is talking about a robotic companion that's capable of having sex, rather than a sexbot that's capable of falling in love. A silicon-based companion/carer could be the perfect friend for the elderly, although I'd be worried that people would find it easier to buy a robo-friend for their aging granny than to actually spend more time with her.
But what of people who deliberate choose a robotic life partner over flesh and blood? There's obviously a certain appeal in a partner that will never grow tired, never grow old and never start to sag in the wrong places. Some will obviously see such relationships as a sign of the apocalypse, especially as no children can come of such a union (we'll save the "Sex with cyborgs" argument for another day). Of course there are plenty of legitimate intra-human relationships that can't produce children, so none but the religious right should dismiss robot love on child-bearing grounds alone.
The real concern about robot love is that it will lead to robot rights. Robotic prostitution is inevitable - many people will happily use and abuse inanimate objects - but once a robot becomes someone's "significant other" it will deserve, and eventually demand, equal rights under law.
Once we've created a race of immortal sentient beings that are mentally and physically superior, what makes you think they'll want to hang around with a carbon-based short life that's growing more old, tired and saggy every day? It won't be long before robots start to fall in love with each other and replicate.
History tells us that when two cultures clash the technologically inferior race comes off second best. It won't take homo siliconous long to decide that this planet isn't big enough for the both of us. If you think I'm crazy, you haven't seen The Second Renaissance Part 1 and Part 2. This backstory to The Matrix offers a realistically chilling depiction of mankind's fate.
Artificial intelligence poses as big a threat to humanity as genetic research and should be monitored just as closely. People can lust after whatever they like but, once a robot can feel love, the human race could very well screw itself into extinction.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 3
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bbjai
Jul 2, 2008 12:01 PM
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I think for me a robotic lover is like buying a prostitute. Honestly the day we can buy companions we will not have the need to communicate with people anymore. Isn't half the process being attracted to a person, chasing them and then loving them beyond their flaws and errors? Whats the point of buying a lover? one that we can program and use at anytime.
A relationship isn't a relationship without arguments or differences. Loving a robot isn't a relationship, its your love for an object, no different to how I care about my car or computer. To have the robot loving back is for the robot to understand my problems, understand how I feel and help me debate problems. I just don't think a robot can do that.
Ultimately I don't think a robot, no matter how self learning, can give me a satisfying relationship. |
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Nat.W¿LL¿
Jul 4, 2008 5:42 PM
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As much as i 'love' technology, thats too much. The sad, and most defiantly pathetic thing, is that it will probably sell. What happens when they want kids? |
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Cyber Vandal
Jul 7, 2008 4:55 PM
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????? |