Would You Have Sex With A Robot? (…And Other Modern Questions)
You love your iPhone, you spend countless hours of your life on the internet, you may even prefer virtual realities and online role-playing games to your real life… but are you ready to fuck a robot? This is an important question because in the very near-future your favorite sex partner may be a sexbot. Today, for the price of a used car you can buy your very own robot sex doll. And some day soon, whether you like or not, all of us will have to deal with this reality.
For millennia, the military’s been a driving force behind society’s advances. The Pentagon gave us the internet, GPS and real-time invisibility clothing. But the military is certainly not the only industry of innovators and inventors. Picking up where military thinkers don’t go or won’t go… we have others like the sex industry. And at the leading edge of porno science is where we find… the sexbot.
The dream became real when burn centers created replacement skin so lifelike that the old sitcom joke, the blow-up sex doll, was given new life. Paired with advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and servo-motors, the blow-up doll deflated and the reality of a sex robot arrived. In science fiction, the dream of a robot one could fuck is an old idea. Steven Spielberg’s “AI” and Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” both feature sexbots. For years, guys I know have lusted after robots ever since they first imagined a sexy female C-3PO they could take to bed. Whether you like it or not, their dream is now a store-bought reality and there are currently a few different versions of a sexbot one can easily buy online. But what does this mean for the future of sex?
As anyone can plainly see, with robots invading every corner of human life, soon we’ll have a world where robots and people will have to find a way to get along. Centuries of human history prove that humans, well… really men, will fuck just about anything they can. Robots are clearly the next frontier for human sex and according to experts it won’t only be men getting hot and sweaty with an android lover. Apparently, sexbots will push human sexuality to new highs, or lows, depending on your opinion.
Now, to be fair… the future of robotics is pushed forward by more than just lusty porno science. For instance, the Japanese have a crisis on their hands and have turned to robots to help them deal with it. Ever since America dropped two nuclear bombs on them the Japanese were thrust into a post-atomic world of sci-fi reality and as a culture they’ve chased the near-future with the hopes of avoiding such a horrific trauma ever again. Consequently, when faced with problems like aging elders, unlike the West, they don’t turn to immigrant populations to tend to their grandparents instead they look to robots. No doubt you’re aware of drone planes, robot combat t.v. shows, violin-playing robots and stair-climbing robots designed to replace human laborers. These were only the beginning.
The next generation is here. In fact, within the year a robot Pinocchio called Robo-Boy is scheduled for market consumption. But more than robot-caregivers and one-trick robo-ponies, the real interesting societal questions are how sexbots will change our relationships to technology and each other.
The most popular sexbot debuted at the Adult Entertainment Expo in 2009. Her name is Roxxy. She’s a programmable mate who can “learn” what you like and don’t like. She can “see” you and “feel” your touch. She can speak to you and carry on a conversation. She can even have an orgasm. She comes pre-programmed with 5 personalities, “Frigid Farrah” who’s shy and reticent, “S&M Susan” who enjoys pain/pleasure exchanges, “Mature Martha” who’s very experienced and ready to teach you, “Young” who’s “barely 18” and ready for you to teach her, and “Wild Wendy” who’s adventurous and ready to try something new. If those personalities don’t work for you, one can develop new programs for her. Users are already going online to swap personalities they’ve developed. Think of it like robot-swinger parties where users swap programs instead of partners. And Roxxy is only one of the many models of sexbots already available.
There are others out there like “First Android” developed by German inventors. Or the Canadian inventor Le Trung’s “Aiko.” Although Trung says she was designed for partnership not specifically for sex, her name translates as “love-child” and she’s fully capable of having an orgasm. The development of a male sex doll hasn’t reached the same level of sophistication. But one can easily imagine a male sexbot built around a throbbing, pulsating dildo and boasting a tongue built specifically for mind-blowing cunnilingus. Somewhere on the horizon there’s also a model aimed at gay men, using much of the same technology to create the robot vagina only for the business end of a gay male sexbot. Soon, we’ll have robots designed for every possible scenario of sexual expression. And we’ll undoubtedly see sexbots designed to replicate your favorite celebrity or ones endowed with a pornstar’s intimate physical geometry. Things are about to get real interesting.
According to an article published by Transhumanity.net, a very important development in human health is developing due to how easily humans can/will experience guaranteed orgasms from sexbot partners. The article is here.
The key point of the article states: “They’ll offer us quadruple-tongued cunnilingus, open-throat silky fellatio, deliriously gentle kissing, transcendent nipple tweaking, g-spot massage & prostate milking dexterity, plus 2,000 varieties of coital rhythm with scented lubes…”
If this is the case, it dovetails nicely with recent research that suggests having an orgasm-a-day leads to greater human longevity. From the same article on Transhumanity.net:
“Dr. Michael Roizen, founder of RealAge.com, frequent Oprah guest and chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, claims 4-8 years of additional life can be garnered if we have 350-700 orgasms per year… Other studies report 2-3 orgasms per week can make us look 7-12 years younger. Orgasms flood our flesh with healthy hormones (oxytocin, DHEA & others).”
This means more important than an apple-a-day keeping the doctor away, an orgasm a day keeps death away. I’m a big fan of orgasms, but to me, fucking a robot sex doll seems a lot like sticking your dick in a tiny washing machine that talks to you. And sure, I know there are long-distance truckers who regularly and happily enjoy their “flesh-lights” and “pocket-pussy” devices… but I’m not sure I’m quite ready to trust a sexbot with the softest most sensitive part of me. For many folks, until fucking a sexbot feels amazingly and undeniably good it’s still not quite a perfect solution to replace human-to-human “meat-bag” sex despite the presumed health benefits.
For others, there’s also the slippery question of affection and love. Robots will need to develop empathy enough to allow users to actually develop feelings or even fall in love with their robot sex partners. But, as we spend less face-to-face time and shed more and more of our empathy and robots gain more and more lifelike expressions of an emotional reality, this gap will soon disappear.
Another hurdle sexbots will have to jump is the question of clean-up. Time spent cleaning your sex robot has got to be depressing. So until researchers figure out a way to create lifelike skin that can clean itself, I don’t imagine we’ll see sexbots pushing prostitutes out of the brothels and off the street-corner. However, science moves fast and somewhere out there a researcher is already working on a self-cleaning, anti-bacterial lining for a sexbot vagina and anal cavity.
After the emotional and physical questions of sexbots, there are numerous practical applications that will raise all sorts of interesting questions about who we are, what we want and where we’re headed.
Will the military find it prudent to use sexbots to help reduce the need for prostitution in countries that are sensitive about hookers and whorehouses?
Would you find it kinky if your partner suggested a ménage trois between you and their new sexbot? When we turn over our sexual needs to the services of a sexbot will it actually improve male-female relationships? Or will sexbots make human interaction even more rare?
What about Dad letting his teenage son borrow his sexbot? How old would your child have to be before he or she could have her own sexbot?
Or on the really kinky side of the coin, will robot-animals designed for zoophiliacs be a new “forbidden” fetish? And what about priests, can they have sex with a sexbot?
Will sexbots become just another line that divides us into groups- those who happily do and those who zealously don’t?
Following such lines of thought, robot prostitution seems like the immediate and likely outgrowth of sexbots, since not everyone can afford or may want to own their own sexbot. One can easily imagine an open-minded wife suggesting when she’s not in the mood that her husband go use a sexbot. Or for the lonely businessman at a convention, a sexbot prostitute could be a disease-free exchange. Two researchers from Victoria University in Amsterdam, Ian Yeoman and Michelle Mars, penned an article “Robots, Men and Sex Tourism” for the journal Futures. They imagined a world where sexbots will change the face of modern sex tourism, reducing the criminality and societal problems such as sex trafficking, slavery and pedophilia.
Could sexbots help us deal with the ugly sides of humanity? Could sexbots help perpetrators who enjoy rape fantasies, pedophilia and even zoophilia deal with their urges in safe and harmless ways… and thus reduce the criminal behavior of the perpetrators? Despite these opinions, other future-thinkers remain steadfastly against the rise of sexbots. In Canada, feminists are already drafting legislation prohibiting the rise of readily available sexbots. This may not be a wave simple legislation can stop.
Another big question raised by sexbots is how they’ll help our population explosion. Will sexbots reduce the world population by reducing birthrates around the world? Looking at Japan, where birthrates are already well below the replacement threshold, the wide availability of porn is blamed for reducing sexual activity in favor of masturbation. Experts suggest the prolific Japanese porn industry and easy access to online porn has greatly reduced male and female interaction. Apparently Japan’s sexual culture, known for its aggressive and rapidly developing sexual fetishes that play out like fashion trends, keeps people pleasuring themselves rather than a partner, which helps to keep their birth-rates below the level of replacement. There are 100 other countries around the world that are also currently below the replacement level. When we add robots to the mix, it seems the future is clear… a side benefit to sexbots will be how they help us deal with our population explosion.
Soon these questions will no longer be intellectual and instead play out on the world stage.
Sexbots are here… and things are just starting to get interesting.