They say that many technologies owe their existence to sex. Porn drove the cost of VCRs down, for example. And porn was the early fuel for the growth of the Internet. I see one more area where this phenomenon is likely to repeat: robots.
Have you heard about the company that’s making realistic life-sized sex dolls? They cost up to $10,000. I haven’t seen one in person (really, I haven’t) but they reportedly weigh as much as a real person and are eerily lifelike.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealDoll
The company that makes the doll is reportedly working on artificial intelligence. That shouldn’t be too challenging. No one wants their sex doll to be all chatty anyway. There are already a variety of chatbots on the Internet that can simulate real conversation. Slap one of those programs into a chip, add a small speaker into the sex doll’s head and you’re in business.
At that point, you’ll essentially have a simulated hot chick that can make conversation but is otherwise paralyzed. I have to think it would be creepy if the doll looked like a woman, and talked like a woman, but couldn’t move. You could accessorize her with a hospital bed and some tubes in her arms, but that is only a temporary solution. Full robotic motion will surely be developed soon.
Obviously the first body parts to get the robotic functions will the, um, most marketable parts of the doll. But eventually that doll is going to be baking cookies and fetching the remote control. It’s only a matter of time.
Today I will ask you the most frightening question you will ever see on the Internet. It’s a hypothetical, just for the guys.
QUESTION: Hypothetically, in the future, if a sex doll robot was indistinguishable from a human woman, and you weren’t in a relationship with a human, would you tap the robot?