Jeff Simmermon sent me the link to his email interview with David Levy, author of Sex with Robots:
What’s interesting about all these interviews and all the media around this book is how many interviewers start from the position of “this is a scary thing” or “this has such potential for abuse.” Questions like “what if the robot looks like a child” and “won’t your partner leave you if you have a robot” and “oh my god what about the children.” I haven’t seen a lot of people asking “how could a sexbot help me overcome the trauma of abuse” or “how could we augment or enrich our lovemaking with these devices” or “will ’sexbot sundays’ replace ’sextoy thursdays’ in our marriages” and so on.
I’m with Levy on this one. I think yes, of course we’ll have a huge backlash of anxiety, but overall the humanoid robots designed for sex are gonna be a lot of fun and not cause any harm to people or relationships. I mean, I’m sure we’ll find ways to break each other’s hearts that involve the sexbots, just like we’ve found ways using the internet, mobile phones, automobiles, and quills and parchment. And the robot angle will give the media a nice hook to hang the same old story on — er, I mean, a new lens through which to understand human beings.
That’s what I plan to use them for. Heh.
5 responses so far ↓
1 chiraven // Dec 31, 2007 at 12:25 am
Regina,
Your piece on the sexbots leads me to one very important question that I think needs to be addressed before I, for one, would be willing to jump into that particular brave new world: just WHO is writing the control software for my sexbot? And am I SURE? Another nice place for the open source vs. proprietary systems debate to play out, so to speak. Think of the possibilities.
2 Jesse // Jan 1, 2008 at 3:45 am
You’ve broken all my records for links followed in one reading session, all the way thru registering with wordpress. My social security number is 514-84-6124. See you.
3 chiraven // Jan 1, 2008 at 9:03 am
Sounds like you’re loosing it there, Jesse. What are you saying?
4 Jesse // Jan 1, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I may be loosing it, friend, tho I assure you I am all there, and that you had better hope I am on the dev team for that software
5 chiraven // Jan 1, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Maybe I’d better write my own code, right down on the bare metal in ones and zeroes. That’s what we call safer sex.