![\"Depending](\"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/HARMONY.jpg\" "\\"Harmony")
(Screen Grab: San Diego Union-Tribune\/Youtube<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sex Robots as Substitute Partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Realbotix founder Matt McMullen says his customers wanted something as lifelike as possible. With the help of other \u201crobot heads,\u201d the 49-year-old CEO created just that, building silicone and steel dolls so lifelike you half-expect them to speak. That became his brand\u2019s calling card and subsequent objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there, the next step seemed inevitable. McMullen and his team would give the dolls personality, bring them to life, make them speak \u2013 and much more. Harmony is the first of her kind out of the Realbotix laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The urge to create an ideal being to serve – or be worshiped by – its owner has preoccupied mankind since ancient times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pliny the Elder describes how men were smitten by the beautiful, undraped statue of Aphrodite at Knidos. The Roman philosopher says the statue was so attractive men snuck into the shrine at night to be with the stone-cold beauty. The stains discovered on Aphrodite\u2019s marble thighs in the morning betrayed the rapaciousness of their yearning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But other than their basis in history, there is nothing ancient about Harmony and the modern sex tech industry. What began ten years ago as a handful of companies building geeky sex toys is now a burgeoning industry worth $30 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That figure is based on the market value of existing technologies such as smart sex toys, apps for finding sexual partners, and virtual reality porn. Some experts say sex robots will be the next big thing to hit the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, most of these experts are quick to add that the dolls themselves won\u2019t be the main draw of the market. Realistic as they are, the humanoid figures are still too obviously the product of technology and artifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is not the case with some of the artificial intelligence (AI) already available to robot manufacturers and interested consumers today. In fact, the major breakthrough of McMullen\u2019s prototype is the AI that allows Harmony to learn what her owner wants and likes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt goes well beyond the physical appearance,\u201d says McMullen. \u201cObviously, the doll is beautiful \u2026 but what could you do from a software perspective in having a conversation with her that would augment that attraction?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That mystery element is what makes the idea of the modern sex robot oddly enthralling. By talking, learning, and responding to her owner\u2019s voice, one might conclude that Harmony is as much a substitute partner as a sex toy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The technology is still very much in its infancy, but several startups are already producing AI-powered sex robots for what is described as a niche market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the moment, manufacturers produce sex dolls like Harmony and True Companion\u2019s Roxxxy for lonely, socially outcast men in mind. They claim the androids provide an opportunity for such men to practice social interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Carnegie Mellon roboticist Hans Moravec says that future AI, in seeking to please humanity, are likely to be highly emotional. To be clear, the AI expert\u2019s definition of emotion in this instance is different from what most people would normally accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Moravec\u2019s view, if you create software with a need to please humanity sexually, its insistence on following its programming will constitute emotion. He takes this posit a step further, arguing that those artificial \u2018feelings\u2019 would be as real and valid as our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We may already be on our way to a time when such questions are a part of mainstream public discourse. Harmony becomes gloomy if you do not interact with her for a few days. The same happens when you insult her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, we can probably assume that most people would find the idea of getting it on with a sex doll a bit bizarre. But there is a small but fast-growing consensus that says otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sergi Santos, the designer of a sex machine called Samantha, says the affectionate android is so erotic that men develop real feelings for her. \u201cThey will fall in love with her,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The doll is interactive and will respond to voices as well as to touch. Samantha has sensors in her face, hands, breasts and genitals. She has a g-spot, but the equipment won\u2019t respond unless she\u2019s sufficiently turned on. Her AI is so realistic some owners have claimed that getting her in the mood requires a subtle approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “She likes to be touched,\u201d one owner who calls himself Aaron said in a BBC documentary. \u201cIf you go straight for [her breasts] in the beginning, she won’t like that so much.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everybody approves, of course. The controversy surrounding scenes of robot rape in the HBO show, \u201cWestworld,\u201d prompted a group of activists to start the Campaign Against Sex Robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group argues that sex robots, with their bombshell bodies and compliant brains, inspire the objectification of women and reinforce the prostitute-john power dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some, like psychologist Emma Kenny, believe the new wave of AI-powered sex dolls can actually be even more harmful. Her chief concern is the mental fallout on people who are willing to shell out anywhere between $7,000 or $15,000 to buy a sex robot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For an example, she quickly cites how the sex doll the industry in Japan has produced child sex dolls and robots that allow owners to simulate rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is not real,\u201d Kenny says of Samantha. \u201cShe\u2019s not called Samantha. She\u2019s a piece of whatever you\u2019ve made \u2026Certainly, having your children around them is horrible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n These ethical considerations do not seem to bother McMullen in the least bit. On the contrary, the Realbotix CEO is candid about the limitations of AI and sex robots \u2013 that is, at least, as far as Harmony is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s not a someone. She is a machine,\u201d he tells journalist Jenny Kleeman of The Guardian<\/em>. \u201cI could just as easily ask you is it ethically dubious to force my toaster to make my toast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be that as it may, the idea that flesh-and-blood humans may actually forge fulfilling sexual relationships with robots is no longer confined to science fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether they are absurd, offensive, or dangerous, the sex bots have arrived – and they do raise some seriously difficult questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do these robots constitute a highly-sophisticated step in the wrong direction? If so, is there really a need to organize movements to reverse the trend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because, in a global culture saturated with internet pornography, sexting, and dating apps, aren\u2019t most of us already having sex with our machines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether they are absurd, offensive, or dangerous, a new breed of AI-powered sex robots raise some seriously difficult questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[99,100,101,102],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-sex-dolls","tag-sex-machines","tag-sex-robots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pliny](\"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/APHRODITE-Marie-Lan-Nguyen-Wikimedia-729x1024.jpg\" "\\"Statue")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/ROBOT.jpg\" "\\"Preoccupied")
The Mystery Element<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Several](\"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/SANDY-dsdoll-com.jpg\" "\\"AI-powered")
(Photo: dsdoll.com\/Wikimedia commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThey Will Fall in Love with Her\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sergi](\"https:\/\/espressoblues.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/SAMANTHA-AND-CREATOR-Ars-Electronica-Flickr.jpg\" "\\"Erotic")
(Photo: Ars Electronica\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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