Posted on 10/14/2007 5:46:58 PM PDT by sinanju
"Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.
"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.
At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, "but once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon," Levy said.
The idea of romance between humanity and our artistic and/or mechanical creations dates back to ancient times, with the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion falling in love with the ivory statue he made named Galatea, to which the goddess Venus eventually granted life.
This notion persists in modern times. Not only has science fiction explored this idea, but 40 years ago, scientists noticed that students at times became unusually attracted to ELIZA, a computer program designed to ask questions and mimic a psychotherapist.
"There's a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans," Levy said. "At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony's Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis...."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Hmmmm??? I guess there’s hope for pimplely NerdLoserGeeks in the near future!
lol I was close... what movie was it?
Thanks Joe...
Advantages of robots in relationships:
1. No unwanted kids, unless it gets a virus to replicate itself
2. No unwanted diseases, except for same exception as above
3. You want more rights, here’s the right to be turned off
4. Upgrades always in the works
Not a ping
Are you kidding me? With all the porn freaks masturbating to low-res porn on the internet, I’d figure the market for something which does such a much better job at simulating sex would be explosive.
The only question is whether such masturbation will be confused with marriage in law. And given the ridiculous state of affairs over gay “marriage,” I find it difficult to argue with the professor.
Sounds like my late wife except she was 5’7”, blonde and loved horses. Okay so maybe not so similar, but she was 36-24-38 with a biting sarcastic streak.
It would actually happen?
I thought he was a Rondroid.
WHAT? Who the *** are you? Have I been cloned? I’m having existential issues right now.
I was soooo in love with Sean Young. However, like most of my loves in real life she turned out to be crazier than a bat.
Cheers!
Ah, but Rachel was not a robot. She was a human being.
Even if her DNA had a serial number in it, she was human.
Sort of. Non-human responses on the psych test...
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