Should you have sex with robots? Experts weigh in

CNBC ^ | November 4, 2015 | Arjun Kharpal

[C19fan]

Should we be having sex with robots?

It's a question that has sparked fierce debate among moralists and the robotics industry. And it turns out, they're all split on what role machines should play in future relationships.

During a discussion at the Web Summit technology conference in Dublin on Wednesday, experts warned about the dangers of getting intimate with robots.

[Safetgiver]

it is more of a pyschological discussion....That says BS right there.

[rlmorel]

ROTFLMAO! There are a LOT of moving parts that might get really close to the naughty bits...even the most reckless woman would have to have enough common sense to consider there might be a better way...

[saleman]

You stuck bottle rockets in your butt?

Which end up?

[rlmorel]

LOL, I was stupid, but not THAT stupid. This is famous internet material: The Infamous Butt Rocket Video

I will admit, it is pretty funny when the thing explodes, kind of like an exclamation point at the end of a funny joke!

My brother did a face palm when he saw this for the first time, and said mournfully "His parents must be so proud."

[Coronal]

Something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FGgHEKko3E

[A Navy Vet]

"FWIW I am writing a book in which synths can provide fuull service as personal assistants on and off the job. The technology will include tissue development and response capability in which their eyes light up to indicate the human has pleasured them."

Hate to burst your writing aspirations, but the 2014 movie, "Vice" (starring Bruce Willis) is exactly what you describe. They are human clones with human tissue, organs, and brains with implanted chips to program desired responses for the enjoyment of rich clients. They live in an expensive "resort city" and live their lives over each morning when they awake with no knowledge of what they experienced the night before, as horrific as may have been. Eventually, as usual, one becomes aware of her predicament and the story gets more interesting.

Your scenario has also been done in numerous other sci-fy books, stories, and movies. "Blade Runner" is probably the first and is a cult classic with the same human clone for natural human's enjoyment concept. However, if you can provide a different story line and/or plot with interesting dialog within the concept, you may have a winner if directed with vision.

May I suggest you look back into the early writings of Arthur C. Clark, Dick, Heinlein, and many others. I've always wanted to see a movie of Clark's novelette, "Childhood's End" with the final evolution of mankind. Big concept like his 2001.

You also may want to look at the recent "Interstellar" for science terms and physics theories. Although it starts with the mundane end of the world and space exploration for humanity's survival, it uses general relativity, space time continuum, event horizon of black holes, speed of light, and a new proposed dimension of gravity (interesting). It's long, but well done...even moving at times. Good luck in your writings.

[Scirparius]

Will men never want real women again? Will women be more considerate of men because of it? Will it be good for society if men are spending a lot of their time in “ecstasy,?” Will they be more or less focused on saving the world and making homes for their families? Will removing the “need” to find sex partners make men appreciate the reality of companionship more? Or say “Aw, fuhgeddaboudit”?

These are really serious societal questions. We may not like it, but women have shaped human development because men wanted us. I believe it was good for civilization. I wonder how this will affect it, and this is coming now. Whoops, didn’t mean to end on a pun.

I think this is really a more significant issue than most people realize. It goes far beyond sex, although the sex would be a significant factor.

Already, we have the capability to monitor someone's brain activity and detect activity in certain identified areas, such as the "pleasure center" etc. Combine that with the increasing advanced interactive software programming that we are continuing to develop. The chatbots are mentioned in the article, but voice-activated technology is also increasingly more developed.

Take those and place them inside a relatively realistic, anatomically functional android. The android would be able use relatively simple behavioral programs to "key" to a specific person, and determine whether those behavior patterns "please" that person or not. Then it could adapt accordingly. Over time, it would be able to build on these interactions and become more "pleasing".

And, again, I don't just mean sex. The chatbots that are so popular in the East are proof of that. The multiple examples of people have "internet" relationships with people who don't really exist is another example. Even the way people anthropomorphize their pets is an corollary. Perhaps initially the sex aspect would be the most important feature, but as the interactive programming developed, it would be the social and interpersonal aspects that would become more and more prominent.

Humans have an amazing ability to fool themselves, to adapt to scarcity and get their needs met in unexpected ways. Just as an example: children who act out and misbehave. We know they are crying out for attention, and to someone starved for attention, even bad attention is better than no attention.

In the same light, robot attention will be better than no attention. Even more so, in our increasingly narcissistic world, "customizable" robot interaction will be better than "unsatisfactory" human interaction.

[Monitor]

Cherry 2000

[Trillian]

How long until someone dies from putting it on the fastest speed/stun setting? News of the future!

[morphing libertarian]

Thank you. My synths are in context within a much larger story. I have read about androids and was a fan of data in Star Trek. I recently watched a series called Humans and it will probably have a second season and watched the robot move earlier this year. Forget name.

I am writing a much broader plot and synths are a small part. Thank you for your response.

[Bender2]

Re: "...Will Laz volunteer for a case study on the effects of robot sex? :)..." Or, Bender...:)

I don't need a case study... 'cause Amy knows the effects of robot sex.

[Drew68]

Expect to see this as a question in the next GOP debate.

LOL! True.

[A Navy Vet]

"He said most men don't have orgasm's anymore. Oh sure - they ejaculate - but not the orgasm with all of the associated release of endorphins, etc. And, with porn you are training your body (like an athlete does) to a certain stimuli. But then when you are with an actual woman - you can't perform! (There is some medical term for it even!)"

The term is desensitized. Like watching violence in movies, video games, or TV a male CAN be become desensitized to violence. His hypothesis that males are subject to the same regarding sex is psycho-babble.

I call BS. Men are still horn-dogs from puberty to this modern day. A few decades of rhetoric have changed male physiology from 10's of thousands of years of male horniness? Really? Geeze, I'm 65 and still enjoy the "endorphins" that my Wife provides.

This is why I never follow "men of the cloth" regarding sexual or gender issues. They know nothing since they swear off the astounding beauty of the female form, but yet sometimes want to play with little boys. If the straight "pastors" truly appreciated the beauty of the woman body, they would never forfeit the enjoyment and endorphins and the calming affect that women provide men. Personally, I think they are all eunuchs.

If he wants to argue reduced ejaculate in older men, then he has a case. But no orgasm? What an astoundingly ignorant person he is. Wonder if he has ever experience the wonders of being inside a woman. There is no greater physical experience in life. This pastor is dumbass wrong.

[rlmorel]

LOL

[21twelve]

If you give the video a listen he makes sense. And he IS saying that REAL sex with a woman that you love is FANTASTIC. It isn’t the fantasy sex of porn (or robots), or the memory of lustful sex as a youth.

Here’s an article from some other folks on the effects of long-time porn use and the effects on the brain and ED.

http://www.yourbrainonporn.com/how-long-will-it-take

Of course most men are horn-dogs. But these people seem to make the case that training the body to react to certain thoughts and images take away the natural response to a real woman. And like drugs, one needs more and more, and kinkier and kinkier.

Although the pastor guy did mention guys he had helped that would pleasure themselves 2 to 7 times a day! (I’m surprised their eyes were still good enough to see the computer screen!)

[Bob434]

in otehrwords he got himself into a real pickle-

[PLMerite]

"Should we be having sex with robots? "

Sure, why not?

[Tallguy]

Was waiting for that particular pic!