Because we all don’t have enough things to worry about, Dr. Kathleen Richardson, a “robot ethicist” at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, has launched a campaign to ban the creation of “sex robots,” calling the technology both “unnecessary and undesirable,” because once they complete their takeover, people will only want to have sex with sex robots and not humans.
Source: Jack Fisher’s Official Publishing Blog
Via BBC:
“Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on – how they will look, what roles they would play — are very disturbing indeed,” she told the BBC.
She believes that they reinforce traditional stereotypes of women and the view that a relationship need be nothing more than physical.
“We think that the creation of such robots will contribute to detrimental relationships between men and women, adults and children, men and men and women and women,” she said.
Source: Christopher Teh Boon Sung
MEH. If people want to have sex with robots, then they should have sex with robots. I mean, really — not my business! They’re not hurting anyone! I mean, quite frankly, if one were indeed a “robophile,” I think it’s probably better that they have sex with robots, than to have sex with a human being and be all like “Man, this would be so much better if you were a robot!” — because no one wants to hear that. That’s insulting and not at all sexy.
To boot, this seems like it could actually be a pretty great thing for people who have trouble establishing intimate relationships for whatever reason. Not to mention that robot sex would be fairly safe sex — without fear of STIs or pregnancy — so long as the robot you are sexing isn’t like, a Cyberman or a Dalek or something and out to kill you. That, I would not recommend!
Source: Merinews
As far as the reinforcement of traditional stereotypes goes? Or the need to have a partner be physically perfect or something? I would much rather someone who needed that in their life get it on with a robot than an actual person. I mean, better them than us, right? Really, go and do. As the quirky French lady I used to work with used to say, “I like man who like woman.”
We already have sex toys, anyway — it’s not like the existence of the Hitachi Magic Wand has rendered men entirely unnecessary for most women or anything, and those are certainly less cost prohibitive than a damned sex robot would be. The amount of people who would both want and could afford a sex robot is, I’m gonna say, a very small percentage of the population, and probably no one needs to be super concerned that human-robot relationships are going to become the norm any time soon.
In conclusion, I am not worried about sex robots.
[BBC]Original by Robyn Pennacchia
