After Gutenberg

2 Comments

1. jcwinnie
   Posted 2008-1-10 at 8:47 pm | Permalink

   Via Future Pundit we learn that David Levy Sees Sexbots In Our Future.

   British artificial intelligence researcher expects in a few decades time robots will become highly desirable partners in relationships.

   Levy is an expert in artificial intelligence. He is fascinated with the idea of “love and sex with robots,” and his visions of the future include “malebots” and “fembots” as lovers and life partners. A chess champion and the president of the International Computer Games Association, Levy, 62, has just published a book, “Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships” — that is provocative in the truest sense of the word. He is convinced that human beings will be having sex with robots one day. They will show us sexual practices that we hadn’t even imagined existed. We will love them and respect them, and we will entrust them with our most intimate secrets. All of this, says Levy, will be a reality in hardly more than 40 years from now.

   I can understand how relationships with artificial intelligences could be very satisfying. An artificial intelligence could be programmed to have similar values and interests and to be very patient and engaging. But I do not expect robots to become sexually attractive unless materials for robot construction become so advanced that robots can look very like humans.

   But will robots find us attractive as companions?

   “The mere concept of an artificial partner, husband, wife, friend or lover is one that, for most people at the start of the 21st century, challenges their notion of relationships,” says Levy. “But my thesis is this: Robots will be hugely attractive to humans as companions because of their many talents, senses and capabilities.” Given rapid developments in technology, Levy believes that it is only a matter of time before machines will be capable of offering human-like traits. According to Levy, “love and sex with robots on a grand scale are inevitable.”

   Also, will robots be autonomous or will they be part of large collective minds? Will the machines moving around have their own self-contained artificial intelligences and autonomy? Or will they be so closely connected into massive stationary AI computers that there won’t be all that many distinct separate artificial intelligences to have relationships with?

   I’m thinking humans will find their ideal mates by genetically engineering them.

2. jcwinnie
   Posted 2008-1-10 at 8:51 pm | Permalink

   And FuturePundit commentator Acton suggests:

   There’s a bit of work needed as yet on control of facial features, but today’s high end sex dolls are pretty darned realistic. I could see Honda’s work on humanoid robots, and the Japanese sex doll industry, converging in a robot, android really, that’s difficult to tell from human, and which optionally had the appropriate plumbing.

   Indeed, given the sort of Manga and Anime this generation of Japanese engineers were fond of, if there isn’t an android cat-girl project at Honda, I’ll be shocked.

   The current technological issue, I’d say, is that they haven’t gotten the mechanics of a humanoid robot compact enough to fit inside a slim human frame, with enough silicone padding to not be obvious. NOT that good enough silicone padding and fake skin isn’t available. And that’s mostly for lack of trying, I think, since the emphasis has been on control algorithms, not looks. Though these people are doing some work there:

   http://www.projectaiko.com/index.html

   Sex-bots are definitely technologically feasible in the near term, the question is social acceptance.