Giving a whole new meaning to the term “cyber sex”, artificial “OBVIOUSLY-HAS-NO” intelligence expert David Levy seems to think that by 2050 humans will be having sexual and emotional relationships with artificial life forms such as robots. “Robots are becoming more sophisticated”, he explains. “Technologies are being developed all the time, such as artificial skin, which will inevitably make robots much more human-like”.
Levy argues that psychologists have taken into consideration a number of basic reasons why people fall in love, “and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that’s programmable too.”
Ok, “love” is programmable so it seems, but whatever happened to the saying, “money can’t buy love?” If this technology is released into the mainstream, people with enough cash are going to be replacing their partners with celebrity look-a-like sex bots which are programmed to “love” them. Can you really call this love or is it just David Levy’s idea of a perfect partner?
Personally I think this prediction of Mr Levy’s is more of a childhood fantasy which has not yet been fulfilled. He’s probably the type of guy which holds an arsenal of celebrity look-a-like sex dolls by his bedside cabinet just hoping one day they will spring to life and fulfill his wildest android desires. Maybe more realistic sex dolls will be released as its easily possible, I just don’t think it’s possible to actually fall in love with an inanimate object as David seems to think.
Imagine if Sex Bots actually hit the stores, the Paris Hilton version would be sold out within seconds by an army of crazed and deranged fans who would give their left testicle for a chance to sleep with her.
I just can’t see myself having an emotional relationship with an artificial life form which is programmed to do what you say. Yeah it sounds great, and the sex would probably be good but seriously, yeah. How on earth are you meant to fall in love with something that is programmed to love you? It just isn’t real…
All your comments and opinions on this subject are greatly appreciated.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
You can fall in love with pets, can’t you? The differences between an animal and human as compared to the differences between a robot and a human are negligible when it comes to love.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This page is a result of thought. Stop thinking and go and live your lives before it’s over.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
While I believe people will be sleeping with robots by 2050, I doubt it will do a lot of good for the mental health of the, uh, ‘user’. People are sad enough already, let’s try not to give them even greater attachment to things that are incapable of loving them back.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
angelina robot is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat
July 7th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Just because you can’t see yourself having an emotional relationship with a robot doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. Everything David Levy said sounds pretty reasonable, although I think the 2050 prediction is a little early. Sexual relationships, on the other hand, could begin much sooner.
It seems like you disagree with Levy, so you want to personally attack him. That’s what I got from the mention of sex dolls. In fact, you’ve said nothing to actually refute what Levy has said, you’ve only personally attacked him. I agree that I personally couldn’t have an emotional relationship with a robot, but I think you’ve done a pretty lousy job of making your point.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I’ll say Levy is in all likelihood correct. Be a bit more open to the idea, and you might see it as well. Calling him a pervert because of his predictions is also a childish and petty way to undermine the person whom you’re arguing against, and makes you look pretty silly.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Celebrity look-a-like bots not withstanding, suppose we do eventually develop strong AI? I wouldn’t rule out meeting a machine intelligence and forming loving bonds with said intelligence.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
OK, but there are already thousands (millions) of people who are engaged in sexual activities with dolls. There are men who live with dolls, some of them life sized. Now, I am not saying these guys are stable, or even social creatures, but they exist. If the cost lowers and the culture begins to accept their existence; whats to stop a percentage of the population from deciding to avoid real people completely?
The socially inept may in fact believe they are in love with the robo-dolls they take up relations with. I don’t believe that Levy is saying we will all replace real relationships with robots. Probably closer to the way people use sex toys or prostitutes - a release, a game. If you can emulate a ‘real’ relationship then it makes it more enjoyable. Some folks will ‘fall in love’ with their dollies. Some folk already love their dollies. Some of us are in ‘real’ relationships, and have no more interaction with the other person than if they were in fact a doll.
Seems plausible to me.
I.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I’m less interested in the love and more interested in the sex-slave aspect. I can’t get into bondage or weird games because in the back of my head I’m always worried about the person’s feelings.
But a robot? Bring on the torture chamber.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
absolutely, and I have no problems with the moral consequences either.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Aren’t you forgetting porn? People are quite happy to get off to just an image of a person. Often the image or even the person themself have been altered in some way so the human connection is pretty weak, in fact there’s the Japanese Hentai which is purely animated and so has zero human element altogether. Wouldn’t sex-bots just be a natural extension of porn?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Okay, first of all, this guy who thinks people are going to fall in love with robots and all that - he is nuts.
But actually some people are nuts enough to fall in love with robots. That doesn’t mean that normal healthy people will do so.
I mean you can find bums on the street who talk to their socks and eat gutter trash. So yeah I guess some people could “fall in love” with a robot. But not me. Argh. It is disgusting to see how hard people work to degenerate concepts such as love, family, life, and morals. Anyone who has time to invent love robots - well I think they might spend that time doing something beneficial for the world, no? This will only make some people even worse and get them stuck into objects.
Furthermore it degrades people’s concepts of humanity and being human. It equates people with machines and that is one of the reasons why it becomes so “acceptable” to destroy and torture lives. We don’t need this!
Thanks for writing a great post about this madness.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Well If people can fall in love with their cars, their guns, their boats, their homes etc… and more animate attachments to cats, dogs, snakes, ferrets etc… I think it wont be a stretch for humans to fall in love with robots.
If humans become cyborgish or complete cyborgs and robots become cyborgish or cyborgs, then the lines between, us, in the future will blur until a new species appears cyberhuman. That will be far off several hundred years at least See Kuzweil.net for the big thoughts in this area. Raymond kuzweil and associates have thought long and hard on this issue.
For now though, lonlieness and the quest for perfection will drive those with the will and the resources to this form of cyber love. It may seem an abomination, to us now, but that may change as our paradigms and ethics shift to meet new challanges, and new experiances.
It could be part of our evolution, and many species in our universe may have already made this transition some time in their evolution/existance as well.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Concidering the traffic comming in from digg.com, the real question is Would you have sex with Linux? And that would be a yes.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I would totally give a robot a dirty sanchez, fuck yeah!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Ha! Ha!
This is a Google ad accompanying the article.
Adult Dolls
Huge selection of Adult Dolls items.
Yahoo.com
I guess that answers the title question.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Just some constructive criticism: You are being excessively harsh towards the author of that report, seemingly drawing some strange and rather rude conclusions without any purpose. I doubt you are qualified to make assertions about a researcher’s childhood fantasies. I really don’t mean to criticize the overall tone of your writing, but the somewhat personal attack stood out to me.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
When you wrote “Imagine if Sex Bots actually hit the stores, the Paris Hilton version would be sold out within seconds by an army of crazed and deranged fans who would give their left testicle for a chance to sleep with her.” you hit the nail on the head. While not a big fan of Paris Hilton, and therefore unlikely to surrender my “left testicle” to acquire her likeness, I can think of a few stars I’d shell out for (as you probably could). I have theorized with my “geek” friends on numerous occassions that sophisticated (life-like) mechanical / android companionship might at-a-minimum undermine genuine relationships in much the same way electronic medium such as chat and social networking sites have undermined genuine personal communication.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
We recently had a debate about whether having sex with a robot was cheating, and the end result wasn’t very decisive. Mostly people compared it to a vibrator, but some people think that you can end up with an emotional attachment to the robot. Either way, both sides agreed it’s going to happen eventually.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
> If this technology is released into the mainstream, people with enough cash
> are going to be replacing their partners with celebrity look-a-like sex bots
> which are programmed to “love” them.
Not everybody is lucky enough to have human companionship. There is a lot more loneliness out there than society is willing to admit. Of course human companionship is better but isn’t an option for many. These robots will sell very well because they are needed by millions.
If some people think that loneliness can be solved, than solve it! You have a decade or two to solve the problem before the robots would be available. One way or another, loneliness should be rare by the middle of the century and that’s a good thing!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Think about how many miserable married people there are in the world. Think about how many miserable single people there are in the world. How many people in the world are even 50% satisfied with their marriage? How many people choose to stay home and masturbate to internet porn, rather than play the field and be rejected, or be accosted by the undesirable? Twenty years ago, did you envision owning a cell phone and an ipod? What about advancements in CGI? I think realistic, programmable, and believable companion androids could be possible within 50 years, assuming no nuclear war, armaggedon, etc, and people would want them.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I think this post is a bit naive. Intelligence, whether it is organic or machine, is what drives life. For all of our complexity and nuances, we are still subject to the intrinsic preprogramming of our own biology through instinct.
Is it wrong to think intelligent organic entities can be in love with intelligent mechanical ones? I don’t think so, especially considering the selfish nature of the emotion, and how emotions themselves function.
The future is going to be strife with dilemmas like this, I just hope we take the high ground and recognize intelligence for what it is and not demean it by implying machine intelligence is any less deserving of existence than organic.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Every girlfriend I’ve had I’ve broken up with because of of personality conflicts (once you commit they get complacent and annoying) , physical problems (once you commit they start to get fat) or sexual incompatibility (once you commit they stop having sex).
I want a comitted, adult relationship. Real human women seem incapable of holding up thier end. I have the misfortune to be attracted to them regardless. A beautiful, sentient femmbot would be the perfect solution.
Just leave her in honeymoon mode. Buy the thai cooking upgrade. How hard is that?
July 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Had you provided a link to the David Levy article your readers might be in a better position to respond to the question “Can you really call this love or is it just David Levy’s idea of a perfect partner?” Since we are talking about International Master David Levy, whose experiences in testing chess engines (and his wagers against their success) has been well documented over the decades, I strongly doubt the latter. And since we are also talking about David Levy CEO of Intelligent Toys Ltd he is probably in a unique position to determine the marketability of such a product. It shouldn’t really take much of a stretch of the imagination to see there will be quite a few niche markets for a ’sex-bot’.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
>How on earth are you meant to fall in love with something that is programmed to love you? It just isn’t real…
Aha, right. You just forgot to mention that real people that do fall in love are ALSO pre-programmed to love specific types of people. So just because this is a digital programming and not biological, it somehow makes it impossible to happen?
I can tell you right now that I had hot dreams about Mr Data, the Star Trek Android, and even Mr Spock who’s supposedly doesn’t have emotions. If an android is convincingly humanoid, i could fall for him.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hey I did have sex with a robot. I was married to him. It did not work with me, so he married someone several years older then himself. And when that didn’t work he moved to Arkansas and married a 14 year old girl. Evidently you can do this in that state with the parents permission. He was in his late 30’s.
So would I fall in love with a robot? Perhaps. If he were a combination of the energizer bunny and with a terrific technique. And if you could program in some intelligent conversation and just a tiny bit of FEDELITY. A maybe the desire for a little imagination in the bedroom.
If all of this comes to pass, just tell me where to sign up.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I would if she was Hot!
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
July 7th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Bicentennial Man? Is that You?
I would rather prefer the clones of “Blade Runner”, besides the ‘power source’ of these ‘upcoming’ sexbots would cost more than a left testicle…Not to mention, “the risk of electric shock” warnings and litigation about product recalls;)
“Blade Runner”-type clones just have a tendency to rebel…
Hehehe…Hope springs eternal in the hearts of us ‘geeks’!
July 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
so how often do you have to change the oil?
July 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
This blog post is ridiculously aggressive.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
It’s not a question of would I have sex with a robot, but why can’t i already and when can I?
July 7th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Wow, you went straight to attacking the guy who wrote the article. Honestly, that is a horrible way to critique, and stopped me from reading anything else you had to say. Try to discuss and debate his article points and stop attacking the writer.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Of course people will be having physical and emotional relationships in 2050. To a limited extent, they’re having them now. I love my laptop computer and it’s even obsolete. I’d totally have sex with it, if it had a vagina–and if I could keep my wife from freaking out. Sure, robots won’t be completely replacing humans by 2050, but a cute “Cherry 2000″ could beat out a Melanie Griffith if the guy doesn’t want to deal with her hang-ups, right then.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Zettai_Kareshi
Zettai Kareshi Japanese TV comedy / drama
Robot maker, Kronos Heaven, finally develops “Night Tenjo”, the perfect male humanoid programmed to be devoted and completely loyal to his lover. The company chooses temp worker Izawa Riko to take part in a 5-day free trial. At first, Riko only sees Night as a household appliance. But when she finds out how deep Night’s devotion to herself is, Riko finds herself falling in love with him. Joining the love triangle is Asamoto Soshi, a distinguished young executive at her company who has feelings for her. –Fuji TV
July 8th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Hehe, i would but only if she were lifelike enough to complain about my clothes, try to get me to find a better job, and try to get me to buy her stuff.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:44 am
I have been exploring the weirder reaches of experimental sexuality, and I think it’s really a no-brainer. I am well-aware most average guys are xenophobic as well as lacking in imagination, but women sure as hell become quiet all suddenly when the concept of a synthetic lover is introduced -… and they get that dreamy half smile.
There is no taboo for women to own a vibrator - the same would cause men to be knifed in an alley by “healthier men”.
Apart from the few desperate type of men that are already experimenting with real-dolls (they look OK but are a little quiet) I can see women switching to plastic pretty early on. I am sure the first step will be virtual reality (or augmented reality) companions that provide an emotional stimulus as well as look yum. That wont be far off. Personally I would do away with flesh lovers in a heartbeat, but a tongue (male or female) is still the best option I have right now.
No later than 2025 I anticipate going all plastic. If technology moves fast enough I hope to BE all plastic no later than 2040. Yes, I have little sentimentality about “natural” flesh bodies.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Sex with a robot — its only one step away from having sex with a vibrator … it would be perceived on the same terms that fetish sex is perceived now, or perhaps as a technologically advanced form of masturbation to pornography … the key difference still lies with the emotional connection — the difference between sex and love …
July 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
You have sex with your hand, right?
July 9th, 2008 at 12:27 am
I own SenBots.com, the home of Sensual Robots.
The project will go live in the next 20 years!
July 10th, 2008 at 12:22 am
It’ not about a emotional relationship with a robot, it’s about sex. So I don’t see any greater problem with it.