Marriage to robots may be legalised by 2050. Artifi- cial intelligence researcher David Levy, author of Love and Sex with Robots, thinks this is unavoidable. He predicts people will be able to form romantic relationships with robots and consummate that affection. The book promises that the human-robot relationships of the future will improve upon most sex between humans today.
Currently, robots are mostly made for factory work, but, says Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, “We are at the tipping point where in just two years they’re going to start being in our homes doing domestic work and in our offices.” Producing robots in the form of toys (such as Sony’s Aibo and Robo-Sapien), artificial workplace mail couriers, and household cleaners are commonplace. As this trend continues, robotic design becomes anthropomorphic, including mental capabilities like personality. Sex dolls are currently in demand, with artificial heartbeats to mimic orgasms, pelvic thrusting motors, and voice response. Robots are now being made with skin sensitive to temperature, pain, and pressure. There’s a shift in the way we see and treat robots today, eventually reaching the point where we can fall in love with them.
But will it be easy? That some humans who interact with a “computer therapist” report a strange attraction to the software program called ELIZA indicates the possibilities. Scientific research has found a number of factors for why we fall in love, such as reciprocal liking, physical attraction, and similarities in personality and interests. Levy believes these are all programmable. It may seem unlikely now, but computing power doubles roughly every 18 months. “Smart robots are only so sophisticated today,” says Sawyer, “but before the end of this coming decade we’re going to have to deal with autonomous, self aware, conscious entities that aren’t human beings.”
Moving forward, the idea of performing sexual acts with robots will definitely be criticized at first. But these roadblocks will merely hamper the inevitability of mainstream robophilia, not destroy its eventual acceptance. An excerpt from the New York Times Book Review says Levy makes his case by noting the past condemnation of acts like oral sex, masturbation, and homosexuality that today are “widely regarded as thoroughly normal, leading to fulfilling sex lives.”
Before you join the robot sex crusade, let’s evaluate the possible impacts it may have on our society. Advanced robotic sex toys would devastate the sex trade industry. STDs, embarrassment, risk of damaging one’s reputation, and various other inconveniences associated with prostitution would all be eliminated. If it feels like the real thing,with none of the so-called “side effects,” why would anyone choose prostitution?
A robot spouse may be the only answer for those without the resources to invest in a proper relationship. Going through the proper courtship of wooing the opposite sex can be challenging. Sex aside, as robots become more advanced, they will eventually have human-like personalities. When that happens, how will our society adapt to accommodate robotic marriage? Will there be tax-breaks, infidelities, polygamy, divorces, and alimonies?
These questions may be laughable, but Sawyer insists “it’s going to happen, it’s inevitable—already it’s in Japan.”
