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Sex Robots!
January 25, 2019
Guys I’m super proud of this Sex Robots essay I wrote for Boston Review:
A History of Cyborg Sex, 2018–73
Categories: Uncategorized
mathbabe
Exploring and venting about quantitative issues
mathbabe 
Too much hardware. I would suggest instead a narrowly targeted, wireless or chemical stimulation of specific regions of the brain, coupled with discreet, minimalist strap-on accessories that provided a sense of gentle warmth and caring in sensitive spots, coupled with cleanup capability. However, these devices would be expensive, resulting in a further gap between rich and poor and increased societal mayhem, and would ultimately contribute to a dystopian future where humanity sends a general SOS out into the universe begging for an alien takeover, in order to save what’s left of mankind from itself.
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ROTFLMAO. Not at all threatened.
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Isaac Asimov preempted you. In “The Robots of Dawn” (1983) Gladia and the humanoid robot Jander had a sexual relationship and she secretly regarded Jander as her husband. In the earlier “Satisfaction Guaranteed” (1951) Robot TN-3 (also known as Tony) is designed as a humanoid household robot and is placed with Claire Belmont as an experiment. Tony realises that Claire has very low self-esteem, and tries to help her by redecorating her house and giving her a make-over. Finally, he pretends to be her lover, and deliberately lets the neighbors see him kissing Claire, thus increasing her self-esteem. In the end, though, Claire falls in love with Tony, and becomes conflicted and ultimately depressed when he is taken back to the lab.
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Hm. I think there are always going to be people who find the idea of sex with bots distasteful and dispiriting for the same reason there are people who find the idea of sex with professionals distasteful and dispiriting. Because their sexuality is tied very tightly to the feeling of *being desired*. And yeah, a pro will put on a show of pretending to be into the customer, but any customer that isn’t a brain-dead idiot *knows* that’s just a show. And the same thing goes for any bot short of a true AI with the right to self-determination.
For me, and for a lot of people, if the path to finding a partner doesn’t carry a risk rejection, there’s simply no point. If they *can’t* say “no”, then a “yes” doesn’t turn me on.
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