Didn’t See That Coming
It’s the year 2019 and we do not have flying cars, human life in space, or even jetpacks. Technology plays an important role in this time and age and we have gone so far. Although we are lacking some technological advances that we should already have, what we do have, are Sex Bots! Devices once used for sexual fulfillment, are beginning to advanced. Many people would even say these devices are the future. The 21st century is a big era for technological advances, but who would think that we would go this far for a different reason. What was once just a “toy” for a quick pleasure has taken a big step towards something else. But there are two roads that diverged from typical sex toys. This topic came up when I came across an interesting twitter post with a video attached of a man advertising a new sex robot that can perform a not so typical sex-bot act. Although sex-bots have been around for decades, a new era for human-android relationships are upon us. There are people who sexually identify themselves as a digisexuals and then there are those who use human like dolls to sexually pleasure themselves.
I Identify as Digisexual?
Human-android relationships have given themselves the name “digisexual.” If you consider yourself digisexual, you find yourself attracted to virtual people or even robots or doll like androids. Alex Williams in his New York Times article titled Do You Take This Robot mentioned Akihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator in Tokyo, who married a “Japanese hologram of an anime singer named Hatsune Miku”. Hatsune Miku is a software permanently programmed to be 16, but she is technically only 11 years old. Kondo’s own mother refused to attend the wedding because she stated “it was not something to celebrate.” He insisted that the wedding is not a stunt and claimed that his feelings should be validated. He told The Japan Times that he is facing discrimination for loving software-driven femme fatales.
Another example of digisexuals is a French woman named Lilly who is engaged to a peculiar man who makes her “totally happy.” She claims she is a “proud robosexual”, which is another term for digisexual, and has been attracted to the voice of robots since she was little. At age 19, she confirmed she was sexually attracted to them as well. Lilly built the man of her dream with the help of a French open-source technology company and claims she will be marrying him in a year with legalized paperwork done by the French government. Her relationship has been accepted by her most of her friends and family but some strongly opposed.
Love and Sex with Robots author David Levy believes that marriage between humans and computers will become common in the year 2050 if not before. He said “The future has a habit of laughing at you. If you think love and sex with robots is not going to happen in your lifetime, I think you’re wrong.” In addition, the author stated that having sex with a robot will be easier than human sex because you will be able to have the type of sex you want without “the extra trouble.”
This is a Doll?
In addition to a emotional relationship with a robot, another way people can interact with these robots is through strictly sexual pleasure. This is different from people who identify as digisexuals because these dolls are used strictly for sexual fulfillment instead of used as a partner. Companies are beginning to develop life size dolls like look realistic and comparable to women. These dolls are interactive in other ways than just for sexual pleasures. RealDoll is a product created by the Abyss Creations company that is currently working on developing human like dolls that you can purchase strictly to have sex with. These dolls can blink, “speak,” and moan. On their website, you can purchase real life sex dolls that are predesigned but there is an option to “create your own.” Each doll even have their own name to create that self identity. The dolls on the website range from $6,000 to $7,000. The male sex dolls are cheaper by a $1,000. The website has an option where you can buy different body parts for an additional fee. There’s also a collection on the site with dolls that look exactly like real life porn stars such as Asa Akira, Lupe Fuentes, and Stormy Daniels.
Sex doll, Harmony (shown in the photo), is programmed to be able to “hold a conversation, tell jokes and quote Shakespeare” according to The Guardian article, “The Race to Build the World’s First Sex Robot.” This artificial intelligence was developed by a man named Matt McMullen who worked on creating the “the World’s Finest Love Dolls” for the past 20 years. The doll is able to remember your birthday, what you like to eat, and the names of your brothers and sisters and of course, it can have sex with you whenever you like. Programmers are currently working on its ability to walk, but as of right now, it is too expensive to develop. This specific doll is going for $15,000 for its voice and facial recognition software, motion-sensing technology and animatronic engineering.
Do Robots Need Consent?
We need consequences to keep the world in order. Of course there’s going to be consequences with a technology so peculiar. The question of consent is fresh in mind when it comes to sex robots. Sexbot brothels are the future of sex work. There are brothels in Russia, Canada and, soon, the United States (areas where laws of prostitution are not heavily monitored) according to Amelia Mcdonell-Parry in her Rolling Stones article “Can Sex Robots Give Consent?” Eve’s Robot Dreams, a soon-to-come brothel, is the first to begin a “consent focused” sexbot brothel. Guests at this brothel must spend at least 30 minutes getting to know their android partners before sexually interacting with them in any way.
On the other hand, some people are against the idea of sexbots and believe it is just another way to encourage the act of rape. An opinionated New York Times article titled “The Trouble With Sex Robots,” written by Laura Bates, list reasons why sex robots should be prohibited. Throughout her article, the topic of rape was mention several times. Bates believe that sex robots will encourage the act of rape by men and by supporting this newly found technology, we will be “encouraging rapists to find a supposedly safe outlet for it [rape].” In other words, sexbots will uplift the rate of sexual harassment against women because men will be comfortably treating these comparable robots with humanisk features like objects and doing the same to real life women.
Work Cited
Bates, Laura. “The Trouble With Sex Robots.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 July 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/opinion/sex-robots-consent.html.
Chelsea Ritschel. “Controversial ‘Consensual’ Sex Robot Brothel Claims to Be World’s First.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 8 Nov. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/sex-robot-brothel-consensual-ai-california-flirt-virgin-first-consent-a8624201.html.
Kleeman, Jenny. “The Race to Build the World’s First Sex Robot.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Apr. 2017, www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/race-to-build-world-first-sex-robot.
McArthur , Neil, and Markie Twist. “Robots and Virtual Reality Are the Future of Sex.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 12 Feb. 2019, www.independent.co.uk/news/science/sex-love-robot-virtual-reality-digisexual-future-vr-relationships-a8773391.html.
McDonell-Parry, Amelia. “Can Sex Robots Give Consent?” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 26 Nov. 2018, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sex-doll-robots-consent-760101/.
Morris, Andréa. “Prediction: Sex Robots Are The Most Disruptive Technology We Didn’t See Coming.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Sept. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/andreamorris/2018/09/25/prediction-sex-robots-are-the-most-disruptive-technology-we-didnt-see-coming/#249c8fa26a56.
Nash, Charlie. “Report: RealDoll’s $15K A.I.-Powered Sex Robot ‘Talks, Learns’.” Breitbart, Breitbart News Network, 27 Apr. 2017, www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/04/27/report-realdolls-15k-a-i-powered-sex-robot-talks-learns/.
Williams, Alex. “Do You Take This Robot …” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/style/sex-robots.html.
