Sexbots and Anatomy of Desire
What happens when you combine technology, robotics and sex? To start off, you will never look at your vacuum cleaner the same way, you early adapter you. Sexbots have ever so quietly started another revolution, one which most likely will change the way we connect, yet again. So, has Barbie evolved or just turned into a slut? Sexbots’ advocates argue that using Bots will provide solution to sexual violence, but I seriously doubt that it will end human trafficking or pedophilia, as these are way too nuanced to be replaceable by a top-notch bit of plastic. Unless you can mould innocence, fear, powerlessness…
Technology keeps pilling on ethical questions that neither Kant nor Aquinas have prepared us for. There is this part about sexual slavery of inanimate object that disturbs me, yet it does not make sense. Obviously, there is no suffering — machines don’t suffer, right? But the other side of the coin remains constant and inhumane, the desire to use and abuse another, without any care for their feelings. But Bots don’t have any feelings, right? Can evil still exist if there is no harm ?
Most burning question for me is though, how will Sexbots change the way people relate to each other. I can think of thousand and one ways in which it will make us more desperate. However, I would like to believe that there are some positives, as there are with FB, mobiles, airplanes etc. Maybe we will start marrying physically unattractive people with soulful eyes and penchant for kindness; while in the basement we keep Sexbots to satisfy our shallowness. I suspect, desire is more complicated than that. I am hazarding a guess that having a Bot at ready, without the thrill and flattery of conquest…would grow old very quickly. If the favorite excuse of infidels — the cavemen gene, still drives men to have sex with / impregnate as many women as they can, I don’t think it would be fooled by plastic semen containers.
I tend to think that sex is a bit like sense of humour, if you know what’s coming than it’s not gonna work. What kills a joke is predictability, and the same happens to sex. Food for thought for the Bots’ programmers out there. Maybe instead of the usual schoolgirl/ street whore program, the Bots need to have like… a Shuffle setting, so like with real women, you will never know what you gonna get. I strongly advocate for programming features like: “Migraine”; “Period” “You didn’t take out rubbish, no sex tonight” etc. It will keep things real, and reality is more exciting than plastic grass.
Lastly, maybe it will be a wake-up call to all of us, to see what the lack of effort does to human beings. When you don’t have to go to the gym or use big words to get laid, you kind of stop expanding and exploring. Sure, you can do all of these things for yourself, but the power of sex drive is there to nudge you in the right direction. Although, I guess you could get your rocks off with a Bot, I still think that it would be a bit like jamming your genitals into your Apple. Acquired taste.
As far as my order is concerned, I will have my Ken tall, dark, handsome and emotionally available, will pay with credit card.
