RE: Ethics of sex robots
October 31, 2017 at 12:34 am
(This post was last modified: October 31, 2017 at 12:38 am by Rev. Rye.)
It's certainly a fascinating idea, but I honestly doubt that it will have much more of an impact on society or philosophy than RealDolls do now. Unless there's a real-life Arnold Weber from Westworld who can figure out real artificial consciousness, and the companies making the sexbots would be willing to sign off on applying it to their technology (which I highly doubt will happen for reasons that I think should be obvious), I really don't think there's much to worry about. Really, it's probably slightly less morally grey than the shit I do with my laptop, since a sexbot is specifically designed to be screwed.
As for real-world impact, I highly doubt it will have that much of an impact, if only for one reason: they'd have to be fucking expensive. The cheapest version of the RealDoll is about $4000, and most variants are more expensive (the most expensive, the male versions, are about $6000.) A version with a computer inside to make it seem a fairly reasonable simulation of a human woman would almost certainly cost a significantly higher amount.
Fun fact: THIS IS WHAT MANY PEOPLE IN THE MRA COMMUNITY ACTUALLY BELIEVE:
![[Image: Redpanels_pillowtalk.png]](https://rationalwiki.org/w/images/d/df/Redpanels_pillowtalk.png)
However, from what I've heard, the precursors to sexbots currently on the market (from RealDolls to Fleshlights to anime body pillows; I will call them surrogate girlfriends, because that's what they are) are a niche market at best, and you would almost certainly have to pay far out the ass for a proper sexbot. For this reason, I fully expect them to have a negligible impact on society. The idea that the sort of scenario this jackass comic presents is preposterous to apply to the real world. Despite having more options for such surrogate girlfriends now than at any other time in history, the vast majority of us simply don't bother and still try for the real thing.
As for real-world impact, I highly doubt it will have that much of an impact, if only for one reason: they'd have to be fucking expensive. The cheapest version of the RealDoll is about $4000, and most variants are more expensive (the most expensive, the male versions, are about $6000.) A version with a computer inside to make it seem a fairly reasonable simulation of a human woman would almost certainly cost a significantly higher amount.
Fun fact: THIS IS WHAT MANY PEOPLE IN THE MRA COMMUNITY ACTUALLY BELIEVE:
However, from what I've heard, the precursors to sexbots currently on the market (from RealDolls to Fleshlights to anime body pillows; I will call them surrogate girlfriends, because that's what they are) are a niche market at best, and you would almost certainly have to pay far out the ass for a proper sexbot. For this reason, I fully expect them to have a negligible impact on society. The idea that the sort of scenario this jackass comic presents is preposterous to apply to the real world. Despite having more options for such surrogate girlfriends now than at any other time in history, the vast majority of us simply don't bother and still try for the real thing.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
![[Image: harmlesskitchen.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/yxR97P23/harmlesskitchen.png)
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
