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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 29 2019, @01:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the johnson-and-not-johnson dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In recent years, sex dolls have become increasing sophisticated and realistic in their resemblance to human beings, including mechanized components, and are thus now referred to as humanoid sex robots. Some media outlets have gone as far as to suggest that sex robots and other social robots will eventually become almost indistinguishable from humans.

This has sparked a number of interesting ethical and philosophical debates related to the significance of these robots and the possibility that future machines will replicate the physical intimacy between two people. In a recent study featured in Springer's International Journal of Social Robotics, two researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Bergamo in Italy have taken a closer look at some of the current arguments and predictions about sex robots, carrying out an ethics-based and critical discourse analysis.

"We started our joint research to debunk some myths and misunderstandings in the media regarding the future of artificial intelligence," Deborah Johnson and Mario Verdicchio, the two researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "We were struck by how fundamentally flawed some of the ideas were and especially the assumption that the computational version of some aspects of reality are the same as the real thing."

In their paper, Johnson and Verdicchio essentially challenge the perception of humanoid sex robots as robotic substitutes of lovers and companions. They argue that although humanoid robots may look and act more and more like human beings in the future, the claim that they will eventually replace humans is far-fetched and far from a certainty.

"Our research is aimed at showing that humanoid sex robots could come to be understood in ways that keep their status as machines, albeit technologically very sophisticated machines." Johnson and Verdicchio said.

Deborah G. Johnson et al. Constructing the Meaning of Humanoid Sex Robots, International Journal of Social Robotics (2019). DOI: 10.1007/s12369-019-00586-z


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:05PM (2 children)

    by edIII (791) on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:05PM (#900439)

    LOL. These feminists are so hypocritical they may have formed a singularity :)

    Was the dildo invented to help prop up the patriarchy? All the sex toys don't seem to be about power, or control, unless you're specifically speaking about power levels and the ability to actually hold on to it while it destroys a vagina. Sex toys have always traditionally been for females, not males. The pocket pussy is a relatively new invention. Men only had their hands, and for some, livestock for centuries. I'm sure ol' Leonardo has a secret pocket pussy design, but concluded the splinters weren't worth it. We could argue that it just as much frees women from dealing with men as a sexbot would free men from women.

    I remember on the Drew Cary show that Mimi character going on and on about her lifesize blowup Antonio Banderas doll all the time.

    Women can go fuck themselves :) It's our damn turn for a high quality sex toy dammit, and we've lucked out to be in the beginnings of the robotic age. Ironically, a sexbot, especially one that could also do some domestic chores, will start to give women all the independence and freedom they want from the patriarchy. Why would they mind? I'm sure there will be a perfect looking male sexbot that can feed them ice cream in bed.

    This is the old Holodeck argument. If virtual pussy is indistinguishable from the real thing, then how will humanity actually continue? What will motivate us to overcome the convenience of technology to reproduce?

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:11PM (#900447)

    People like Meghan Murphy at Feminist Current are pseudo-feminists. They seek to uphold patriarchy by couching their views in the language of feminism.

  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday October 01 2019, @10:02PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 01 2019, @10:02PM (#901509) Homepage Journal

    If virtual pussy is indistinguishable from the real thing, then how will humanity actually continue?

    Maybe some of us want children?