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The concept of AI—specifically of the foxy, sexualized persuasion—has permeated pop culture for a very long time, most recently exemplified with Alex Garland's Ex Machina.
Technology, as it is wont to do, continues surging forward, simultaneously beckoning or threatening (depending on personal outlook) the potential of true artificial intelligence. And should these AI rise up, what kind of role would sexuality and sexual identity play in their existence—if at all? Hopes&Fears corralled a group of varied experts to weigh in through a group panel discussion to see what the future holds for us, the AI... and our respective crotch parts.
What does the SoylentNews community think about this?
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Artificial Sexuality: A Round-Table Discussion on Screwing Robots
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Ryan's Law:
Make three correct guesses consecutively
and you will establish yourself as an expert.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday May 25 2015, @02:19AM
...but still available in most of those places, anyhow.
Where? In the ghetto? I don't know about you, but personally, if my life depended on me finding a prostitute in 30 minutes where I live now, I'd be dead, unless I got lucky with Craigslist (and last I heard they had cracked down on that there). And as I said, you have to be really desperate to risk catching AIDS to sleep with a street-walker.
What's your point? I'd expect the same to be true about sex robots.
Why on earth would you expect that? Is the same true of smartphones? Can only really rich people afford smartphones? What about Roombas? Last I checked, anyone could buy those with a few hundred dollars. Technology has a habit of becoming really cheap when it's popular, thanks to the miracle of mass production. The same isn't true of services provided by humans. Heck, just look at the kind of car you can buy now in the "economy" section (or on a used car lot). Today's $5k used car makes a 25-year-old luxury car look like a POS.
with the bar of quality being raised iteratively higher (along with the price) for the top models over time. By the time they've filtered down to people of average incomes,
It didn't take long for top-quality smartphones to filter down to average income people. Top-quality cars (esp. judging by standards of the past) are well within the reach of average income people too.
and that may include a lot of the areas that prohibit prostitution also outlawing robot sex.
How are they going to enforce that? Cameras in everyone's bedroom? As you pointed out, laws against prostitution haven't stopped that by any means, but at least there the problem is that prostitution requires real, live, breathing humans, who need to eat, sleep, and live their lives (they don't stay permanently with their johns). A femmebot can be shipped in pieces to your house and kept inside, has no will to escape, doesn't need food or medical care, and can be switched off when not wanted.
rather than paying the price of a car for a robot.
There you go again with your crazy assumptions. 15 years ago someone probably said the same thing about smartphones. Several decades ago, people said the same thing about home computers. "No one will want computers in their homes! They're too expensive!"