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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday June 16 2015, @01:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-are-these-girls-you-speak-of? dept.

RealDoll, after almost 20 years of selling "the world's finest love doll," is developing an animated, robotic, artificially intelligent head that can be switched onto existing RealDoll bodies. The purpose, according to RealDoll's founder and CEO Matt McMullen, is to "arouse someone on an emotional, intellectual level, beyond the physical."

If you haven't heard of RealDoll before, the company makes expensive ($5,000-$10,000, £3,200-£6,400) but very realistic sex dolls. The dolls (which come in male and female varieties) have fully poseable skeletons, silicone skin, and are roughly the same weight and size as a real human. The dolls have interchangeable faces and orifices.

The reality that Westworld and AI imagined decades ago has arrived. What are the ethical implications? Would you be willing to use one?


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  • (Score: 2) by mrchew1982 on Tuesday June 16 2015, @02:41PM

    by mrchew1982 (3565) on Tuesday June 16 2015, @02:41PM (#196875)

    My only fear is that instead of being just a replacement it will rather encourage the behavior and be used for (*shudder*) practice.

    Never heard of a rapist of any flavor that could content themselves with pictures or even videos. On the contrary, there is some disturbing research that rapists model their behavior after what they've seen.

    I will concede however that the research is probably flawed, their sample is only those who came forward or got caught.

    And I'd rather talk about something a little more socially accepted, so that's it from me...

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday June 16 2015, @05:37PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 16 2015, @05:37PM (#196953)

    will rather encourage the behavior

    I donno, think about it, thanks to the internet I've probably seen more fun parts than all my male ancestors put together since clothes were invented, but I'm not getting any more than they did, or doing any in-person voyeurism at all. If my experience times dozens of millions of male internet users hasn't spiked the graphs yet, I'm not sure anything imaginable can spike the graphs. There's a lot to see out there, we're seeing it, oh boy are we seeing it, yet not much is happening.

    At the very least it can't be linear. Having maybe 1e5 times more access to pr0n than my grandfather's generation surely hasn't linearly grown related crimes by tje same factor of 1e5.

    Looking at all the non-sex stuff I see on TV and completely ignore, it seems unlikely. Insert Star Trek analogy here.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by draconx on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:28PM

    by draconx (4649) on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:28PM (#196976)

    Never heard of a rapist of any flavor that could content themselves with pictures or even videos.

    That could simply be because, the people that successfully manage to content themselves with pictures or videos are, by definition, not rapists.

  • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday June 16 2015, @07:29PM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Tuesday June 16 2015, @07:29PM (#197005)

    I will concede however that the research is probably flawed

    That's almost a given with the social 'sciences'.