JULY-AUGUST  1997 FUTURIST

 

byline: Joel C. Snell

title: Impacts of Robotic Sex

 

 

text:

Robots that provide sexual companionship are likely to become common in the future. Prototype models have already been reported from Japan.

 

The future “sexbots” will have humanlike features, and are soft and pliant, like the latest dolls for children. Sexbots will contain vibrators to provide tactile stimulation and sound system to provide “love talk.”

 

Sexbots will be disease free, won’t judge one’s sexual performance and won’t say no. They will never have a headache or demand alimony.

 

They could alter human relations. Here are a few impacts of sexbots:

 

* Marriages may be destroyed by sexbots. A husband chooses sex with the sexbot, alienating his wife; the jealous wife destroys her sexbot rival and sues the manufacturer.

 

*Individuals may change gender orientation. Heterosexual people may use a same-sex sexbot to experiment with homosexual relations. Or gay people might use other -sex  sexbots to experiment with

heterosexuality.

 

*Robotic sex may become addictive. Sexbots would always be available and never say no, so addictions would be easy to feed. People may become obsessed by their ever faithful, ever pleasing sexbot lovers and rearrange their lives to accommodate their addictions. Eventually, support groups form.

 

*Robotic sex may become “better” than human sex. Like many other technologies that have replaced human endeavors, robots may surpass human technique; because they would be programmable, sexbots would meet each individual user’s needs. Would electronic and robotic sex reduce teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, abortions, pedophilia, and prostitution? The jury is still out on these

implications. However, boundaries, barriers, and beliefs will be challenged.

 

About the Author

 

Joel C. Snell is a professor of social sciences on sabbatical from Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is a research fellow at the Arlington Institute, 2101 Crystal Plaza Arcade, Suite 136,

Arlington Virginia, 22202.