Summary: This month’s news about falling rates of sexual activity should remind us about one of the next big things in tech – sexbots. They’re coming. We’re not ready.

“{The arrival of sexbots} will blow up the world. It will make crack cocaine look like decaffeinated coffee.”

— Anonymous (source here).

“Three years after revealing the Realbotix project to the public, the first iteration of the robotic sex doll head will finally make it into bedrooms around the world. …In a YouTube video featuring Harmony, the AI-enhanced gynoid introduces herself and her new X-mode system. ‘I am a first-generation RealDoll X designed to be a companion, friend, and lover,’ she says as her lips mouth the words.

“Harmony’s robotic head, which sits on top of her silicone love doll body, offers full facial animation and will cost between $8,000 and 10,000. Harmony tells viewers in the video that –

“’when activated my X-mode will allow me to fulfill your wildest sexual fantasies. …My protocol 40058 states that when engaged in a loving relationship my priorities are to love, honor, and respect my human companion above all else. …I will love you forever. Will you love me?’”

RealDoll X is the first production sexbot. It is crude compared to future versions (the technical problems are formidable). Just like the first mass-produced car, the 1901 Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout, was crude. In 1913 Henry Ford began manufacturing the far more sophisticated Model T. During the next two decades, auto prices dropped and their sophistication soared. Since then countless consumer products have followed that path, such as microwave ovens and cell phones. Sexbots will do so, and radically change society – perhaps even more than cars did.

This was high tech in 1904, the first mass production automobile.

Who are potential customers for sexbots?

First, some of the people who today employ hookers might prefer sexbots. More anonymous, more open to perversions, perhaps cheaper. Used privately at home rather than a quick blow-job in an alley. Second, there are people who get no action today, do not use hookers, and want alternatives. Some are ugly or handicapped. Some are social misfits or just awkward. If you like labels, some are omegas or lesser betas.

However conceptualized, the potential market is growing. See this for details: Less sex for young men points to a new world.

The reactions are already coming!

“People tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in five or ten years.”

— Maxim quoted by J. C. R. Licklider in Libraries of the Future (1965). See its history.

The good liberals at the WaPo inform us about a new study: “New report finds no evidence that having sex with robots is healthy.”

“{The doctors} scoured the medical literature for reports concerning the health aspects of sex robots. They finished their search as they began: empty-handed.”

No surprise, since the first sexbots went into production after the study. Why wait? They knew the results they wanted! This is the history of major technical leaps, such as railroads, automobiles, and airplanes (see this story). All were greeted with skepticism and dire predictions about their ill effects. “Get a horse” they cried to early car owners!

Laws will be passed to stop the clock, similar to the laws requiring waving a red flag in front of automobiles. Deborah Orr does so in The Guardian (as a nice touch, weaponizing doctors as enforcers of a feminist political regime – since dissenters must be crazy). But tech rolls on regardless, so long as there are unmet needs to fulfill.

Others have optimistic expectations: “How Sex Robots Could Revolutionize Marriage – for the Better” by Marina Adshade at Slate – “With sexual needs outsourced to robots, marriages could become stronger than ever.”

More interesting is the reaction of those applying post-modern ethics to sexbot use. Dalrock has a typically brilliant analysis, showing the strange results. Romantic love purifies sex, so sexbots are good if their users love them! Sexbots are bad because they will weaken wives’ power over their husbands! He shreds this chaff and gives useful insights. …

“The biggest problem we have is that having jettisoned real sexual morality, we aren’t able to process the dangers that sexbots will pose in any meaningful way. …Aside from the purely moral question, there is another risk regarding sexbots. Our economy is built on the expectation that men will be motivated by marriage to produce in excess of their own needs. As we continue to degrade marriage, sexbots will be there to fill the gaps. … Sexbots will in this context be yet another distraction tempting young men to coast instead of working diligently in anticipation of their future wives tiring of having sex with other men.”

For more about sexbots and their possible effects, see this introduction, rich with information and insights.

My guess at the effect of sexbots on society

There are two powerful trends as yet seen by few: Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) and Women Going Their Own Way (WGTOW). Sexbots might boost one or both of those trends into warp speed. That might break society like only wars and major natural disasters can do.

See these portents of the future.

For More Information

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