It's hard to think of a more attention-grabbing title than Robots, Men, and Sex Tourism — especially in the academic world.

Written by researchers from New Zealand's University of Wellington and published recently in the journal Futures, the paper predicts that in the decades to come, humans will patronise robot-staffed brothels, freeing them from the guilt associated with visiting a flesh-and-blood prostitute.

Engineer-inventor Douglas Hines poses with his company's True Companion robot, Roxxxy, which he unveiled at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in 2010.

Perhaps predictably, it sparked a lively conversation about whether the sex industry could be automated — and not a little squeamishness about the whole idea of robot-human relations.

That at least some of us will be having sexual intercourse with robots in the future should be obvious by now. Somebody out there will make love to just about any consumer good that enters the home.