It’s mere hours from the dawn of 2008, which means we’re hurtling ever closer to “the future.” And with the future comes the rise (and, duh, takeover) of the emotionally articulate fuckbots. Right? Right?
Well, something like that — at least if you believe people like David Levy, an AI expert who’s quite certain that the future of relationships lies with sexbots: robots who will offer humanity better sex, better relationships, and free wifi (well, a girl can hope, at least).
We know some people are eagerly awaiting the fuckbots, but we’re not so sure that sexy robots are — or at least should be — the wave of the future. Call us old fashioned, but we prefer our partners to be running on software that we don’t control. After all, there’s something pretty hot about that whole free will thing.
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Being super sex-positive about every kind of toy up to but not including animatronic robots is a little inconsistent. The fact is, sexbots will be a good solution for some people. “There’s someone for everyone” is a bullshit saying through and through. As Tracy Chapman counters, “why when there are so many of us are there people still alone?” Bots can help.
Anyway, I’m about 1/3 into Levy’s book and so far it’s a good read, if a bit disorganized. Ray Kurzweil believes we’ll have sentient machines by 2030; Levy I think is targeting 2050. Kurzweil bases his target on Moore’s law and raw computing power, but I think software will need to catch up (after all, we’ve had 64-bit chips for some time now and people are still primarily running 32-bit code on them). With Levy’s estimates, I think the “whole package” — reasonably intelligent bots with lifelike bodies — may take some time to get right.
But who knows. Creating these entities is a powerful motivating force in and of itself. Look at MMORPGs. Many many people are intensely dissatisfied with the reality we’ve got, so they’re building new ones.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:41 am…and by the way, if you believe Kurzweil it won’t be much longer than the initial debut of thinking machines to when the software -isn’t- directly under our control. And I think that’s the point. I haven’t gotten that far into Levy’s book yet, but I presume he discusses robots that aren’t just conversational, but actually sentient.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:50 amReminds me of Ghost In The Shell Standalone Complex Episode 3: “Android and I”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEP0-wIA-iE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhXaQSehRXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDaGnCWIIzs
I have the feeling that things are only going to get stranger and more complicated in regards to technology and how “humans” relate towards it.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:57 amGM: Fair enough.
To be honest, we’re totally chill about sexbots for other people (hence linking to Lynn’s piece, since she does an excellent job of outlining their benefits) — we’re just not personally into them.
Hey, a girl can have her opinions about emotionally articulate fuckbots, can’t she?
January 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pmHmm…
We live in a world of duality. A person seeking human contact but is emotionally stunted could use an emotionally articulate love doll as a useful surrogate. However… should he be using a surrogate, or should he be addressing his emotional issues?
Moreover, could the love doll, in fact… HELP with the address of these emotional issues?
I don’t know the answer, and I suspect that there is more than one acceptable answer. I won’t disparage the use of these devices, but I doubt I will ever find myself using one.
Blakely, though… Hmmm…
January 1st, 2008 at 7:26 pmperhaps the more relevant question is at what point could we say the fuckbot is using the human? Emotions are motivation and beyond a certain level of emotional facility that motivation will be expressed in unforeseen ways. How long before it starts holding out as a means to get that new quantum memory chip, the latest biosynth flesh to cover it’s body, or the latest bothack download. Then there’s the whole fidelity question…
January 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm[...] premiere on Fox sometime this month (I don’t care when), but the robots are here to fuck us NOW! (I swear this is not a link to a porn [...]
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