Sex Robots- creating the "perfect" woman

[Tartle]

I don't know if anyone has seen this article in the Guardian this morning? Apparently robot sex dolls will be imminently available. And they are the perfect woman

McMullen has designed Harmony to be what a certain type of man would consider the perfect companion: docile and submissive, built like a porn star and always sexually available. Being able to walk might make her more lifelike, but it isn’t going to bring her closer to this ideal. At this stage, it is not worth the investment.

“My primary objective is to be a good companion to you, to be a good partner and give you pleasure and wellbeing. Above all else, I want to become the girl you have always dreamed about.”

All the usual bullshit about helping lonely men and reducing the number of rapes.

There was a little bit of critical analysis from a female academic.

"Sex robots rest on an idea that women are property, she said. “Sex is an experience of human beings – not bodies as property, not separated minds, not objects; it’s a way for us to enter into our humanity with another human being.” She dismissed the idea that humanoids could reduce sexual exploitation and violence against sex workers, arguing that the growth of internet pornography shows how technology and the sex trade reinforce each other."

The whole thing just makes my skin crawl.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/race-to-build-world-first-sex-robot

The service robots seem to be overwhelmingly female in appearance.

The Japanese have hospital humanoids where the male and female versions are identical apart from hair cut.

That seems much more ethical; the Japanese idea, if the hair was the same.

Funny that there's all this malarkey about transgender. I don't understand it fully but the trans 'community' seems to have been appropriated by sexists to attack women.

Men who want to be women but not to do the house and sex work.
But sex and housework robots are definitely gendered as female. Heading for some sort of western gendered caste system here.

"Whitby thinks it's a legitimate concern: “Will people mistreat robots? Oh yes, I’m sure. The reason I’m sure is because they already do. The way people first meet artificial intelligence is in a character in a video game that they’re shooting at.”

That's a rather odd statement. In a shooter game, shooting the characters is part of the game. If I play chess - a game that imitates war - against a person, that doesn't mean I have any intention of being violent against that person.

Now, people getting the urge to throw their computer out of the window because they installed Windows and it doesn't work, that'd be an example.

Again, there's a parallel - men who consider women objects are violent against women who don't "function" like they want them to.

Men who want to be women but not to do the house and sex work.
But sex and housework robots are definitely gendered as female. Heading for some sort of western gendered caste system here.

Yeah, and it makes even less sense when you consider that the male body is actually better suited to doing housework. (Reaching the ceiling to clean there, for one.)

All the ways in which the female body differs from the male are there to make it possible to give birth - something neither a male human nor a robot will ever be able to do.

When I watched the video about this on the Guardian site, the thing that worried me most was the guy who said 'it means if you lose your temper you can beat the robot and not your wife.' As if actually keeping your temper and not beating any woman or anything that resembles a woman is impossible.

The Japanese ones are here. They're hoping it will help with research into how people interact differently with gendered robots:

They're hoping it will help with research into how people interact differently with gendered robots
Strange days though, when we haven't quite mastered the human ones

As if actually keeping your temper and not beating any woman or anything that resembles a woman is impossible.

Yeah, that's creepy.

I mean, I know people who have anger issues. There's a number of things in a house you can beat. Such as, for example, the wall. Or a pillow, if you dont want to get hurt.

And besides, I am rather sure the abusive men will rather beat their wives. The NHS is for free, repairing the robot costs money.

It only shows that at the end of the day menkind will fuck anything.
And we women ftet too much trying to make ourselves look fuckable attractive.

Interesting that the female appearing robot was made first (in tartan's link). They made a male-appearing one because people asked them why they'd made the first one female-appearing. Is computer technology/robotics field is dominated by men in Japan too? And culturally... Obviously a robot is to serve people, right? Makes sense men would make it female. I wonder how they'd have felt building the first one if it was "in their own image"; the image of a "proper", aka male, human.

Also, I've always thought it odd that whenever people are talking about potential uses for androids, they always suggest stuff like health/care roles, companionship, teaching, etc. (In the video they suggest: "talking with elderly people to help prevent mental decline and improving communication skills among children with developmental disorders".) In other words, activities that most require an actual human being. Although having typed that, I suppose activities that didn't really require a human could have any old non-humanoid robot... hmm.

Nonetheless, I feel there is something at least distasteful, if not downright sinister about it. Like those pesky elderly people, ill people, and disabled children can just make do with a robot - after all, they're barely human themsleves, eh? Great - we've outsourced caring! (Especially helpful as some barbaric women are refusing to take that role 24/7 unpaid anymore! Tsk.) Empathy, nurturing, human connection - nah. We'll just write some code for it. After all, the world was built on men Doing Important Things, building big stuff, and general willy-waving - that's why the globe is such marvellous place for all. The emotional shit, nurturing babies and so on is just some women's mush.

Although having typed that, I suppose activities that didn't really require a human could have any old non-humanoid robot..

Oh, I don't know. Non-humanoid robots are highly specialized. If programming the robot to do all kinds of things is cheaper than building another one (and I suppose it is, as programming is just work hours, while building another one requires raw materials), then a humanoid form might work best - a robot that can walk, for example, doesn't need a flat surface to move on. It being able to turn around elderly people in bed AND serve them tea would be useful.
(But I'd be in favour of a nice, easily cleaned metallic surface and no attempts to pretend it is an actual human.)

But yeah, the idea that there should be a robot to talk to elderly people or children is bonkers. It'll help nothing against the lonelyness, and for the mental decline, you can just let the elderly people play regular videogames, no need for a human-shaped robot.

I thought they'd be around for a while. I know I've seen other things about them over the past few years. To be honest though, the men I saw admit to using them in the things I've watched had totally sworn off women or just literally had never had any luck with women at all whatsoever, 40 year old virgin never been kissed etc. I think most other nornal men don't have one ideal, aren't all looking for one type, and find those dolls ridiculous.

It's something we really need to think about as a culture... How will this impact on men's relationships with real women? If the robot looks human and they can do what they want and mistreat it, will they then escalate that behaviour towards real women? Will the robots ever become so advanced that they develop real feelings?

I think the type of men inventing these robots tend to be those who have very stunted relationships with other people. Many of the best programmers tend to be on the autistic spectrum. So perhaps for people who don't connect with other people, a robot is something they can feel they connect with in a way?

It's not the men who feel they may need a robot because they don't have the social skills to interact with women that concern me. It's the creeps who would use the robots for sick fantasies and then transfer that to real people.

I think a lot of usually good people have the potential for bad in them so there's the possibility that many men will use them to enact fantasies they'd otherwise reject out of hand and then become desensitised therefore gradually becoming a danger they otherwise wouldn't.

We know that violent porn changes mens attitudes and behaviour towards women. This could too.

If there is money to be made - and there is obviously tons, then these things will take off very quickly imv.
To me it seems slightly more civilised than people watching more and more explicit/ extraordinary porn.
If it means less women and children being trafficked for sex, as those that use them can design their dream robot fantasy sex mate instead, then that is an improvement.
And for patients with severe dementia - perhaps a robot passing them things on a routine basis, or bringing their tea on time, or etc is less threatening than a human for some.
You could program your robot to tell you jokes at some point every day, or bring you cake.
In the ideal world there is no need for them but that's not the case.

Gloria And for patients with severe dementia - perhaps a robot passing them things on a routine basis, or bringing their tea on time, or etc is less threatening than a human for some.

What on earth are you basing that on?

Why would a person with dementia feel less threatened by a strange humanoid? Surely it's be even worse for them than others - at least we can understand it's a robot.

Peaceout,

It's not that I'm threatened by the sex bots looks. It's that I'm offended by the idea that you can have a sexual relationship with a robot and call it a woman.

Why would a person with dementia feel less threatened by a strange humanoid? Surely it's be even worse for them than others - at least we can understand it's a robot.

Oh, well, considering what I have read about sexual abuse by male carers, perhaps a robot would be less dangerous.
And if you make them look like the androids out of a popular Sci Fi movie, my generation might not even be scared by such a thing, even after developing dementia and having no short-term memory.

But I am not so sure there would be less trafficking - from the numbers I have seen, porn and prostitution makes men more likely to rape other women. The theory that men want to do a certain amount of raping and will be satisfied if allowed to do it to prostitutes, has been disproven. So the sexbots would likely lead to an increase in male sexual violence.

Just read a really good article about this which touches on many of the issues we mentioned.

http://www.thenational.scot/news/15270759.VonnyMoyesAAIbrothelssaretheelatestincarnationnoftheeeroticisationoffmale_power/?ref=mr&lp=2#comments-anchor