Impacts of sex-robots / VR sex on society

[Frosti85]

I think it is only a matter of time until we have very realistic sex robots and also virtual reality simulations.

my personal estimate is the next 10-20 years.

Now if you consider that sex is by far the biggest motivator for almost everything that humans do, I think the impact on society will be HUGE.

I think birth rates will go down to almost zero, and we will have to breed the next generation to not go extinct.
(unless we can still "import" humans from the third world)

But I also think it could actually improve relationships, because if sex is out of the window, it will just be about compatibility of personality, and unattractive people won't be at a massive disadvantage anymore, reducing human suffering.

[Stahlmann]

But I also think it could actually improve relationships, because if sex is out of the window, it will just be about compatibility of personality, and unattractive people won't be at a massive disadvantage anymore, reducing human suffering.

There is hope for me finally

[The Old Man]

Women instinctively go for the top 10% of the men. We have marriage, giving every man a chance, so that they don't revolt. Marriage as an institution is failing. Sex-bots and VR-sex will placate the bottom 90%, so civilization won't collapse. Machine sex will become routine and sex with real live women will become a luxury commodity. When women only breed with the top 10% then evolution will make dramatic leaps forward on whatever characteristics puts a man in the top 10%. Women like bad boys, so civilization will get even badder boys. Human suffering can only get worse. As far as the impact on human species it may be self-destructive.

[fiby41]

How would be it any different / better than expensive porn?

[slsdly]

I thought the data from OkCupid demonstrated that men are fairly even handed when it comes to rating women (it follows a bell curve) but really only message the most attractive women. On the other hand, women rated the majority of men undesirable, but messaged on a bell curve. So women will respond to all kinds of men, but I guess they still believe the men are losers . (It would explain some pairings I've seen -- one loser is the same as another right?)

That said, the dynamics are different on Tinder/etc where you must mutually match in order to message each other. Maybe in that model women declaring most men unattractive does indeed have an impact on their messaging habits. Has any data been collected/released for that model?

I think without sex robots you are already seeing the trend away from relationships. It's either gotta be perfect, or not a thing at all. Compromising on a mate is a thing of the past, because you no longer have to settle on someone living on the same street. They are infinite on the Internet, sort of like catalogue shopping. What you want has to go on sale eventually, right?

[Jason]

For anyone interested in this topic, if possible, I suggest watching HBO's "Westworld." If you don't have access to the series, read the short story by Michael Crichton or find the early 1970's movie version.

The fact is we are already there. Robot brothels exist in Europe and will be expanding worldwide. The stories coming out of them are of extreme depravity. This is not a good sign.

Human/robot relations will affect all aspects of life. But like in most developments, it will reach full formation when humans in human/robot relationships seek to have the legal status afforded to purely human relations extend to their relationships with robot(s). As the robots become more "human" this call will grow louder. I agree with your timeline of 10-20 years in this matter.

[slsdly]

@Jason, I looked it up after seeing your post. I've heard of RealDolls before, but it appears the company has taken the next step. Crazy. In some cases men are paying *more* for the dolls than the prostitutes. Presumably they are cleaned and sterilized after each customer, which I suppose removes the need for condoms .

[jacob]

I estimate much longer than that. For a new technology, it takes on the order of 30 years between the first commercial models and widespread adoption. About 10 years between the first development prototype and the first commercial model.

[Jason]

I don't know if there will ever be widespread adoption of this technology. My thought is that unlike other technologies that are targeted for the consumer i.e. automobiles, personal computers, this technology has the potential (I think inevitability) of having a civil rights dimension. There is no (objectively speaking) reasonable legal basis for claiming "I have a right to marry my car" although I believe some have tried. And although I wholeheartedly oppose it, I see a real possibility for the argument claiming "I have a right to marry my robot" gaining traction if a strong, well funded, vocal special interest group coalesces. I think this will have more to do with the advancement of the technology than the adoption of it. As they become more "human" I can see users of sex robot technology fighting to have their robots covered by health insurance as opposed to manufacturers' warranties. Obviously the manufacturers would push for that.

If legally permitted conjugal relations are a part of the equation, I don't see how it doesn't go in this direction.

[C40]

I think the first couple posts here are vastly overestimating the impact these will have. Sex feels great and all, but it will be completely different having sex with a machine than a real person - until it's possible to make the machines so good that people can feel an actual intimate and personal connection with them. Yes, some of the lonely sexless men will start sleeping only with robots, but that won't really change anything. It's just them taking their masturbation to a different level.

Having robots and AI developed enough for that personal connection is still a long way off (Barring some kind of AI singularity breakthrough that speeds things up exponentially). For a long time, sex with robots will still be:
Attractiveness: 8/10
Chemistry: 1/10

With a real person, 5/10 and 5/10 is still better. Or, at least, it's different enough that I think most people would not be satisfied with the robot alone.

In most human-human relationships, the partners still masturbate alone. Making the masturbation more high-end is unlikely to remove a person's desire for sex with another human (until the robot is so developed that the chemistry is there). I suppose it's hard to guess what it will actually take for the chemistry to be there. Consider how much people love their dogs, who they can't even have a verbal conversation with. But, still, I think for most people, we're a LONG LONG way off from them becoming uninterested in romantic relationships with other humans.

[7Wannabe5]

@C40: I found myself mostly nodding in agreement with your arguments, but then I remembered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m6HE77atjk


OTOH, the romantic comedy in which the protagonist works very hard and saves all his pennies in order to buy the Veronica Red Rider Bebe 22, but then falls in love with the chubby nerd chick working some help desk he contacts when the Veronica does not perform to exact specifications almost writes itself. The critical difference between this theme and the theme of the dance-story being the level of personal investment of the protagonist. We all fall in love with our own creations.

[Toska2]

If 20 years is close it will be 21 years before the robot is having more sex than it's "owner".


I see it tho. I see the same as 7wb5, people choosing to be single and creating a deficit on the other side. Another observation 7wb5 made was the dearth of ERE dating thread. We built our castle for one.

[C40]

I did literally build my van for one 8-/ (the bed is big enough for a very cozy bedmate, but the layout is poor for two people living in it)

[7Wannabe5]

@Toska2:

I also noticed the fact that the dating thread on the permaculture forum I visit is not exactly a roaring success. The obvious reason is that once you acquire your own little 5 acre patch of sun, sky and soil, and directly invest your energies in it, you become very loathe to give it up, and even somewhat loathe to share control/vision.

It's easier to get a grasp on the problem if you imagine human beings as asexual creatures that reproduce by simple division into two when enough energy/resources towards complexity are integrated or sequestered with the boundary of the system (skin sac.) Money invested and productive acreage are not perfectly analogous, but for the purposes of this mind game, we will imagine that being able to consistently grow/gather/hunt enough food and firewood to keep 1 human fed and warm is the equivalent of SWR 1 Jacob. So, if you were a creature that was unable to avoid reproduction by simple division, when you were consistently able to feed/maintain/support yourself at twice the required level, you would naturally split into two Jacobs.

However, this is not how human beings reproduce. Also, human females tend towards having different strategies for reproduction than human males, and humans of different reproductive ages, and different resource bases, and different inherent tendencies towards acquiring resource bases also tend towards having different reproductive strategies. Obviously, having sex with a robot can likely only be a tactic towards acquiring greater resource base before either choosing to reproduce with another human being, and/or choosing to transcend reproduction of complex human towards reproduction of complex ideal.

[Jason]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/styl ... -porn.html