I, Robot? Sex Machine?

I came across this article on BBC. Pretty interesting and 100% predictable. All roads eventually lead to sex.

A campaign has been launched calling for a ban on the development of robots that can be used for sex.

Such a use of the technology is unnecessary and undesirable, said campaign leader Dr Kathleen Richardson.

Sex dolls already on the market are becoming more sophisticated and some are now hoping to build artificial intelligence into their products.

Those working in the field say that there is a need for such robots.

Dr Richardson, a robot ethicist at De Montfort University in Leicester, wants to raise awareness of the issue and persuade those developing sex robots to rethink how their technology is used.

“Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on – how they will look, what roles they would play – are very disturbing indeed,” she told the BBC.

She believes that they reinforce traditional stereotypes of women and the view that a relationship need be nothing more than physical.

I’m not for banning them. They are inevitable. They are the next step after blow up dolls and vibrators.

Abyss Creations, which sells male and female sex toys, is now starting to introduce electronics into its creations.

Meanwhile True Companion boasts that it is developing “the world’s first sex robot” and promises to launch its first doll, Roxxxy, later this year.

Chief executive Douglas Hines believes there is a real need for products such as Roxxxy.

“We are not supplanting the wife or trying to replace a girlfriend. This is a solution for people who are between relationships or someone who has lost a spouse.

“People can find happiness and fulfilment other than via human interaction,” he added.

He told the BBC that he hopes Roxxxy will eventually become a self-learning engine that is able to talk to her owner and learn his likes or dislikes.

“The physical act of sex will only be a small part of the time you spend with a sex robot – the majority of time will be spent socialising and interacting,” he said.

Really? The physical act of sex will only be a small part? The majority of time will be spent socializing and interacting… with a robot who learns your likes and dislikes… and parrots them back to you?

It’s that part that has my eyebrows lifting. It’s that part I find unhealthy. A sex robot designed to talk dirty to you? Go for it. One that always agrees with you, obeys your every command and validates whatever crazy thing comes out of your mouth? Awesome. One more anti-social, narcissistic, insecure person for all of us to deal with in our everyday lives. That should work out well for society. We take a person who can’t (or won’t) read social cues and have them spend a significant amount of time with a robot programmed to say, “It’s them, not you.” and then sit back and wait for the explosion. Now, if the robot was programmed to call them out on their missteps, to explain and disagree with them that might be helpful, but creating a bubble where the human user’s world view is enforced, their every need and opinion satisfied doesn’t strike me as good for the person or society as a whole.

This summer my daughter and I watched the movie Her. Without a doubt it was one of the most depressing movies we had ever seen. I get the movie’s point. Basically, it said: If you can’t have a healthy relationship with a person, the robot (operating system) will leave you, too. See? It is about you.

Side note: How does one clean these sexbots? Will they have detachable groin areas that are dishwasher safe? Or will many people do what they do in real life when it comes to personal cleanliness and douse the robots in AXE body spray? I have questions, damn it!

Which brings us to MRAs (Men’s Rights Activists) and their take on sex robots. Actually, it’s not about the robots. It’s about, as is usual for this group, about women. Keep an eye on this group (one of its spin-offs gave us Elliot Rodger, who “spelled out his plan to kill every “slut” who had ever denied him sex as “retribution” for his still being a virgin.”) because what they’re saying lines up with a lot of what the GOP is saying, as well as what some “liberal” men are nodding their heads to.

Many men relate to this mindset, and that’s a problem. We saw this on the #YesAllWomen post. For some reason, even liberal men (#notallmen. Sheesh!) refused to admit that Elliot Rodger’s actions were linked to misogyny. Steve Newton summed it up in that post:

When somebody who is rampantly anti-Semitic commits an atrocity, most people are comfortable that they are not anti-Semites and feel no direct empathy for the perpetrator. Then there will be those on the fringe who say (or at least think), “You know, he was batshit crazy and I’d never do that, but I kinda know how the whole Jew-Israel thing pissed him off.” And then there will be those who completely sympathize with the murderer, and say so within their limited, self-referential circles.

The difference here, I think, is there will be millions and perhaps tens of millions of men who read Rodgers’ manifesto and fit into that second category: “You know, he was crazy, and I’d never do that, but man those women can do a number on a guy’s head, and I sorta know what he meant by all those stuck-up sorority bitches out there shaking it like it’s made out of gold or something.”

Yep, there it is.

And don’t buy into their name (Men’s Rights). This group is all about women. Don’t believe me? Scroll down the cover page for A Voice For Men. See anything there about helping men, supporting men, making men’s lives better? Me neither.

But back to the Breitbart (I know, I know) article.

Who, or what, men have sex with is the basis of our civilisation. It is the driving force behind our greatest accomplishments. Men don’t compete for abstract pleasure: they compete to bag the best mate. The internet, the pyramids and the moon landings would not exist were it not for man’s desire to have sex with woman.

That’s why Nature experiments more widely with men: the male IQ range is wider, and there is more variation in male behaviour and biology than in women. Men are where experimentation happens, because a wider variety of male aptitudes and preferences will keep women happier and result in a more well-rounded and healthy society.

Everybody got that? Men invent things so women will have sex with them. Men are naturally smarter, not due to societal restrictions, but because it benefits society and keeps women happier… and in their place?

In response, men are simply checking out, giving up on women and retreating into porn and video games. I call it the “sexodus,” and its immediate victims aren’t men, but women, who are being consigned to singledom as men lose interest in them or are simply too exhausted or fearful of the social consequences of approaching girls romantically. The truth is, men get along okay without women, unlike women, who become shrieking, neurotic messes if they’re still single in their 30s.

Wow. You know, I find this men “are simply too exhausted or fearful of the social consequences of approaching girls romantically” utter nonsense. Perhaps if these exhausted/fearful men approached women as people they wouldn’t have problems. But that’s obviously asking too much of these guys – who view single women as “shrieking, neurotic messes”. Maybe that could be part of their problem?

But gender relations in the West are at their worst for fifty years, possibly more, which is why popular men’s bloggers are now asking whether sexbots will replace women entirely. The consensus seems to be: for some men, yes, totally. For other men, they will become a masturbation tool. A few “alphas” and players at the top will be able to bang their way around the entire female population, which will be comprised of ever more neurotic, backstabbing and insane behaviour.

Now we’re getting to the heart of this. The only man (and woman) who thinks sexbots will replace people is one who already views their human partner as a sexbot. Not to mention… men who are having relationships with actual woman are “alphas” who “bang their way around the entire female population” and not men in healthy, functional relationships. If you’re a man in a great relationship with a woman then you’re on their target list, as well.

In the short term, sexbots will be good news for dudes. For one thing, with a robot, men know the orgasm will be fake, so it removes the performance anxiety of trying to make the grade. (Men know the robot orgasm doesn’t exist — unlike the female orgasm, whose existence is still insisted upon by some conspiracy theorists and biological extremists.) And Heartiste says that real women are going to get “looser and more willing to please” as men become “choosier and less willing to please.”

Um… okay. This might be a big part of the problem. If these guys have convinced themselves that the female orgasm is a myth then could someone explain why women buy vibrators? Do these guys think that women buy vibrators as a prop to make men feel insecure and not for pleasure? And men becoming “less willing to please” is actually a big part of the problem, too. These guys are bad in bed. It really is that simple… and that sad.

I mean, look, I don’t mean to be rude, but most of the reason I went gay is so I didn’t have to deal with nutty broads. Imagine how much worse they’re going to get when the passive aggressive manipulation tactics stop working because the guy can get himself off with a thinner, hotter robot any time he wants to. They’re going to go mental. 

Oh wow! Just wow. He “went gay” because he didn’t want to deal with nutty broads? It had nothing to do with his attraction to men? It was a choice. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what a self-loathing gay man looks like. He is saying, “If women weren’t so “nutty” I’d be a straight man, because that’s truly what I am. I’m just having sex with men until women get their act together. Once they do, I won’t be gay anymore.” Everybody got that?

We’ll have it even worse here in the West, because Japan is still patriarchal. As a result, society functions. In the West, women are surging ahead into positions of dominance in the media, the arts, academia, politics, you name it. Some people will find this offensive, but: matriarchy is a problem for the rest of us. As feminist critic Camilla Paglia so memorably put it, if civilisation had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.

And this is another one of their grievances. They tie a women’s success to their failure. It’s very personal to them. The reason why they aren’t successful, or in the corner office, has nothing to do with their own mediocrity. This group has always blamed others for their failures. Even before women and minorities succeeded they blamed nepotism, golf, not belonging to the country club, etc..

When men start checking out en masse, as is already happening, you can say good-bye to all of society’s best astrophysicists, mathematicians, philosophers, composers and chess players. Scientific progress will effectively stall, because men are just as happy beating a video game as they are solving the riddles of the universe — and they’ll take the entertainment option if they have no interest in impressing women.

Women will not take men’s places in these disciplines, because there simply aren’t enough women with IQs over 120. Again, sorry if you find that offensive, but it’s just a fact. IQ isn’t a perfect measure, by any means, but it’s the best gauge we have of whether someone can perform the higher-level functions needed to be a game-changing scientist or transcendently brilliant artist.

There aren’t enough words to express how much I hate the biology and/or genetics argument. And I’m insulted for men when this nonsense is trotted out. “Better bang me, baby, or no cure for cancer! I’m going to spend my time playing Assassin’s Creed!”

Sex with a woman will always be the prestige form of intercourse, to put it in the language of marketers. But the sexual marketplace is changing terrifyingly fast. Sex won’t be truly commoditised until there is a mass-produced, victimless, cheap alternative to having sex that is good enough for most men.

It won’t be long before we arrive at that point. And the consequences are going to shake the foundations of our economy and irreparably change how our society is organised. It will also, I’m sorry to say, leave women even more horribly unhappy and lonely than they already are. If I were you, girls, I’d start being a bit nicer to your boyfriends…

Yep, forget getting something out of a relationship, ladies. You had better focus on what men want (men who believe you get no pleasure out of sex – because, let’s be honest, these men are doing it wrong!) or else you’ll end up horribly unhappy and lonely.

And it hasn’t escaped my notice his use of the word victimless. That choice of word demonstrates what a rape apologist is.

In the MRA world, sex is something that happens to women, not with them. And they wonder why they’re alone and salivating at the thought of sexbots. That’s not only sad, it’s pathetic… and is really their only chance of getting laid. Which all this is about! Real human women won’t sleep with/be in a relationship with them – Sexbots won’t change that fact.