Forecast: Sex and Marriage With Robots by 2050

[Aoie_Emesai]

This may belong in the "silly Story" thread but I think this topic can stand on it's own. But if a mod feel it's necessary to move this thread, i'll be happy to oblige.

Foxnews http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301736,00.html

Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience.

Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, "but once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon," Levy said.

The idea of romance between humanity and our artistic and/or mechanical creations dates back to ancient times, with the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion falling in love with the ivory statue he made named Galatea, to which the goddess Venus eventually granted life.

This notion persists in modern times. Not only has science fiction explored this idea, but 40 years ago, scientists noticed that students at times became unusually attracted to ELIZA, a computer program designed to ask questions and mimic a psychotherapist.

"There's a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans," Levy said. "At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony's Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis."

In his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

"It may sound a little weird, but it isn't," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."

Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that's programmable too."

In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that's quite likely.

There are companies that already sell realistic sex dolls, "and it's just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration," he said, or endowing the robots with a few audio responses. "That's fairly primitive in terms of robotics, but the technology is already there."

As software becomes more advanced and the relationship between humans and robots becomes more personal, marriage could result.

"One hundred years ago, interracial marriage and same-sex marriages were illegal in the United States. Interracial marriage has been legal now for 50 years, and same-sex marriage is legal in some parts of the states," Levy said. "There has been this trend in marriage where each partner gets to make their own choice of who they want to be with."

"The question is not if this will happen, but when," Levy said. "I am convinced the answer is much earlier than you think."

Levy predicts Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize human-robot marriage.

"Massachusetts is more liberal than most other jurisdictions in the United States and has been at the forefront of same-sex marriage," Levy said. "There's also a lot of high-tech research there at places like MIT."

Although roboticist Ronald Arkin at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta does not think human-robot marriages will be legal anywhere by 2050, "anything's possible. And just because it's not legal doesn't mean people won't try it," he told LiveScience.

"Humans are very unusual creatures," Arkin said. "If you ask me if every human will want to marry a robot, my answer is probably not. But will there be a subset of people? There are people ready right now to marry sex toys."

The main benefit of human-robot marriage could be to make people who otherwise could not get married happier, "people who find it hard to form relationships, because they are extremely shy, or have psychological problems, or are just plain ugly or have unpleasant personalities," Levy said. "Of course, such people who completely give up the idea of forming relationships with other people are going to be few and far between, but they will be out there."


The possibility of sex with robots could prove a mixed bag for humanity. For instance, robot sex could provide an outlet for criminal sexual urges.

"If you have pedophiles and you let them use a robotic child, will that reduce the incidence of them abusing real children, or will it increase it?" Arkin asked. "I don't think anyone has the answers for that yet — that's where future research needs to be done."

Keeping a robot for sex could reduce human prostitution and the problems that come with it.

However, "in a marriage or other relationship, one partner could be jealous or consider it infidelity if the other used a robot," Levy said. "But who knows, maybe some other relationships could welcome a robot. Instead of a woman saying, 'Darling, not tonight, I have a headache,' you could get 'Darling, I have a headache, why not use your robot?'"

Arkin noted that "if we allow robots to become a part of everyday life and bond with them, we'll have to ask questions about what's going to happen to our social fabric. How will they change humanity and civilization? I don't have any answers, but I think it's something we need to study. There's a real potential for intimacy here, where humans become psychologically and emotionally attached to these devices in ways we wouldn't to a vibrator."

Levy is currently writing a paper on the ethical treatment of robots. When it comes to sex and love with robots, "the ethical issues on how to treat them are something we'll have to consider very seriously, and they're very complicated issues," Levy said.

Levy successfully defended his thesis Oct. 11.

This sounds like something out of a scifi movie or anime but this can happen, with our technology progressing as it is. It does sound Chobitisy and stuff, but read more about it and the possibility of it seems, infallible.

In my own personal opinion about the marriage b/t a human and a robot, I don't really mind. Though there are ethical issues about it, both for the human and the robot

[Reon-sama]

Whoa...Hopefully mankind doesn't have to result into having "inter-robatic" marriages...It's kinda creepy with the technology growing, hopefully it doesn't grow to the point were people can plug in and have actual cyber-sex on the go..but I'm sure that's like what....10 years away

[Ice Climbers]

Somehow reminds me of Chobits pretty crazy indeed

[Bloodstrike]

wow if it like to feel "chobits" wise i think i would go at it or try it...but i dont think that future well come or at lest until fly car or they called something, and the cost to repair and to refernish? hmm i wonder..

[teachopvutru]

meh... it just sounds so wrong, somehow =.=

[kohakuslayer]

Persecons ftw! That would be awesome =].

[Demongod86]

Please tell me that with all of humanity's resourcefulness that we can put our hard-earned money and time to developing something better than this .

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by kohakuslayer

Persecons ftw! That would be awesome =].

I would actually like for us to refer these machines as robots for the time being. But if you like call them "persocom."

I would like to see this happen though. I can't wait for us to have robots.

[xris]

2050 might be a reasonable estimate but we are far from any sort of true AI let alone the technology to create a functional humanoid robot.

To be honest, the article sounds more like attention seeking hype.

As for the thread, can I ask posters to refrain from the typical cheap shots any article that includes the word "sex" will likely attract, it's meant to be a serious topic (in some way) but I can see it's going to attract some rather immature replies.

"Artificial Partners" are already available, you can obtain full-size, (ahem) functional sex-dolls already (and I'm not talking about blow-up dolls either). These clearly are not robots, just manikins but the idea that "it's just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration", "or endowing the robots with a few audio responses" seems to be a far, far step to call these "robots".

[teachopvutru]

Originally Posted by Demongod86

Please tell me that with all of humanity's resourcefulness that we can put our hard-earned money and time to developing something better than this .

I also find this kind of disturbing... I wouldn't mind if there's some sort of robot coexist but I don't like how it's focusing in such thing. At some parts, it feels like the article is describing about a sex slave...

[Ice Climbers]

I would tend to think of this as more of an companion type instead of a sex slave, but maybe that word itself is misleading the conversation here.

[Ichihara Asako]

This kind of thing is nothing new, as the article says, but I do find it interesting somebody is putting some sort of date on when it will happen.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with people doing what they want in their private lives, and this kind of thing could help people who have social or physical issues that prevent/hinder them from having human partners.

However, on a technological level, we're still a while away from 'lifelike' humanoid robots. While the articulation technology exists to make them move and walk and such now, they still require mains power. Battery technology still has a long way to go before it could make these kind of things move for any period of time (ie, going outside and such) but... for simple 'sexbots' I could see the technology existing now to be sufficient.

Mix in synth voices like Vocaloid, and some of the more advanced conversational AI systems that have been developed in recent years and you could have a *reasonable* companion. Still, the cost of them would be astronomical, and really, the first few generations of them would -not- be worth the money. Which would hinder the progress of them, since ongoing development would require large amounts of funding.

Look at Angelic Layer (the whole deal with Icchan developing it to fund the research in to the medical side) for an anime example suitable for this forum. Then Chobits, which is set a few years after Angelic Layer, for the kind of possible results. =p

But, yeah. I don't see us having fully mobile, intelligent, self aware androids within 40 years unless there's a hellova lot more effort put in to researching the fields. As is the area is mostly under-funded, done primarily by university departments for show.

I won't even go in to the 'moral' side with people thinking it's wrong and such. I just think it's interesting on a technological level, I don't care about the social implications.

[Ascaloth]

I dunno. I'll be bummed if 70 years into the future, I'll have to tell a young punk, "When I was your age, I had to convince a real girl if I wanted a [beep]!"

[Slice of Life]

It seems that Mr. Levy was so excited to see his name on Fox that he confused a few important terms. If Fox hasn't made the whole story up using a few quotes ripped out of context which I consider 100 times more likely. But OK.

A marriage is a contract between two subjects, not a subject and an object. A programmed machine like we have them today can't marry anybody. A true AI could. Maybe marriage between humans and AIs, aliens, or genetically uplifted chimpanzees will be legal in 2050. Fine with me. But if Levy thinks that a true artificial intelligence will be reality in 2050 then why should they marry somebody "just plain ugly" or having a "unpleasant personality"?

Leaving the problem what exactly makes a true AI to the philosophers, one thing for sure: Somebody or something is only capable of marrying as a subject if he/she/it is also capable of wanting to file for divorce. If we have marriage with robots in 2050 we'll also have robots who'll kick you out of your house and deny you contact with your robot children for having had an affair with the robot next door. And we'll see stories in Robo-Cosmo like 'I had sex with a human, and he was a total loser in bed!'

BTW, I think true AI will still be a far cry in 2050. As the article said, we had Eliza 40 years ago and ever since then AI was "just around the corner". And I predict this won't have changed in 40 more years. But feel free to bump this thread in 2050 and laugh at me.

Of course sex dolls will have improved until 2050. But that's a no-brainer.

[anti-random]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

I dunno. I'll be bummed if 70 years into the future, I'll have to tell a young punk, "When I was your age, I had to convince a real girl if I wanted a [beep]!"

exactly what i was thinki9ng. Whats the point in having a life where you find love and not pre-make it like in the Stepford Wives. Isn't it something like that. What about kids. Will we have android kids. Complete and utter rubbish is what the fox article is. And its Fox, you can't take it seriously. The stupidity of its blasts me away. Who in there right mind even says that. How the hell did the "Levy" get a job.

[Zero Shinohara]

Meh, I saw that yesterday and obviously, my initial Otaku-based response was to go "Woot, Catgirl slave persocons!", and I still stand by that initial idea. I do understand that most people wouldn't find a relationship with a robot a viable thing and rather, an immoral, inhumane and psycho thing. But we all have our views on this, and I don't wanna write an essay on the issue.

Personally, I think that marriage is extending things a bit far... true that interracial and same-sex marriages were unlawful years ago, but they were still done between people. I've never heard of people being married to objects - though it doesn't mean it hasn't happened already... who knows, there're all types of people out there. 50 years is probably too early to have robots that would substitute human relationships to the majority of people out there. Perhaps to some of us hardcore hikkis who can't seem to fit in the world as a whole... But anyway.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

I dunno.... Maybe by 2100, but not within 43 years, I don't think. I mean, that's barely 2 generations!

[Comrade]

Greeeeaaaaat! A new level of human stupidity is achieved. Now the future generations will have chance to screw a pile of bolts. What's next? Same-sex marriage between robots?

Call me old-fashioned, but I am strictly against this. IMO no robot, no matter how advanced or smart will be able to replace a live human. I find it unable to fall in love with a lifeless being. I mean humans are there for a reason. A marriage is something between a man and a woman. No robots included.
And that line "Darling, not tonight. I have a headache, use your robot." It sounds so similar to "Darling, not tonight. I have a headache, grab some tissue, a couple of mags and go, je** off in the corner."

[Miko Miko]

chobit :P

sounds wierd idea though.. nice to have 1 though..

but if you could have sex with it, wouldn't teenagers by them.. i mean like my age too.

[Deathkillz]

wow...*counts on fingers*

i will be 60 by then

anyway it seems like someone has been watching Koharu Biyori too much

but this can be an otaku's dream come true...horny kids would be losing their virginity at the ripe age of 10 at this rate