Filed under Sexual Economics, Sexuality
The sexbots cometh
In all of the Roissyspheric hubbub about the coming sexbot revolution and how it will irrevocably alter the sexual marketplace, few have considered that it’s entirely possible to design bots that are more enjoyable to bang then flesh-and-blood women. With a sexbot, you’ll never have to suffer through another overly-toothy blowjob, nor will the act of conjugal pleasantness ever feel like flinging a braciola into a train tunnel. And now, an article from h+ Magazine lays this out in more graphic detail:
Remember the most convulsive, brain-ripping climax you ever had? The one that left you with “I could die happy now” satiety? Sexbots will electrocute our flesh with climaxes twice as gigantic because they’ll be more desirable, patient, eager, and altruistic than their meat-bag competition, plus they’ll be uploaded with supreme sex-skills from millennia of erotic manuals, archives and academic experiments, and their anatomy will feature sexplosive devices. Sexbots will heighten our ecstasy until we have frothy, shrieking, bug-eyed, amnesia-inducing orgasms. They’ll offer us split-tongued cunnilingus, open-throat fellatio, deliriously gentle kissing, transcendent nipple tweaking, g-spot massage & prostate milking dexterity, plus 2,000 varieties of coital rhythm with scented lubes — this will all be ours when the Sexbots arrive.
This is in addition to all of the existing benefits that sexbots will provide:
Are Sexbots icky? Are humans pathetic if we don’t just mate with each other? Truth is, we’re already mostly “solo” when it comes to orgasms. “Masturbation,” noted Hungarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, “is the primary sexual activity… in the 19th century it was a disease, in the 20th it’s a cure.” Sure, we generally prefer sex with live partners, but the desired one is often unavailable or inadequate. Sexbots will never have headaches, fatigue, impotence, premature ejaculation, pubic lice, disinterest, menstrual blood, jock strap itch, yeast infections, genital warts, AIDS/HIV, herpes, silly expectations, or inhibiting phobias. Sexbots will never stalk us, rape us, diss us on their blog, weep when we dump them, or tell their friends we were boring in bed. Sexbots will always climax when we climax if we press that little button on their butt.
Mark my words – change is coming, and it’s going to be sudden, unexpected, and messy.
Hat tip: Al Fin.
i wasn’t really all that into the sexbot thing before. the way i figured, i have my hand, which is really good at time and has been better than some of the lays i’ve had – obviously there’s more to sex than just the sensation the man feels….
but those kind of sexbots? wow. if they can somehow “trick” a man into thinking that he’s doing something other than forcing orgasm – through adding behaviors and other widgets – these things may be on to something.
*however*, no way they can replace the real thing. not that i’m arguing any differently than others, but sexbots will merely recalibrate the market thus forcing a new, more male-centered sexual equilibrium.
…and it’s going to be sudden, unexpected, and messy.
Hopefully it will have a self-cleaning feature. The ability to make me a sandwich would be nice too. I can see that due to their expense, they are likely to become rental items, at least for much of the market. Unless they could also be marketed as houskeeping/security/cooking devices I think most men would be too ashamed to admit they bought one.
The good professor forgets that unlike in Jane Eyre with Rochester’s wife, there would be no hazard to a man locking his sexbot in the attic.
If the Zero Population Growth faction gains total control of western governments, expect these devices to be promoted. Big tax breaks to purchase a sexbot.
Regular visits to the sexbot bordello paid for by National Health.
Remember: always practise your game on a sophisticated sexbot before heading off to the bars.
Jokes aside, sex has been a big-money driver of a lot of technologies. This generation of sex dolls and sexbots is laughably crude and unrealistic. That will not always be true. The combination of advanced virtual reality with sophisticated sexbots is likely to surprise the most skeptical some day not so far away.
they are likely to become rental items
Ewwwww, nasty.
They already exist.
We call them “prostitutes” – and they are a poor substitute for the real thing.
Changing the subject.
Women given testosterone deal more fairly in a negotiation experiment.
(note: this article comes complete with an absurd explanation from a female “researcher”)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8400172.stm
“For the study, they asked more than 120 women to pair up and play an “ultimatum” bargaining game with real money at stake….
The researchers gave the proposers either a dummy pill or one containing testosterone, but did not tell the women which pill they had been given….
Those who received testosterone behaved more fairly, had fewer bargaining conflicts and were better at social interactions.”
correction: Ashley Grossman is male. Explanation still absurd.
@ not: Explanation is more than absurd. Its a direct contradiction of the research finding. The findings suggest that hormones influence behaviour and personality more than we think. Researcher probably has pre-conceived notions he doesn’t want to change. Maybe also some personal prejiduce.
As stated before, I believe :
a) 3-D/VR/Hologram technologies will happen before sexbots, and be cheaper, and more flexbile (multiple types of women can be loaded up).
b) The H+ article says 2011. I say 2020.
c) It does not have to be perfect. It only has to be sufficiently addictive so that a large number lose any sexual attraction for women 7 and lower. 8s will then be treated like 5s.
For those (usually women) who claim that it cannot replace a real women, I counter that the Artificial 10 is competing not with Real 10s, but real 5s and 6s, that the average Beta male would otherwise be restricted to.
So women will have to ramp up on the one skill that the artificial woman cannot replace – the ability to love. That is the only thing they can compete on.
Just as Beta provider abilities are lower in value now than in the old days with women now having jobs and anti-male divorce laws, female beauty in the 6-8 range will also see a plunge in market value. It is exactly the same situation.
Chuck,
but sexbots will merely recalibrate the market thus forcing a new, more male-centered sexual equilibrium.
Which makes the ‘real thing’ more accessible and pleasant too. 8s will be treated like 5s and 9s like 6s, and will have to come off their pedestals as such.
Which is what my main interest in the whole subject is about.
However, make sure it comes with David Alexander’s Seal Of Approval.
Part 3..
Escorts are a better deal than ‘real’ women- III
http://dissention.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/escorts-are-a-better-deal-than-‘real’-women-03/
However, make sure it comes with David Alexander’s Seal Of Approval.
I’m pro-sexbot in a theoretical sense, but I think they’d only work if they were cheap enough to own and have the dolls swapped out per one’s choices. The sexbot would have to be capable of fully replicating a woman, to the point that unless one was told, you could not tell the difference. Until we reach such capabilities, I think they’re pointless, and I don’t see myself heading down to some dark den of sexbots located in some industrial area to share them with other men. Plus, I don’t know if some men would enjoy the experience in full knowing that they’re still undesirable except to a robot programmed to find them attractive. It’s certainly a blow to one’s ego, but I’d imagine some other men would love it since it gives them a step up from masturbation or ugly women.
Mind you, I am not against the construction of sexbots, as sexbots will be the only means that any beta male will secure a sex partner that will desire them sexually without resorting to homosexuality.
Early sexbots will be very expensive… unless we double the market for them and build sexbots for men AND for women.
Perhaps smaller sexbots for kids.
If sexbots become available to men only, then it might not be fair. But if they come in two genders, production will bring the costs down so that most people will be able to afford one.
Technology will come to the rescue of BOTH men and women by providing them with excellent artificial sex partners.
Then maybe the gender war will cease..
The next and last thing we will have to develop is artificial reproduction so as to free both men and women from one another.
I am saying this in the name of peace between genders.
Technology will always come to our rescue.
[...] In Mala Fide, Ferdinand Bardamu discusses this recent piece in h+ Magazine. It turns out that the technology’s promise is better than [...]
Progress toward artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and robots has been painfully slow over the last 50 years, and it takes decades from initial research to a consumer product with a reasonable price that anybody would want to use. I don’t see any evidence that a convincing VR sex partner will be available in the next 20 years. A review of progress in constituent technologies:
1. Chat bots. Eliza first appeared in 1966. More than 40 years later, the current generation of chat bots (Elbot, Alice, Jabberwacky, etc.) are only slightly better. Try them for yourself and compare.
http://www.elbot.com/
http://nlp-addiction.com/eliza/
2. Speech Recognition. Research began in the 1930’s and the first commercial products appeared in the early 1980’s. Real-world accuracy of voice-type dictation (as opposed to claimed accuracy) has progressed from about 70% (about 3 errors/line of text) with discrete speech in 1990 to about 97% (about 1 error/4 lines) with continuous speech in 2009, using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1. But, this accuracy is only achieved with a high quality headset microphone that is accurately and consistently positioned. In order for speech recognition to achieve widespread use, its real-world accuracy needs to be far better with less dependence on microphone position.
3. Video games. The early 90’s (Doom, etc.) was an order of magnitude jump from the early 80’s (Pac man, etc.), which was an order of magnitude jump from the early 70’s (Pong, etc.). Since the early 90’s, progress has been incremental, with most improvements focusing on better graphics while the AI and game play are only slightly better. Industry analysts speculate that Xbox, Sony, etc. will not release new consoles until 2012-2014. There’s very little evidence that the AI of video games is dramatically improving or that an order of magnitude jump to virtual reality video games is about to occur.
4. Virtual reality input devices. After 60 years of R&D into haptic technology, the state-of-the-art in consumer products is typified by the Novint Falcon 3D controller, which is more annoying and fatiguing than useful. It is essentially a 3D mouse that tries to jerk itself out of your hand. Still a long way to go for a body suit that simulates human touch. Research into haptic holography, e.g., using ultrasound, is still in its infancy.
5. Artificial vaginas.
The Fleshlight needs to be warmed with water and then filled with lube to feel realistic. The water-based lube rapidly turns tacky and sticky and needs continuous replenishment. Because of its low density, it cools down very quickly.
The Real Touch device is an electro mechanical device with a DC motor, belts, and rollers. I’m not sticking a sensitve part of my anatomy in that.
[...] the weekend, J. DeVoy of The Legal Satyricon linked my recent post on sexbots and brought up a dimension of the debate I hadn’t considered: Men with the current equivalent [...]
Rebel,
If you think that women will be as interested in sexbots as men are, despite the obvious reality of far more strip clubs and skinmags catering to men than women, then you have learning NOTHING about the differences between male and female sexuality so far, and you time reading these blogs has been an utter waste.
Wilbur,
You are underselling the accelerating rate of technological change. What you claim is that in the year 1900, just because no airplane was invented in the 1900 years from 0 to 1900 AD, that it would be impossible to assume that the next 100 years would result in an airplane and even a man on the Moon.
At any rate, the technology does not have to be perfect. It only has to be sufficiently addictive so that the VR 10 is more interesting than the real 7. That is all that is needed to disrupt the sexual market.
[...] exclusive to masturbation. (For further background on sex bots and other insight, read here, here, and [...]
“If you think that women will be as interested in sexbots as men are”
Hasn’t there always been higher sales of dildos than fake vaginas?
[...] course, this will all become moot when the sexbots and VR sex simulators hit the stores. In the meantime, take this guy’s advice and don’t [...]
@ Desi FPUA
A dildo is used and moved by the user himself, and not to be compared to a sexbot…
Still case in point for the female sexuality.
[...] particularly love the women who claim they want men to expat, go their own way, buy sexbots or otherwise stop paying attention to them. It’s like a fat kid daring his parents to put him [...]