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th, 2008 at 9:23am:
Plastic sex = safer sex
Researcher: 'Sexbots' coming in 5 years
Human/robot love inevitable, researcher says
Emily Senger , Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sex with robots may sound sci-fi, but finding a silicon soulmate is closer to reality than we think, says a British researcher.
Human-like robots with all the working parts will make their way onto consumer markets in the next five years; in 20 years they will become socially accepted; and by 2050 the first human-robot marriage ceremony will take place, says David Levy, the London author of Love and Sex With Robots.
About 100 students and faculty attended Levy's guest lecture on human/robot romance Monday at the University of Alberta.
Okay, it's not really a robot, it's singer Beyonce wearing a robot costume at the 2007 BET Awards in Los Angeles, California June 26, 2007.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Okay, it's not really a robot, it's singer Beyonce wearing a robot costume at the 2007 BET Awards in Los Angeles, California June 26, 2007.
Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
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"I believe it is inevitable that within five years, people will be having sex with robots," Levy told his audience.
There are already companies in the United States and Japan that produce lifelike sex dolls, he said. Consumers can customize their dolls right down to body type and hair style, but current dolls lack interactivity.
It's just a matter of finding an entrepreneur willing to put up the capital to combine these sex dolls with existing artificial intelligence technology to make dolls that can react to their sexual partners through speech and movement, Levy said.
From there, as technology advances, the possibilities are limitless.
"Imagine a doll with a vibrating penis that has all the sensors and puts its arms around her and says all the right things," said Levy.
"If there are articles in mainstream media, like in Cosmo, saying you can have great sex every night of the week, imagine what is going to happen."
Existing sex dolls can cost around $10,000, depending on how much they are customized. Combine that with artificial intelligence technology and the cost of a sexbot will be prohibitive at first, so they will be used on a rental basis, Levy predicted.
Similar escort services using sex dolls already exist in Japan and South Korea, he said.
As technology becomes more mainstream everything comes down in price. Levy expects this shift to happen in the next 20 years.
"With plasma television screens, the cost was prohibitive at first," he said.
Sexbots won't be all about love and intimacy.
"There will be many people who will want sex with robots without any emotional attachment," Levy said. "They don't have to buy their date drinks or take them on expensive vacations."
For the skeptics in the audience, Levy outlined how much the institution of marriage has changed. Today divorce is commonplace and interracial and gay marriages are accepted, practices that people never would have imagined even 50 years ago.
"I believe that by 2050 people in large numbers will be falling in love with robots and marrying them in large numbers," he said.
Levy predicts the first robot-human marriage will take place in the state of Massachusetts. It's a natural fit, in a liberal state with a high concentration of artificial intelligence researchers, he said.
Levy's PhD thesis, Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners, and his resulting book have created a media frenzy and ensuing interviews with the Colbert Report, Playboy and Scientific American, among others.
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