There is no denying that technology has taken over our lives in more than one aspect, to a point it is even hard to remember what it used to be like before computers and smart phones (for those of us that grew up with limited technology), kids today will never know what that was like, and it is not going to stop, just the opposite, new advances and better technology continue to invade our lives as time goes by, granted, in the majority of the cases this is a good thing; science has come a long way, a lot of things are “easier” today because of the appropriate use of technology; yet like everything in life it has it’s down side; someone in social media posted: “Smartphones bring you closer to people who are far away from you, but they also take you away from the ones sitting next to you”, in a way that is true, and it’s what people complain about the most when it comes to social networks and the use of smart phones; which is why when just a couple of days ago I came across and article in the Daily Mirror titled: “Sex robots could be the ‘biggest trend of 2016’…” I couldn’t help but wonder what this meant to our society and the impact it will have.

Yes of course we’ve all heard of phone-sex and cyber-sex, even virtual reality sex … but sex with robots? Well, we are already there, and we are not talking about a simple sex-doll (although reportedly people can pay up to 30 thousand Euros for a real-looking doll); we are talking about artificial intelligence, a realistic human-looking robot, the aim: to create a doll that appears to behave as if it enjoys the act of sex.

The advantages listed for the new sex partners: 1) Sexbots don’t get tired 2) They can look any way you want them to look and can be programmed according to your preferences 3) They don’t judge 4) No chance of STD’s 5) No feelings involved (don’t know if that counts as an advantage) … and of course all the disadvantages involved as well: 1) a new fetish and/or addiction 2) the possibility of people actually “developing feelings” for a robot 3) replacement of human interaction 4) isolation.

The article cites a report by leading futurologist Dr. Ian Pearsons entitled “Future of Sex” that claims that “robophilia” will become more and more popular as technology advances and marks 2050 as the year that human/robot sex overtakes human/human sex. This is also backed by A.I. expert David Levy author of the book “Love & Sex with Robots” ; while there are other investigators that consider this won’t happen for at least another decade (2060), when the functionalities, movements and morphology of the robots is developed to a point were sex with them will be enjoyable.

The idea of a person developing an emotional connection with a robot should not be surprising, Jordi Vallverdú an expert in Philosophy of Computing, Sciences and A.I. stated “Human beings transfer emotions towards anything, whether that is a pet or an object, and that’s why we have an emotional memory of our first car, our first phone… With robots the fact that they have anthropomorphic shape just makes it easier”.

The reality is this technology is already available and will continue to advance, whether it is in 2050 or 2060 is something that should concern all of us in terms of how it will affect our relationships and the society in general.

What are your thoughts on this matter?