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I think this could be the year that average folks start to have significant personal experiences with robotic technologies. This article, for example, lists some things to watch for this year. Last week I saw a drone for the first time, zipping around documenting an event that I was at. But one thing I have not seen discussed very much (outside of some notable science fiction stories) is "sexy robots."
I'm going to make a prediction, so mark this down on your calendars: Sexy robots will hit the market faster than people expect, and when they do, the impact will quickly become greater than most people currently imagine. I'm not going to predict that 2016 is the year for sexy robots, but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some early signs of them this year. We already have "Real Dolls" (lifelike dolls for sex play) and there are some amazing technologies aimed at getting robot faces to mimic human emotions. Full AI is probably still a few years off, but some natural-language processing technologies are becoming pretty impressive. Human-like robot movement technology is also making impressive strides. For the purposes of a sex toy, all of these technologies are already good enough to put such robots on the market, if any investors are willing to take the leap. It won't be easy putting all of these cutting-edge techs into a single product, and I don't know if anyone who has the ability to do this will be willing to take the risks, but I predict that the payoffs down the road will be enormous (on par with personal computers, cell phones, video games, etc.).
I suspect that most people think "yuck" - a sex robot would be creepy and hardly anyone, other than some fringy weirdoes, would ever want one, so no one is going to make the investments to bring them to market, so we won't see sex robots for a long time. If I'm correct about this, then this common attitude is exactly why I think the phenomena will come as such a shock when it hits. The key will be that they won't be marketed as "sex toys". They will be marketed as "personal assistants" - sorta like a super-fancy smartphone with arms and legs and lots of supposedly useful "apps". But they will probably continue to be pretty limited in most practical forms of personal assistance. They probably won't be great at washing dishes, etc., but very little fancy tech will be needed for the role of "sex partner" so, people will buy the robots "for the apps" (wink, wink) but, initially, one of the most practical apps will the be ones that guide mouth motions, hip gyrations, dressing/undressing, etc.
The most surprising thing, for most people, will be the highly addictive nature of teaching robots and watching their conversational skills and other skills evolve under your personal guidance. Machine learning has a long way to go, but it has, nevertheless, come a long ways. You won't be simply "programming" robots, nor simply downloading new apps. You will be literally teaching them, and they will take unpredictable paths of learning - very much like living creatures do. For better or worse, this will become a new addictive way to spend time. Less time will be spent on FaceBook, video games, and TV, and more will be spent teaching personal assistants to do whatever it is that you want your personal assistant to do.
Like any tech, robots will initially be highly expensive. It will be especially expensive to have robots do many truly useful household tasks. But from a research and development point of view, the tech needed for robot sex toy movements and erotic conversation will be relatively easy so, in the early days of marketable robots, if a company wants to sell lots of robots to middle-income folks, the sex apps will be the ticket to mass sales (even though everybody will insist that they are buying them for the "useful apps" - just like buying Playboy Magazine for the great articles).
Super creepy to me. Evolved A.I. in the future could lead to trouble. The movie Terminator may not be too far fetched. You know people esp the military will put combat applications on these things.
When technology can simulate your interpretation of the most beautiful woman or man in the world and give the owner the ability to programme her/him to do whatever you want i predict the product will become a huge selling item,
I think you are wrong about them not being marketed as sex toys. The porn industry has been an early adopter of many technologies. Being able to sexually arose a customer is one of the few reasons to make a robot humanoid in shape and size.
The main robot and robots that the guy created were of course sexy. It just seems to fit the model of the sci fi genre. I have to admit the movie would not have been as interesting if the robot was a dude.
Building sexy robots has always been of interest. The robot in the old silent film Metropolis was certainly feminine.
There was another recent movie that had humans that could afford them use robots to go about their day. The humans sat in chairs that plugged them into the senses of the robot and it would go out to work, to clubs and engage in sex acts. It was very interesting. I don't remember the name of this one.
Sci Fi movies often give us glimpses into the actual future possibilities. I do believe that robots are coming and sexy ones will be very popular. The trouble is when the guy would rather have relations with his robot then his wife..
Decades away from that technology, perhaps centuries. The "real sex doll's" currently on the market are no more than blow up toys - literally, balloons. The better ones are foam and latex (note I don't speak from experience).
Forget robots, the new trend will be virtual reality devices for sex play.
Decades away from that technology, perhaps centuries. The "real sex doll's" currently on the market are no more than blow up toys - literally, balloons. The better ones are foam and latex (note I don't speak from experience).
Forget robots, the new trend will be virtual reality devices for sex play.
I visited a sex museum a couple of years ago, and they had a couple of "RealDolls" on display. These were the types I had in mind in the OP. They were substantial foam types of manikins that felt fairly real to the touch and, visually, they were eerie because they seemed so real (kinda like something you'd see in a wax museum). In any case, even relatively cheap plastic doll technology would probably be good enough if they could be mass produced at prices affordable to middle-income folks. The key idea is the combination of this roughly human-like form with some fairly simple robotic movement technology and modest natural language skills. All of this tech already exists at the minimum level needed for sex-toy purposes. The trick is to put it all together and sell it as upgradable. The simplest and cheapest (and, thus, default) functions would be the sex toy ones. Things like washing dishes, vacuuming, carrying things upstairs, feeding the dog, etc., would probably take longer to train and/or require upgrading (e.g., downloading apps that you'd need to pay extra for).
You are right about VR. That will also have a major social impact, and will probably be cheaper. Still, I think that the potential for upgradable real-world versatility, and the sheer substantiality of robots, will provide them with major niches in the marketplace.
AI is 100s of years off and not worthy of concern at this point in time.
But my central point is that true AI is not needed for sex toys, or for a handful of fairly specialized skills around the household. These functions can mostly be handled by programming and/or machine learning at our current level of technology.
Also, I'm not convinced that AI is "100s of year off". I'd predict 30 years, although I would not be too shocked if we started to see true AI within a decade. In any case, as I said, some practical household tasks won't require full AI, and sex toy function could be achieved with current tech.
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