Gizmodo
David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots (a book about how we're going to have sex with robots within 5 years and fall in love with them within 40) explains his extensive research with the subject on the Colbert Report. Between being made fun of by Colbert, the good doctor (he's got a Ph.D!) tells everyone why we're all going to be porking or being porked by robots in the near future whether we like it or not, and what the implications of it are for mankind. We thought Futurama addressed this pretty well in the Lucy Liu episode ourselves. [Colbert Report]
Love and Sex With Robots Author on Colbert
David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots (a book about how we're going to have sex with robots within 5 years and fall in love with them within 40) explains his extensive research with the subject on the Colbert Report. Between being made fun of by Colbert, the good doctor (he's got a Ph.D!) tells everyone why we're all going to be porking or being porked by robots in the near future whether we like it or not, and what the implications of it are for mankind. We thought Futurama addressed this pretty well in the Lucy Liu episode ourselves. [
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2:30 PM on Mon Jan 21 2008
By Jason Chen
37,913 views
68 comments
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Another example of why I am way ahead of my time.
Fleshlight anyone?
Thats the funiest **** I've seem in a long time. I wonder when there will there be robot hookers?
Professors and futurists who spend their lives discussing, thinking about, fondling, caressing and generally making love to technology basically become freakish alienated aliens so devoted to their world of implausibility that they become completely disconnected from what human beings actually want and desire. It's a combination of the idolization of technology, and the idolization of your own dumbass opinion.
Reminds me of a Kurt Vonnegut short story, but the name escapes me.
Difference in the story though, was the humans fell in love with the robots who were OK with the humans using each other for sex. So you go home to the perfect robot after a long day of sex with a meaningless partner.
The amount of verbal masturbation taking place in the post above me is uncomfortable.
@Pope John Peeps II: Are you saying we don't want to have sex with machines? Because, if you are, I've got news for you, buddy.
What a nutbag. Falling in love with robots? That doesn't need to have anything to do with sex. If they designed a robot that could take out the garbage for me or remember to take netflix to the corner mailbox thats something I could fall in love with. Having said that, real robots that crazies like that guy imagine are so many years in the future its silly to talk about outside of science fiction.
The next day, Billy's planet was destroyed. Can you guess which planet it was?
IT WAS EARTH.
DON'T. DATE. ROBOTS.
Would be a good solution to prevent disease and stress and definitely should be less expensive
@bobdobbs: I'm saying not enough to destabilize society. It's basically just fancy masturbation. And unless you fall in love with your own right hand, you aren't likely to fall in love with a robot.
This professor is just "writing a book". It's an academic exercise in a really lame field of academics.
I'll take a Starbuck and a Boomer please.
Less expensive? I don't see quality sex robots being anything but a luxury item for the super wealthy, unless you want to rent one, which is then kind of gross.
@LillieDesigns: EPICAC? Really a super computer in that one...
DON'T. DATE. ROBOTS.
Plus those robots will do the really dirty/nasty things the GF/wife just will not do.
I am glad that I didn't see one of those repetitive, welcome my xxxx overlord joke.
@Vagabum: Freakin exactly.
good on ya!
2r1c
EWWWWWWWWWWWW!
btw, is a vibrator considered a robot?
Blade Runner?
What happens when all of these sex robots unionize?
i fancy myself a robot pimp. "my ro-ho better have my money. you dig?" lol
poor Dave. He won't be around to laugh at us all when we're not only tapping that shiny metal ass but telling it that we love it too.
@amehrich: How you gonna choke her, when she's eight times stronger than you, and doesn't breathe?
@Type-E: No, a robot would be an autonomous love partner, as opposed to a battery operated motor with a rheostat and a couple of buttons. You could make a robot vibrator if you gave it the machinery and coding to 'participate' without being explicitly controlled by anyone. Both scary and exciting.
I like how he tries to legitimize his work with his PhD. Hate to break it to you, but there are lots of people with stupid PhD's and a lifetime of useless research. Unfortunately, in this day and age, a PhD doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot.
Could you get 2 robots to have sex with each other? Robot-porn? Sorry but I just had to say it.
@Pope John Peeps II:
LOL... well... now... my man, I've got some Puerto Rican models* just dyin' ta meatchu!
* actually, Japanese
@Sloth: Try getting married and keeping tabs what a real wife and kids cost these days. Even the finest robots might be way cheaper if they don't suffer the red ring of death syndrome. In any case, perhaps in 40 years the result may be a world with 3 billion people instead of 12 billion. A much more sustainable future.
@POPE JOHN PEEPS II: no choking necessary i'll just pistol-whip them with my gold plated EMP gun.
Mom: "Don't you want to go outside and play with your friends Jonny?"
Jonny: "Id rather stay at home and make out with my Marilyn Monroebot ."
Its not going to happen, for many reasons. A: Robots are expensive. B: Robots may make great strides in the next couple of years, but AI is another matter all together. Thus without any intelligent AI such things as love and robots isn't going to happen. At best you'll end up with a expensive sex toy that looks absolutely nothing like a real person. C: I doubt that many people have given up on interaction with our species, there are simply things that a robot cannot be programmed to mimic easily.
@Shikesstar +1
I'll take Number 6. And some sanitary wipes. Gotta watch that hygiene!
Megaman XXX? Ewww...
I doubt it will happen, at least not for a couple more centuries. I mean, in 40 years I don't think bots will be very cheap...
@BBFREAK: It will happen. Someone (Japanese Company) will build them. They already are perfecting skin, temperature, tactile feedback. And there are some folks with the funds (and psych-profile) that already own Real dolls. Plus adult films with people using primitive machines (programmable motorized rigs, manually-controlled, ...).
What about love? Well, define it. You may see elderly care (they are working on robots to assist the handicapped) improve with robots. Ethics aside, if I were handicapped and a robot (we aren't talking C3PO here, we are talking human-looking with facial features, pleasant voice, reasonable vocabulary and hopefully, Asimov's 3 laws in an AI) were assisting and making my life better, I might accept it (atleast) as a companion. Listens, never complains, always there when needed. What more could you ask for? Well...yes, another human companion!
I think everyone can agree that robotic headache technology will not advance until robotic sex technology gets a little more refined.
@shiftyeyedgoat: First thing that came to my mind.
Joking aside, the point he makes about a man not being able to perform as well as his wife/girlfriends robot is a very valid point.
It's funny, When I've heard people talk about sex with robots, I've always thought human male with robot female.
The idea of a robot male with a human female is a lot more scary, because now matter how long a human man can last, the robot's gonna be able to go longer.
It's not so cool when I'm the one being replaced...
Are people just naive? There are vibrators, inflatables, real dolls, flesh-lights? Do people think these are gag gifts? People are using these items. People rely on them. Some people prefer them. The only question is WHEN love with robots will occur. 40 yrs seems a bit soon to me. But maybe. We've already got some pretty convincing psuedo AIs. I think people are ignoring the power of fetishes, but more importantly loneliness. There is a reason Tom Hanks developed such a bond with Wilson (the volley ball in Castaway.) And Will Smith populated his empty world with manicans (I am legend.) They were incredibly lonely. I think commenters are underestimating how much loneliness is out there and how strong it is.
That boy's got metal fever. METAL FEVER!
The futurama is already here?
"Robot" is such a vague term. For a robot like Data in star trek and such, yes that's a long way away.
If by "Robot" you can mean something like an industrial robot, that's already happened (and I'm sure you can find plenty of examples right here on Gizmodo. [gizmodo.com] )
Really, somebody somewhere will have sex with anything you can imagine--and I'm sure a few things you or I hadn't even considered.
@whiskey:
Excellent!
@Shikestarr: ha ha... have you seen Idiocracy?
[www.imdb.com]
@bbfreak: Dude, have you been to the south? Alabama, maybe? No AI or the regular kind needed.
I'll have the ScarletJohanson-3000, thanks you for asking.
I wonder who will win the Darwin award for death from STD transmitted by an uncleaned or unsuccessfully self-cleaning flush robot. Who will be the first to sue for breaking their rod on these things? How about the first sex robot virus that mangles your goods during the act? Scared yet?
As for love, we will first need to see signs of loving a software generated AI character to a much larger degree than today. Finally, if love in this case means devotion to robots over humans, people have already devoted their life to VR worlds over reality, so it's a very small step for it happening with decent AI and a cheap motorized latex filled x-rated animated robot.
@davehimself: Are people just naive? There are vibrators, inflatables, real dolls, flesh-lights? Do people think these are gag gifts? People are using these items. People rely on them. Some people prefer them.
I doubt anyone honestly prefers vibrators and other sex machines. If so, those are some very very very sad people. As for relying upon them, that may be so but there is a HUGH difference between sex with an object and sex with another member of your species. I mean I'm sure a small percentage of people will have sex with any kind of object, but the point is that the idea that machines can match up to the real deal anytime soon is just nuts. I think we're a little far off for that to happen, if ever.
@davehimself:
There is a reason Tom Hanks developed such a bond with Wilson (the volley ball in Castaway). And Will Smith populated his empty world with manicans (I am legend.) They were incredibly lonely. I think commenters are underestimating how much loneliness is out there and how strong it is.
Well first off Tom & Will's character were mildly insane, and secondly its not like their situation is easily compared too. People are everywhere in our world, in theirs that wasn't the case. For example, I'm interacting with you right now. Any kind of loneliness in today's world is self inflicted or self projected. There are people everywhere, hell there are 6 billion of us out there.
@tchangtx: Well actually I've lived in Alabama twice, but I wasn't suggesting that people wont have sex with whatever the hell they want to have sex with. I was just saying that the idea that robots will replace humans not only for sexual satisfaction but as items we'll engage in relationships with and that such will be preferable to real people is insane. Not going to happen in a long long long long long time. Well I'm sure there are a small percentage of people talking to their Real Dolls as if they're actually people out there, but you know they're probably insane.
@deepdish: Then the future will look just like in "George Michel - Freeek".
(yes, THAT music video (NSFW))
Were'nt these called Synths' in Blade Runner?
[video.google.com]
There are nerds out there who already have sex with and even fall in love with RealDolls. What he is predicting is, if anything, an incremental progression, nto a revolution.
Hmmm... once more, Futurama is way ahead...
[www.geocities.com]
If too many humans fall in love with robots -- it IS THE END OF THE HUMAN RACE!!
@Klappstuhl:
I guess this explains why George Michaels was caught in that airport bathroom...
Finally, I can have a three way with 2 robots!
Even without mentioning a C3PO styled gay sex robot this is highly disturbing.
I do agree with one thing though, the male sex robots will probably be better at sex for females than the female sex robots will be for males.
It's not all bad I guess. I can still watch SportsCenter wile Adam 2.0 finishes off the Misses.
What are you doing, Dave?
Why is it so hard for everyone to think outside their own little world.
There are and will always be people, who would love to love a robot over a human being, meaning, it will be more than a sex-machine, because - as a lot of you pointed out - we already live in these days. Not to speak of people having sex with animals or stuff…
And the times, robots will be so advanced, they are more than masturbation-devices is not as far away as I wish.
BTW, anyone want one of these:
[www.youtube.com]
We are not that far away from such robots, and this is a hellofa sexy video.
I saw that Colbert episode and loved it, and it brought back some memories. Anyone over 35 will remember a 1975 film called The Stepford Wives, where human women were replaced by androids duplicates.
Imagine if you will, a time when you no longer have to deal with all the foibles of a woman, the bitching, whining, crying, moaning , groaning, spending, cheating, lying, ect...
Ok, to be fair, all you women out there can mentally replace my last sentence with whatever bugs you about men. Anyway, I see sex with robots as a real possibility in the future of man.
@TNTBW: "Anyone over 35 will remember a 1975 film called The Stepford Wives"
i imagine several under 35 might even remember the remake from a bygone era called 2004. not as good... just sayin'.