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Do Androids Dream of Electric Spouses?
Robot sex is only five years away, robot marriage a mere 45 years, and the first state to legalize it will be Massachusetts. Those are the predictions of David Levy, a researcher at the University of Maastricht who successfully defended his thesis, “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners,” on October 11 and made international headlines (Via bioethics.net).
Levy, an Artifical Intelligence expert, argues that psychologists have identified the basic reasons why people fall in love, that these reasons also apply to human-robot relationships, and that robots could be programmed accordingly. His conclusions have ignited speculation about the implications of welcoming robots into human society (and into the bedroom).
The Daily Mail notes Levy analysis of the expansion of human-non-human relationships, the liberalization of sexual attitudes, and his conclusions from “450 publications about psychology, sexology, sociology, robotics, materials science, artificial intelligence, gender studies and computer-human interaction.” In other words, they don’t pass him off as another libertine Dutch crank. They also mention his upcoming book, Love and Sex with Robots. Key quote from Levy: that even though love, sex, and reproduction are at the core of human existence “they are not immune to computerization.”
Kevin McCoullough, conservative Musclehead Revolution blogger at TownHall.com laments this robotic future as “One more step away from God’s design.”
Ken Hardin at ITBusinessEdge raises the point that legal marriage is not about emotional bonds, but about estate rights and taxation. Would someone really leave their estate to a robot? More importantly, he asks, as robots begin to take over human jobs like bank tellers in Japan, how will humans interact with them, and how will humans be held accountable for those actions? Would it be considered an offense to curse at, verbally abuse, or grope a robot if no one else is looking?
John Paczkowski from the Digital Daily Blog at All Things Digital provides two key source links: a patent for “Simulated Human Interaction Systems” and Universiteit Maastricht announcement of Levy’s thesis defense.
Gizmodo is all over the idea with links to posts about people’s attachment to their Roombas, a post on the ethics of robosexuals, and Bill Maher’s new rules for robot sex and marriage.
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