Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Very. Un. Valentine.


SciAm Interview with David Levy:

Last year, David Levy published a book, Love and Sex with Robots, which marked a culmination of years of research about the interactions between humans and computers. His basic idea is that, for humans who cannot establish emotional or sexual connections with other people, they might form them with robots. The topic is ripe for ridicule: On The Colbert Report in January, host Stephen Colbert asked Levy, "Are these people who can't establish relationships with other human beings, are they by any chance people who write about love and sex with robots?" The 62-year-old Levy, though, is quite serious ...

2 Comments:

  1. Blue said...

    I think that the trouble in people's minds with the idea of "having sex with robots" is that they automatically think of a robot as some geometric, metal, inhuman thing.

    But eventually (particularly considering the recent NYT article on face-imaging in computer avatars) we're going to get robots who look as much like people as Levy's wax dummy example. Combine it with the Live Doll concept and we've got robots with natural-feeling skin, etc.

    And if you had access to a sexy, human-identical robot who ceded to your every wish.... well....

  2. Blue said...

    Oh, and sex with robots means freedom from the fear of pregnancy/STDs.

    Another plus. ^__^