Sure dealing with other people can be problematic, but some experts don't recommend sex with robots.

[FLPanhandle]

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/04/should-you-have-sex-with-robots-experts-weigh-in.html

Should we be having sex with robots?

It's a question that has sparked fierce debate among moralists and the robotics industry. And it turns out, they're all split on what role machines should play in future relationships.

During a discussion at the Web Summit technology conference in Dublin on Wednesday, experts warned about the dangers of getting intimate with robots.



"It's something we should be very concerned about...because if people feel they can have an intimate relationship with a machine, that is saying something serious about how we're experiencing empathy with each other," Kathleen Richardson, senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at the U.K.'s De Montfort University, said during the panel.

The academic, who launched the "campaign against sex robots" earlier this year, added that "we are losing our sense of humanity."

This proliferation of machines in intimate roles is something that should in fact be welcomed however, according to one expert.




"We talk about the biggest killers in our society being things like heart disease. I actually wonder if one of the greatest killers of our age is loneliness. Now, machines can be a conduit towards not being so alone, towards getting some sort of emotional response, even if it's from a machine," Nell Watson, a futurist at the Singularity University in Silicon Valley, told the audience at Web Summit.

She said that she has seen people use chatbots to get over relationships, something that could be positive for a human's emotional side. "I think machines can be a way to repair the hurt and trauma in ourselves," Watson said.

And Jim Hunter, the chief scientist at Greenwave Systems, said robots can be used to help people who have a particularly hard time communicating or integrating into society.

[LiberalArkie]

1. Damn, What am I do now?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Which then brings up consent issues, if your robot is that intelligent, and not simply a human-shape

sex toy. Cause if it sucks to be rejected by regular humans, isn't it going to suck 10 times worse if you're even rejected by robots?

[Takket]

10. its not you... its me...

[Shandris]

3. Anyone attempting to stop people from bonding with robots...

...doesn't have people's best interests at heart. They have either financial or political concerns and nothing else.

And how did these 'experts' on robot relationships become 'experts'? I'm not aware of any long-lasting robotic relationships for them to have become 'experts' at. Oh, they don't have experience at long-lasting robotic-human relationships? Imagine that.

Meanwhile there are forums of tens of thousands of people who manage to find some small amount of companionship from pillows for Christ's sake. But robots capable of matching literally any person alive is a bridge too far.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Has anyone thought about the electromechanical peril

Posed by a powerful, writhing machine in direct contact with, um, delicate private parts and such, driven by software written by Goddess-knows-who? The potential for bad outcomes is substantial.

Additionally - and this is just personal preference - intimate relationships with dim people is unfun enough, with a robot... ugh.

[uppityperson]

5. Does that apply to vibrators and masturbation also? Only have sex with other consenting adults?

[Codeine]

6. I dropped like twelve grand on this thing in parts alone.

These people need to back off.

[NobodyHere]

7. I'm still waiting for my Marilyn Monroe Bot

[puzzledeagle]

8. Robot companions are no joke, they'll be here eventually

Just look at how lifelike the japanese sex dolls are. There's a huge demand for them already.

[WillowTree]

9. Oh great.......NOW they tell me!