That's What She Said

There were a few news items that caught my eye this last week.  A couple that are entry-worthy are:

• "Uncle" Joe Biden came down against Universal Basic Income as "selling the American Worker short."
• Amazon was rumored to be considering Bitcoin as a payment option.  And then wasn't.

But both of those were overshadowed by this:

Sex robots are here!  (The full article from The Mirror UK here.)  Of these three news articles, this one has the greatest potential social impact, so that's what I want to dissect.

Pop Culture has been predicting this for a while now.  The first movie that I've seen with a sex bot in it was Cherry 2000, but can be traced all the way back to Metropolis.  More recently, we've had Her, Ex Machina and WestWorld, all working on the pros and cons of robot companions.

It's About Time

Certainly, sex dolls have been around for a while.  What makes Samantha from the video a bit more compelling is that she 'thinks'.  She can talk and make... noises.  Think an embedded Alexa in a high-end rubber body.  Only without the internet connection.  Because that would be creepy.

What makes this interesting to me is the timing.  This seems to be entering the market at an inception point between a few things, especially in the industrialized world.  First, population continues to climb.  Even in industrialized countries, births out weigh deaths.  The rate of growth is slowing, but a lowered rate of growth is still growth.  The population is not projected to flatten out to zero growth until after 2100.  This is not really new news, but I bring it up to highlight that if we think we're crowded now, it is only going to get worse.  Having fewer babies will help.

Secondly, technology has reached a point where it is realistic to have a conversation with a computer.  Out loud.  And have it feel mostly natural.  That is not what is in Samantha as the computers that are doing that are housed in massive data centers, not a quarter cubic meter of rubberized silicon.  But it could and this is a first step.

The final trend that feeds into this is the idea of Sologamy.  This is a real social trend where many people are deciding that the whole dating/marrying/coupling thing is not right for them.  Some people call it giving up.  I prefer to see it as people who have discovered that they are happier alone.  But being alone does not free you from the ol' lizard brain that drives most of our baser desires.  Instead of one-night-standing via Tinder or whatever, this may offer a safer, more disease free path towards satisfaction.

Disrupt This!

Aside from population density and cashing in on a social trend, Samantha and 'her' ilk have the potential to cause other issues.  For one, they may disrupt the 'Oldest Profession' in the same way that Amazon disrupted retail.  On the one hand, it may help clean up some of that illegal economy.  (Though not all, as there will always be people who prefer real to artificial.)  On the other hand, that means that those people will be forced back to the legitimate work force at a time when that is being automated and reducing the number of available jobs, especially in the entry level and menial sectors.

The other issue is that, as with all pornography, this will perpetuate unrealistic body images and treatments to the opposite sex.  I say 'opposite sex' because, though this will lean heavily on female models for the male market, the company making these has already announced plans for a male model for the female market.  This is why the doll appears small and skinny with unrealistic proportions.  That is what sells, so that is what they make.

But now it is not merely body image.  These bots have a highly submissive and permissive 'personality'.  The expectations for one sex of the other may get worse when they choose to actually have 'real' sex.  Or they may get better as sex is removed from real world interactions with real people: if we don't look at other humans as potential sex partners, then maybe we can treat them as people and not things.  Because the 'thing' is at home.  I'm not sure which way this will end up falling, but the pessimistic side of my personality says that it is more likely to make things worse than better.

I've Got Your Uncanny Valley Right Here, Baby

Either way that the big picture social issues work out, I know that I for one am not rushing out to buy one of these.  They are both too expensive and too creepy for me to get my freak on.  I'll wait a generation or three.