So, I'm checking out my favorite gadget site this evening and I run across this video.. It is a Colbert Report interview with David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots. He basically says that humans will be having sex with robots in the near term and maintaining loving relations with them in the long term.
Here's a link to the video:
http://gizmodo.com/347233/love-and-sex-with-robots-author-on-colbert
I also found his book on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Sex-Robots-Human-Robot-Relationships/dp/00613...
This gets me to thinking, will the couple of the future have one or two robots in the closet? If one, would it play both sex roles depending on the accessory kit they buy? Would they use it together or individually?
Another thought:
When two single people move in together, which robot would they keep, his or hers? Is it like furniture? Will they get a new one to share as a wedding present?
The Gorilla
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto
I don't think evolution can be defined by nature alone. Since humans are part of the evolution process and a part of natural selection, I would say it is safe to say that what man creates falls within those categories too. Not to get too far off topic, but if man can genetically alter a tomato that will grow in the desert and feed hundreds of people, then man can and will create robots in the future to have relationships and sex with.
There are men who have sex with Real Dolls (http://www.realdoll.com) and have relationships with them because they do not understand how to relate to women or have simply been rejected enough to give up. It is a bizarre concept for a human to love an inanimate object, but one that can easily be defined by the natural selection. These men do not fit the standards of what the women they meet and through their own lack of socialization, so they take the alternative route and have sex with a toy.
In the movie Cherry 2000 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092746/), the legalities of relationships between men and women has made falling in love and getting married a long and often unsuccessful process. Humans would go for years without sex. To avoid this nightmare, manufacturers create robot sex toys that humans can legally marry. I would have to say of all the apocalyptic future movies, the idea of the law getting in the way of people having relationship and sex is probable and the solution this movie presented is the same.
We can only speculate for what the future holds for robotic sex toys, but it is not that far away. Imagine a Real Doll with Honda's Asimo (http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/) technology underneath.
Magic Fingers