Robotic dolls: Our future sex life?

HAPTICS The Multimedia Communication Research Laboratory (MCRLab) at the University of Ottawa (Canada) is working on the digital transmission of tactile sensations synchronized with images. The first application would be to shake the hand of a virtual character and feel the pressure of his fingers, even the texture of his skin. An interface with a mechanical system of micro-sensors, from the simple glove to the integral combination, would produce the illusion. This field of development is part of the haptic.   This is the science of touch and the perception of the body in the environment.
Everyone knows at least one declination of the haptic: for example the famous vibrating joysticks for video games. In a completely different genre, reserved for adults, sex toys use the same principle.   Often a popular idea, the commercial development of a technology often depends on sex. The success of the VCR has been coupled with that of the pornographic video. The success of pay-TV from some international channels has been helped by the X-film programming. A sort of apotheosis of this "union", David Levy imagines in Love and Sex with Robots: the Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships a world where the intimate relationship with a robot doll would be usual. The love and the sexual act would become a configurable experience, with a choice on command of the emotion and the position, thanks to an artificial partner capable of initiative.


IMAGE OF DESIRE The British scientist in artificial intelligence announces the advent of this delightful innovation for 2050. No need to look into the future to consider now the likely consequences on human consciousness and the relationship of the individual to reality. Captivated by the image, the human would deliberately deceive himself about the real nature of his physical contacts and his emotions in order to exercise his desires. In this perspective, the feeling takes precedence over everything. The sexual act becomes a basic physical reaction to stimuli. Immediate filling of the senses would be enough, with the sole help of his own capacity to deceive himself. A materialistic, even utilitarian, vision of human relationships.   What could be the beneficial impacts of using robot dolls? An elderly person would no longer have to fear the gaze of his partner ... She would no longer have to suffer from her physical limits ... Counterparty: a dangerous reconsideration of the nature of old age and, by extension, of death. If it is possible to practice a constant sexuality, based on performance, a certain distance on the existence becomes impossible. With the key a total shake-up of society and an inversion of its elementary values. The most extreme fantasies (or giving crucial importance to the physical, the expected result) would be the only respected and appreciated. Without the presence of the other, with a supplement of dummy soul, moderation is no longer appropriate. Alone with his robot, the individual could project his impulses without any limit.   The vision of an expression of forbidden desires (see the manga images) would give place to the staging of these. For example with the appearance of dolls representing very young people. The love dolls industry now offers silicone dolls, much more realistic than their inflatable ancestors, which can take any appearance. Realism is a selling point and foreshadows the next step announced by David Levy: robotics (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGfaQCY_bo4).


ALIENATION The consequence of this evolution is the alienation of the individual. A French film has largely treated the subject, telling the story of a man who substituted his wife a doll (Monique Valérie Guignabodet). In the future, sleep with a robot doll will he cheat on her husband or wife? Further, to desire a robot doll that makes possible the staging of a prohibition will it be legal? At the global level, the current vagueness about the status of the image provides an indication of the community's ability to respond. The gradual erasure of the frontier between reality and virtuality, the psychological confinement into a chimera, the dependence on an empty illusion of meaning are other predictable results.   In case of appearance, the robot dolls technology would only address a small part of humanity, able to consume manufactured products at high prices. Highly polluting products, accompanied by an unreasonable energy cost, would be created, serving a small elite. Relayed by the media, a debate would focus on the contribution of doll-robots to the individual. Robotic dolls: a well-being for oneself? For or against? The question is elsewhere, in the capacity of a community to share values ​​and ethics. The question must remain what do we want together? And not what can I demand for me? The investigation of the desire of each one by a medium "alter-realist" would transform more the spirit of a society than the spirit of particular users. The world would become hostile, because only able to satisfy the desire of a single individual. To confine oneself to such an experience of desire would help to annihilate the identity of man.