For several decades and more particularly since the beginning of the 21st century, technological progress has been becoming more numerous, rapid and impressive. No flying cars yet, but technologies allowing for example great medical advances… or sometimes serving less essential purposes. This is particularly the case of “sexbots”, robots responsible for satisfying your sexual needs. Convenient for some, but terribly dangerous according to many scientists.
The advent of sex robots
Twenty years ago, if you had been told about robots that looked and behaved like humans, you would probably have laughed. And yet, if we are still far from reaching a stage as advanced as that reached in I, robot, for example, robots occupy an increasingly important place in our lives. Contenting themselves with doing household chores for some, others are able to run factories almost on their own, even if it means replacing humans.
Companies specializing in the field of robotics and new technologies now want to take a new step, thanks to humanoid robots closer and closer to us. Among these, some had the strange idea of creating sexbots, sex robots. Destined to be more and more developed, these anthropomorphic robots already exist, although currently approaching more mechanized mannequins than actual humans.
If some scientists see it as a feat that can help satisfy one’s fantasies and limit the problems of sexual assault against real humans, others fear exactly the opposite. Here is why sexbots could pose a real danger to society.
Sex with robots: an incitement to deviance?
A few months ago, we were already talking about certain dangers represented by sex robots: hacking, fatigue… But it turns out that the concerns around these sexbots do not stop there. Among the main fears they arouse, the biggest concerns the sexual deviance that these robots could inspire. According to several scientists, sexbots could blur the lines between real sex and sex with a robot. Concretely, some of the robots already on sale have several personalities that the user can select according to his wishes. Among them, some make it possible to simulate more or less non-consensual sexual relations.
The fantasy is one thing, realizing it with a robot is another, already subject to controversy. But isn’t there a risk that someone who practices this kind of act later wishes to perform them with a real person? These are then cases of rape that could result. Without going that far, these robots being almost exclusively female, they could objectify women in the eyes of men and promote gender-based violence.
“Even worse, there are sexbots that look like children, notably marketed legally in Japan. And if the law is unclear in some countries like the United States or the United Kingdom, it does not technically prohibit having such robots at home. According to the most optimistic, these particular sex robots could be used in the context of “sexual healing”, especially for pedophiles. An idea that can be considered quite dubious and which could well have the opposite effect of that expected.
To conclude, let us recall that if the concrete studies on these subjects are still too few to form a clear opinion, the opposite is also true: the virtues of sexbots (satisfaction of intimate needs, limitation of STDs, etc.) advocated by the companies behind these robots are far from proven.
