Some guy in the Netherlands believes that in the near future robots will become so lifelike that humans may end up falling in love and marrying them. I don’t find that to be a very attractive forecast, but not because of the unnaturalness of robot love. I’m more turned off by the human that would have to resort to artificial intelligence for affection: the online-video game obsessed, socially-inept, Jabba-the-Huts who know everything there is to know about elves and orcs but couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag. Mr. Netherlands knows what I’m talking about; he even said that those “who find it hard to form relationships, because they are extremely shy, or have psychological problems, or are just plain ugly or have unpleasant personalities,” would benefit most from getting down with a robot.
I’m not taking this guy’s prediction seriously, but if we were ever capable of creating such realistic robots that people wouldn’t look like sexual deviants if they were seen in public with their robot-lover, I’d still have to pass on it. Sure, I could buy a robot boyfriend who was extremely hot and program him so that we’d have the same interests, beliefs, level of intelligence, etc., but I don’t find any of that appealing at all. It just sounds boring. And although I prefer people to support me when I say that I am so perfect that I poop gems and my farts can cure diseases–I appreciate it when someone tells me to my face that he disagrees with me and why. And if he can actually convince me that I’m wrong and put me in my place then he’s automatically way more attractive than some robot. Having an opposing point of view every now and then can be quite beneficial–but don’t try to convince me that the key to world peace isn’t a McDonald’s Happy Meal because I’ll just cut you.
Besides, women don’t want to have to ask for compliments–we want men to say things because they mean it. Can you imagine the dialogue in a robot-woman relationship?
ROBOT MAN: I love you.
HUMAN WOMAN: No, you don’t. You’re just saying that because I programmed you to. You don’t love me at all!
ROBOT MAN: Yes, I do. And you don’t look fat in those jeans.
HUMAN WOMAN: Liar!
And then the robot self-destructs because that’s what it was programmed to do when the human woman decides to end the relationship.
More downsides to robot-human love:
1. Whatever gift your robot gives you will probably have been purchased using your money–because your robot doesn’t have a job (working is reserved for labor robots).
2. People who program their robots to compliment them will eventually stop caring about their hygiene and appearance because their robot lovers have turned into their robot enablers by consistently telling their human “you are sexy” when it should be saying “you are a sow.”
3. Ever seen “The Matrix”? Robots want to look like octopi, not humans, and are going to punish us by throwing us all into pods of goo. What’s worse is that the savior is going to turn out to be some loser like Keanu Reeves. Hell to the no.
The only robot I would want around me is a slave robot. Yes, I would want an entourage of attractive, male robots who do nothing but cook and clean and whatever else slaves should do. And they should also have weapon-limbs so that they can protect me…oh, and also sneeze candy. Now that would be a kick a** robot.
absolutangel64 
I wouldn’t be able to have a serious relationship with a robot man, that’s for sure. However, I might not mind a robot toy to play with for those occasional lonely nights where I’m too lazy to take care of myself… Lol. He’d have to have an off button though, since I wouldn’t be able to kick him out of my house. ;P
I recently read in the newspaper, that they’ve made robot companions for kids. o_O;
Robot lovers would be kinda wierd…but i suppose having a legion of Hot women robots to feed me grapes and such would be pretty cool……..then again on second thought nevermind….I’ll take a real lady over a synthetic android anyday….
what if those future robots have their own way of thinking. I don’t deny that we would have to program them but what if those robots in the far far away future can actually program themselves and is not actually controlled by us. Then do you still consider that as a robot? or is it going to be a robot with its own sets of ideas. Then perhaps they wouldnt just say “ur sexy” even if ur ugly. Then would that be a better robot boyfriend for u?
I suppose, no matter how the world have changed, humans are just plainly lazy and greedy. We just want to over-rule the robots and make them slaves so we dont need to do the chores. I guess us as humans should just invent robots up to this standard and not over this, then all of us would be happy.
This is freakin hilarious…muahaha…at first I assumed you were being serious…haha, now I jusst think you’re silly…haha…I guess you look Femme-bot like hahaha….
interesting perspective lol
You know, I’m not convinced with your arguments. I mean, one level it’s conceivable that you could have a physically gratifying relationship with a robot. But more importantly I don’t see how being in a relationship with a robot would be different from say a relationship with a trophy spouse who doesn’t work. Sure the spouse uses your money, and at times may compliment you when perhaps you don’t deserve to be complimented, but this sort of thing happens in countless relationships every day. It doesn’t necessarily cheapen the experiences you have. For example, a mother might give her daughter money to buy her a mother’s day gift, but that gift still has sentimental significance for the mother. Take another example, there are times when a guy might compliment his girlfriend even though she might not look or feel great, but she appreciates it because she understands the intention behind the compliment. These work as motivators. Of course there are questions that still remain about the parallelism when the source of such actions and comments are robots, but I think that the advanced nature and possibilities of artificial intelligence at least require us to be somewhat more charitable to these scenarios. I however will always prefer the natural imperfections of humans.
i heard about this issue today while driving to schooll…
I wrote a story about this not too long ago. It was set in the ‘near-future’ in which the U.S. government tries to ban human-robot marriage and ultimately ends up failing.Also, I would like to point out that even though robots in the Matrix looked like squids, people still might find them attractive. Just look at Japanese hentai. There are tentacled creatures involved in sex with people. It’s funny.
lol. i’d rather be a nun than have a robot lover. the guy is has serious problem man
Wow, random, I read that article too. Think about this: In the 80’s only nerds used computers and knew about the internet.So might we have the same development with these robo-lovers? will it become widespread enough that human to human relationships will become outdated? Hmm..And honestly, I can totally see having a robot girlfriend. After some of my exes, It would be nice to not have to put up with being cheated on, or jealousy or whatever. I don’t think I could ever do it, but I can see the appeal.
lol interesting post indeed
interesting post! there is one episode abt this whole human + robot love on Futurama…it could happen but then again it all depends on us, human…intelligence creature! hmm… have a good day 🙂
It’s not so far off. In fact, there already are machine “lovers”. It’s called internet porn. And look at what happens to people after they’re addicted to porn for a long time- they end up hollow and confused about what love and desire is. The same will hold true for robot lovers.
Technically, you could simply program a robot to make decisions based on certain criteria and thus form it’s “own” opinions based on that criteria, and be programed to insult you or disagree with you if that is what you wanted. Furthermore, one could make the case that these weak-willed control freaks that would need a robot are not that different from the robots themselves in that socially, they are not strong enough to assert thier own points of veiw. All that said, I agree that “robots” (of either the synthetic or weak-willed human variety) lack a great deal of attractiveness, though this means that the only way to save the world from having to be saved by Keano Reeves is by befriending these people and helping them develop a backbone… the future may depend on it!
I wrote this poem in response to your entry:
http://www.xanga.com/TransexualTwat/622071972/item.html
I’m way more afraid of this being the beginning of robots taking over the world.
hi ^_^
hehe i live in netherlandsnd i read it in the newspaper.I was like wtf!? the worldis coming to its end!! XD.
Anybody that’s ever seen the Futurama episode where Fry falls in love with robot Lucy Liu would surely know that human-robot love can’t work. But I still think it would be cool to have one.
Nice site. Keep writing.
( Ironiclly, I’ve found an anime that’s like that. Yes! Right on, girl! I also think that a guy shouldn’t BE perfect. They should be unique in their own way-special-and that’s why you’d love him. You do have good reasons. We shouldn’t fall in love for some programed… human-thingy.
I think they should design their robots into some other shape. Anything besides Humans… Gosh.
Very interesting post. No wonder it’s in the featured. 😀 )
LOL, I like the idea of a slave robot! Now that’s the only kind I’d want!
Who needs school when robots can just download programs and e-books via USB
I’m glad this book is in print again. Ive always loved it, and its even more relivant today:
http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Metal-Lover-Tanith-Lee/dp/0553581279
eh…it would seem that guys think all girls can’t be trusted, are ho’s, liars, bitches, etc. girls, on the other hand, seem to always think guys want to get into their pants, can’t be trusted, will cheat, will stare at other girls, etc. in such an untrusting society, seems quite possible.as to the matrix, the movie is a lot deeper than many legged robots (max efficiency, how else would you kill multiple humans at once without some sort of projectile?) and keanu reeves (admittedly, he is a pansy) -_- the movie has a lot to do with the issue of free will vs predestinationbtw, there’s somewhat a movie out there that touches on this subject (main character falls in love with robot girl, etc). it’s a korean movie called natural city.
Heck ya!
Falling in love with a robot? Disgusting. I totally agree.
-jess
weeeird, but good point
wonderfully marvelous blog. i also read this article on live”science”.com. at first it frightened me until i realized how juvenile and worthless that man’s statements were. then i came to view it as accidentally humorous–perhaps a piece of dialogue edited out of napolean dynamite or something. what does still frighten me a bit is exactly what you were saying about substituting human relationships for robotic ones. some people are convinced of the relative simpicity of the human mind. these people have most likely spent all of their time either in a lab or reading (not that either of those things are bad in themselves–quite the opposite.). but without actual human contact and reflection upon it i could see how a person could view programmed reactivity as a sufficient subsitute for human reactivity. but to any of us that view things like research and literature as supplemental to our actual experiences rather than all we need, the complete falseness and absurdity of human-type relationships with artificial intelligence are flagrantly and unvoidably..well…artificial. it’s all very self-evident. lots of love and props for writing that. take care.
that guy needs to like find himself a firl friend… LoL i see you point where you rather have a like a working robot rather then a robo friend… holly wood really messy that for us… such a terminator, AI, I Robot, Matrix, on and on… if that is true int he movies, then we should not make them at all… since they will go hay wire and we become batteries for them…
If I had a sex robot, I would take it out on a nice date. Go to a fancy restaurant, a movie, you know the typical. Maybe lay in the back of my truck and look at the stars with the robot and talk about our life ambitions, how many kids we’d like to have, jobs, what we’d like to do when we grow old.Then light some candles and incense, put on some slow baby making music and have some artificial alone time. Then skip out early the next morning and not return any sex robot phone calls…
Honestly, I think trying to say that we’ll be able to come up with robots that “life-like” is giving people a LOT of credit. The human brain is so complex, and our personalities and thoughts to complex, I don’t think humans can ever truly replicate that or even come close. We still know so little about how we ourselves work… how are we going to make something else that works like it?People have those creepy “real dolls” for sexual partners and I can see that (again, creepy, but still) but to fall in love with a robot? I don’t think so.
One can sorta agree with you but then I’ve seen the poor basterds who need something like a robot-wife thing.
It’s only been guys in my experiance but I’ve heard of aunts of some name or anouther that can’t get a life to save their life and they could likely use a robot-husband thing. I agree with the opinion that the humans will turn into some nasty, fat, ugly peice of shit because the robot is programed to always like them and can’t figure a way of telling them without them going ballistic. allthough programing is allready getting to the point where the argument wouldn’t happen, learning algorithems allready exist and thus the robot could comeup with some good stuff that wasn’t in his original programing so he could say something like that and also not lie when he says that he wasn’t programed to say such things. As for me, a nice peice of eye-candy that would randomly dance around and generally act like a doofus would be all I’d want, sometimes you just need a cute girl to do silly shit and make you laugh.
Ah, you’re post made my day.
Reminded me sorta of a Lover I Don’t Have to Love kind of scenario.
Gotta agree with you…or is it disagree?
-kat
I kind of conclude that if you have had a lover already and not run tests to check if they were mechanical on the inside (i.e. not biomechanical), that you could have indulged a robot and that there are millions or more already interacting and mingliung with us – all in doomed relationships, but that is so their programmers can find out without losing trust to a person how the individual they assert is their betrothed would become equally smitten, the robot is a probe and indulges the invidual how they so choose and all the data is extrapolated and informs the programmer who arrives like a knight in shining armour fully equipped and nothing short of totally insightful into your sense of the perfect mate and driven work-a-holic for your love….
….except we’re comparitively at the Furby end of robot production with this specific concept in mind.
Have you played that level on “MechWarrior” (or another game just like it), where you enter a robot factory? – creepy & sickening
ya
love is meant for boy girl
not human robot
that is like falling in love with a toaster
or a tv
same thing
all man made
to do what we tell them
so really the only robots we will ever have is salves
unless we give them A.I
then that prob wont end good
so fall in love with a human
and save yourself from being blown to hell when you break up with a robot
Hmmm I was thinking about this the other day…the human race is so intertwined with technology that perhaps one day we will become more and more like robots. I mean evolution has to take place somehow. Are we less human than we were hundreds of years ago? Oxy tanks for lungs, defibulators for hearts, prothetics body parts, metal plates for bones, contact lenses for eyes are all things that keep the body alive if it’s beyond natural repair right? I wonder if eons from now we will fuse with technology like this. Perhaps I’m being a little to sci fi and weirding people out by now. But some food for thought nonetheless. About this post…haha I know some women who are already in love with “robotic parts” because real men can’t do it any better. I never understood that, mechanics on my goods always creeped me out. That dude’s idea kinda reminds me of Gigolo Joe from the movie AI…http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yyqlhaybeo4
I don’t want any kind of life-like robots to exist at all. People are already too dependent on GPS navigators, IPods, and other such technologies. Make us any more dependent and we’ll be sheep ready for the slaughter!
I just want a robot woman with a bass boat and it’s a plus if she can clean fish. Send picture of the boat.
I liked reading this!
I can’t help but wonder what robot-human offspring would be like though.. 😀
I remember a few years back there was big controversy over a Jerry Springer show that featured people in “interspecies relationships”, the PC way of saying bestiality. This tells me that there will definitely be at least a segment of the population willing to marry a robot.That said, I highly doubt robot love will ever take off to the degree to threaten human relationships in that it doesn’t represent the highest state of love and is more akin to a master/slave relationship. One of the big joys of human relationships is that one “chooses” to love someone else and the other person “chooses” to love the other person as well. Few pleasures can compete with the feeling one has of having their love returned from the person they love. A robot has no free will so that feeling won’t really exist in a robot-human relationship. They will also miss the magic (misery?) of “The Chase”.I’m sure society status quo will also play a part in reducing robot relationships as those involved will be seen as not being able to find a “real” human relationship.
ever seen that part of Animatrix, “The Renaissance” and stuff? God that is so creepy.
Anyways I read that article a few days ago and it creeps me out. I can’t figure how it is possible to fall in love with a machine! I love the psychotic unique wonderful crazy emotional wrecks that human beings are. How can you love a cold and lifeless machine who has no feelings for you? He was even saying it’s not creepy to have SEX with a robot.
Yeah. It is. Cold, lifeless, emotionless. He was saying pedos could take out their strange sexual urges on young-looking robots? UM, EW? That isn’t going to HELP because a pedo will want a human reaction too! Plus…isn’t that saying that it’s RIGHT for him/her to be the way they are?? That guy is messed up in the head. I don’t ever want a life full of humanlike robots. Ever.
what about a SEX-slave robot? you could make one of those by duct-taping a dildo to your computer and have it run a chatbot.speaking of chatbots and artificial intelligence:http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=
LMAo @ robot conversation… I kinda agree with Ren, that some people are robot-like…. who knows what humans will be like in the centuries to come? I hope the passion doesn’t run out, have you seen the dead people on the 9-5 trains?
I don’t think robots will be good enough but I am pretty sure it’ll sell a bit. It tells about how lonely and desperate people are nowadays or how disappointed people are as results of bad relationships. Sad…
Robot’s and love making…? That’s well as bad as well a lot of things that shouldn’t be mentioned ever. Robot slaves on the other sounds cool but what if they end up with a robot keanu reeves becoming their hero, but more importantly I’m gonna go support your movement for world peace and go buy a happy meal.
Any robot is only a robot and never will be a human. Try to find right man for you. I am sure you will be more happy with him than with a lot of artificial lovers like sex toys or robots.
yes, i agree w/ u!! i want an entourage of hot male robots who cook and clean 4 me =]
I don’t think this of an issue in my lifetime. I’m only 23 years old – a bit of a socially inept individual, and loves a handful of video games- but I discovered that no game in the world beats the stimulae the company of my uh… friends have who are in fact fellow human beings. But I imagine if the world created robots as “lovers” wouldn’t it be the same for women or men purchasing sex toys? If a robot like from the movie Bladerunner as human-like and as smart or even smarter, then robots would probably be treated as human beings (if we haven’t destroyed each other just yet). But modern human thinking would never go creating things greater than they are – unless its is mostly for destruction like mass weapons, but I’m not so sure about that too. I think we already had put our fears on so many things already. It would take a social, political, mental, spiritual revolution adding more sentient beings on Earth when the truth is they’re actually finding more ways to eliminate overpopulation.
…wtf? interesting blogreally random.
That was so entertaining! I loved it and completely agree.