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 
WEird?? anyway i think robots in furture will be used jobs people do today THAT are too dangerous and stuff, becuase if robots do all our jobs in future, the only job we’ll ever get is programmers and mechanics and thinkers cause we programme robots with knowledge we have presently and that is one thing robots dont have, unless in furture they make A.I s (artificial intelligence) that can think for us. Then other then that what else can we do? Sit around all day while robots do everything. Yeah it may sound nice but think about it, we will hardly move about, becuase in the furture there maybe chairs that you just have to sit on the whole day with a console to press to bring you where you want to go. What im trying to say is, are androids/ Any Robots good for us? Maybe? Maybe not. Sure there’ll be lots of advantages like robot gladiators and robot slaves and no aids but, the only question that everyone has at the back of their head at what ever they do, be it Napolean having wars for what? For his country and their good will (maybe not actually but i guess he did not think about it) and george bush when he invaded iraq (even if in the end there was’nt a weapon of mass destruction) and Osama who thinks hes doing things for his god which I REALLY think its not what his god wants. The things people do are always good for some one be it them selves and it shows all around us. Please comment.
Wouldnt technically doing a robot be just a more complex form of masterbation?And i guess what the netherlands guy said, that the more shy guys, or psychological problems, or are just plain ugly or have unpleasant personalities that would benefit from it, would be the ones using it, well their inability to breed with a robot will contribute to a, i guess a sort of modern, homo sapien version of darwin’s natural selection.
So i guess its all good, and no smart people get hurt right?
entertaining post! 😀
Oh yeah, not only sneeze candy, but poop chocolate fudge Ha! Good dialogue on the relationship…you’re
prolly right on with that.
aaand the guy predicted that massachusetts would be the first state to approve human-robot marriage… whaaaaaa…?
gotta say though that i still love transformers.
you should Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams. He plays a robot in that movie.
Yeah. Robots would not make very appealing spouses. What so wrong with knowing about elves? I had a college roomate who at one time had learned Tolkien’s elfen language so well he could order from a menu with it. I know very little about elves. He is married and I haven’t even dated before.
to each their own..i’ll try almost anything once.
slry…it would be sad. we are forgetting
that we seek love on a daily basis..from each other.
I think it’s going to be a long while before human-robot sexual interaction (unless you consider those disgusting looking motorized body parts to be robots) but human-robot emotional connection has been well documented for well over a decade now…
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071001/emotional_robots.html?.v=2
It still feels like robots will fill that pet role more than a companion role, but then we’re never had anything that was capable of human conversation either. When that becomes possible on robots (or computers), there might be an interesting leap in human-machine connection. Just food for thought.
Sushi
oh gosh, I do not want a robot girlfriend. you like someone for their personality…which I’m thinking we are nowhere near programming a robot to that point.I’ll stick to humans, thank you lol
Amazing haha, made me laugh.Don’t worry, we probably allready be dead before it’s time for robot lovin 😉
i duno about LOVE robots but labor robots i like…if robots can start providing the lower needs of humans and support us so we wouldnt have to work, we, as human beings, can get to teh matter at hand, being more creative creatures and improving our scientific research and really start looking at our surroundings and in ourselves and contemplating teh meaning of our lives…rather than having to work and instead viewing ourselves as more of a valuable depleting workable resource stuck forever in teh corporate and business life.
with our full attention on living life and making new discoveries, progress will speed up 10x if not more!!!
yes DOWN WITH LOVE BOTS…up with labor bots!!!!! hehee =)
Haha I love this post and I completely agree with you!
ew robot lovers. they could turn against us like in that movie “I Robot”. that was a scary movie, i was all “but we have robot vacuum cleaners and all, what then??”
but for practice, maybe.
browsing.
that is bizarre and it true we program it to feel like human beings.
as long as people continue to lie to themselves they can fall in love with anything . from robots to a genocidal president …
Best Xanga site out there. Awesome lay-out, witty content and you appear to be pretty hot. Also, I’m definitely down some robot sex. Why not, right? Anything new and different is good. It’d be like the first time I was with an Asian chick or a really tall chick.
What did you think of the film AI with HaleyJoel Osment?
Plausible.
I’m surprised that you insist that orc loving elvish speaking nerds would be the only ones interested in having such companions. I would think most men would be interested in having a sex partner if it meant no emotional repercussions.
Have you ever read Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? That happens in that book…maybe that’s what that guy was talking about?
this post is both insightful and hilarious!
I’m well up for some robot loving!
It’d be an amazing conversation piece for down the pub haha
LOL, I loved your description of the robot slaves! That would be NICE!!! And just what a robot was meant for. I hate to cook. I hate to clean. I would love one of those! But I wouldn’t want a lover robot. Sure I’m shy, sure I don’t talk to guys or go out on dates, partly for that reason, but that doesn’t mean I’d want a robot. Man, I’d be the one giving up the money, as you said. I’d have to dress the thing… well, at least it wouldn’t need food. But still. I mean, wouldn’t it feel fake to have sex with one of them? I don’t want to think about that. They’d have to make it so real that it actually has body heat for me too because I’m always cold. But, it just wouldn’t feel real. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll just curl up with a book and a warm blanket instead, thank you very much! lol…
If you’re interested, check out “The Age of Spiritual Machines” by Ray Kurzweil. He has a similar theory, but it’s a little more complex than you are making it. It’s not that the robots will be programmed to love you and compliment you…they will have evolved to the point that they are capable of thought, reasoning, and emotion. Now, he doesn’t actually expect it to be this way for a while. I can’t say I believe that robots will take over a la “The Matrix,” but it is hard to deny that they are advancing, and it is possible that they could reach the point of sentience.
Eh… the Dutch are a bunch of perverts anyways.
Too funny!
Haven’t seen this mentioned but there’s this thing called the RealDoll made by former makers of Hollywood special effects mannequins. Its basically the most expensive and customizable sex doll ever and comes in male, female, and transsexual. All it lacks is the whole computer chip and it would be the robot you’re talking about. So yeah… we’re halfway there. good news for some of the commenters. 🙂
I would also pass on a robot lover, but I’m sure some sicko somewhere (including the developers/scientists) will seriously find them robots attractive . . .
Hello!
Thats fnny, you think just like me lmfao.
That whole robot thing…..Perfect.
Comment back if you can
~Tripp
hmm, I disagree.I think this robot idea will be extremely successful. People project their own ideas on their lover anyways.I think it’s more perverted to control a person than a robot.
hey sexy e-mail me at j_oglesby@yahoo.com
My Website
I guess the next step would be to create robots that are so life like that no one could tell the difference. Then I might call it true love, but probably not.
I don’t think in the near future that those kinds of robots will exist. Maybe in the far future, robots can become so real that you cannot tell it from a human and the line between humans and robots disappear. The robot would actually have emotions and mean what they say, not what is programmed into them. There is a movie called Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams about a robot that gradually each part of him became human while falling in love with a human and in the end people accepted him as human.
I can tell you’ve really thought this one through.
And I really think that nerdy computer programers with no social skills should not be allowed to find love until they get it together. A robot lover would only make their way of living alright.
hmmmmmm
Hello Ms. Sylvia,You made your site so simple yet elegant. The pictures are a nice touch. I see that you have a wide variety of observations here! I like to write articles about God and religion on my site to help people to really get to know God, especially in these troubled times. 14 When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come. (Matthew 24:14) (CEV) I hope you get a chance to look at them.
i totally agree with you, and with xxtighty_whiteyxx’s comment: “How can a society be so perverse that sexual or emotional relations with a robot sounds attractive? People feel, we have emotions, and we think with intelligence that can only be simulated. How could a life with a being that has no emotions or opinions be favorable?”amen.
the key to world peace isn’t a happy meal …. it’s personal pan pizza, no more arguments about who gets the last slice and no more compromises about toppings (dammit I want anchovies and onions …).
In order for robots to reach that level of sophistication, you need to define what love is … machine is stupid and how realistic its interaction with people will depend on its progamming. If human can’t define what love is unambiguously and trust me we can’t even after a millenia of cheesy rock ballads, sappy poetry, syrupy romance tragedies and boring ass philosophical treatises … there is no way a robot can ever be anything more than a bad simulation of a human or worse just another latest sex gadget for the socially inept.
this is very very funny
140 comments and no recs? What are people thinking?
Just a thought… if the robot self-destructed, wouldn’t that deny the woman her vengance for the lousy relationship? That would be like a guy jumping off a bridge because he got dumped. Robots are so emo!