Specifically, what are the social and economic implications of something like this being developed? Pardon the spooky question, but is this a good thing or a bad thing?
We have the dolls that look like women but right now they just lie there, betraying the fact that they are mere objects, though they are works of art. What do you think will happen when they will be able to act autonomously, and dance unsupported unlike in the video?
Think of the implications; a fully skinned, speaking doll that can learn, speak anatomically correctly, grasp and feel with its hands, stand on its own two feet, and has better bodily proportions than most models.
Now mass-produce them.
We have broken women's monopoly on affective labor and companionship.
I'm not an anfem, just some sort of abstract "feminist" floating in the ether, but honestly, I don't really care. Like #1. that thing looks non-real af, #2. I don't really place importance of people on scales of utility to other people.
Josiah Myers
Probably won't happen anytime soon, tbh.
Have you seen any of the actual functioning robots?
You could not convincingly fit that kind of frame in a real-doll body. Yes, you can make one dance around when you have it up on a stand, but making a robot supported by a stand or tether do stuff, and having one walk around independently are two entirely different animals.
Caleb Bell
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Brody Williams
In Ancient Greece a free man could have sexual relationships with five different kinds of women: wife, concubine, hetaira, porne, and slave.
And even then, women did not hold any such monopoly.
Now what's wrong with machines doing this labor of all things? All it accomplishes is making prostitution obsolete.
Let inanimate, non-sapient objects be commodities, let inanimate, non-sapient objects be slaves, let inanimate, non-sapient objects be objectified.
Justin Harris
I say give it 6-7 years and it will be feasible. Prostheses exist where measurements of the motion of the biological leg are transmitted wirelessly to the prosthetic leg which dynamically modulates its stiffness. Depending on the weight of the doll, it's all a matter of tuning.
Same goes for the rest of the body, and their required flexibility allows for more complex modulation. We even have developed synthetic muscle fibers out of polyester with piezoelectric elements in them to modulate their movement. Everything is feasible if you can pack enough computing power into the chassis.
Okay, let's say it obviates prostitution. But when men have sex with the dolls, should the women care? Do they care at all?
I am more concerned about the degradation of interpersonal relationships this will cause, like here:
BBC documentary of dudes with sex dolls circa 2003-2005. These guys would be right at home on /r9k/. Do you want more of these people? Is it good that they are shutting themselves out from public life? What if one of them finally snaps and turns into Unabomber 2.0, but this time with drones? I am talking about potential societal collapse here. Your point about slavery is immaterial here. The robot women as things would provide what all of the human women did "without the hassle," which was dealing with women as an uncontrolled Other. The final step would be conceiving new people from synthesized ova from stem cells. People themselves would be reduced to things anyway, literally useless eaters good for only their spare parts, as all of their work, industrial and affective, would be obviated by machines that could pass the Turing test for as long as deemed necessary, even possibly having had implemented learning subroutines.
tl;dr obviating humans as workers is worse than slavery, since it will turn potential workers into livestock.
*tips fedora*
Jack Davis
Can't wait for the fascist robot parade saluting the stars and stripes.
Having a washing machine didn't make laundry obsolete. Women will still be forced to be prostitutes even with these things becoming as common as onaholes for the simple reason they'll be cheaper. I don't think they'll replace high-class courtesans either, because a fucktoy can't simulate an affective relationship. Technology alone doesn't abolish anything.
Brayden James
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Evan Cooper
FTFY You are a neo-luddite - an enemy of the advancement of life in general - and I look forward to the day when nobody is forced to interact with you in order to survive.
Spoken like someone who hasn't lived long enough to see any significant technological change.
Levi Taylor
Creating prosthetics for humans and creating entirely free-moving bipedal robots are two entirely different things.
