Meet Roxxxy the sex robot with a triple XXX. Depending on your
view 'she' is either at the cutting edge of the human-robot interface,
or a modern reflection on some men's difficulties in relating to
real-life partners.
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While sex aids are nothing new, what makes Roxxxy different is "we've
taken artificial intelligence" and "combined it with a human form,"
says creator Douglas Hines.
Of course, humanoid robots have been
the stuff of science fiction for decades - ever since Fritz Lang's 1927
film Metropolis, or Isaac Asimov's I Robot stories. The reality is
somewhat more clunky.
Walking robots currently have little
commercial value - they are expensive and are prone to falling over if
they are placed on anything other than a flat surface.
One of the
best of the bunch is Japan's all singing and dancing female robot,
HRP-4C, from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology (AIST).
The main drawback of this type of robot is that they have a very short battery life - they only last for about 20 minutes.
It
is enough for a rather impressive dancing routine from HRP-4C says the
team, but for little else. "One practical application for biped humanoid
robots is the entertainment industry," says AIST "provided the robots
can move very realistically like humans."
Loving the robot
In
2007, the British chess player and artificial intelligence (AI) expert
David Levy said in his book, Love and Sex with Robots, we would be
having sex with robots in five years - and be capable of falling in love
with them within 40 years.
His argument is based on improvements
in robotic engineering and computer programming - and extrapolating from
the income generated by the porn industry each year. Such robots would
be a "terrific service" for mankind, he argued.
As for Roxxxy, she
weighs in at 60lb (27kg) is 5ft 7in (1.70m) high and comes with a
variety of hair colours, moveable limbs and 'lifelike' skin.
She
is the brainchild of electrical engineer and computer scientist Douglas
Hines, the founder of TC Systems and True Companion, who formerly worked
in the artificial intelligence lab at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
He
says the sex robot developed from his firm's line of healthcare robots,
which were designed to look after elderly or infirm patients.
"Our
skill-set is based on commercial and military robotics and what we did
is we looked for an opportunity in the marketplace to apply that
technology.
"One very obvious market is healthcare - but there's a
less-known which is gaining more and more momentum which is the sex
industry."
Exciting time
Mr
Hines says his aim in developing his robot's artificial intelligence
engine, was to go beyond a simple sex aid and to provide companionship.
"The life experience with a partner goes beyond that - and that's really
what we've gone for."
However, no matter how well-programmed a
robot may be, it is still a machine, and he agrees a plastic and metal
humanoid is not capable of replacing the real thing - yet.
"We are
getting closer and closer. The gap between what is robotic and
mechanical and what's human-like will minimise, so it's a very exciting
time."
Roxxxy costs up to $9,000 and there is also a male version
called Rocky. Later this year the company plans a more advanced model
which it says will be mobile and autonomous.
At the heart of our
relationships with such machines, fictional or not, is the question of
what it means to be human and to relate to others.
While no
machine, however well-engineered, can ever feel empathy - something
which defines us humans - it might be able to simulate it well enough to
allow us to play along and treat it as if it were a sentient being.
Novelty appeal
Japan's
HRP-4C robot, dancing and singing with live performers in Tokyo Dancing
queen - HRP-4C - is the one on the right But will there ever be more
than a fetish or novelty appeal in such robots?
In a survey earlier this year, one-in-11 people - some 9% - said that they would be prepared to have sex with a robot.
That
works out at over 25 million Americans - which could translate into a
lot of robot sales. Yet critics caution that we should not be too quick
to embrace robots like Roxxxy.
"It is time to reconsider the
premise that a robot is better than nothing," says Sherry Turkle,
psychologist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Because,
if you are trying to solve the problem of care and companionship with a
robot, you are not trying to solve it with the people you need to solve
it with - friends, family, community."
Not promising
"We
may think we are only making robots," she told this year's meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "but really we
are re-making human values and connections.
"The pretend self of a robot calls forth the pretend self of a person performing for it," she said.
And that, she says is not promising "for adults trying to live authentically and navigate life's real, human problems".
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