The Sex Singularity: When Machines Surpass Human Hotness

Related to today's earlier post about an interview with author of Love & Sex With Robots, my friend Paul Spinrad wrote this excellent short story called "The Sex Singularity: When Machines Surpass Human Hotness."

2010

Following the Supermod Doll's success, Pygmalion introduces Supermod Series II, a line of sexbots with motion-triggered vocalization -- moans, screams, and dirty talk. The bot also has "Inheat Inside," a new behavior engine designed by a leading primate biologist, which makes the bots' movements, expressions, and iris dilations even more powerfully seductive. Demand for the bots grows, but their high price continues to limit sales.

Later in the year, Pygmalion introduces the Supermod Pornstar line, in a cross-marketing and licensing partnership with adult video producer Digital Playground. The new line of sexbots are realistic, laser-scanned replicas of Jesse Jane and other leading porn actresses. Tagline: "You've watched me; now fuck me."

A reclusive bot-owner commits "double-suicide" at his home in Los Angeles, hacking his bot to pieces with an axe, then shooting himself in the heart. The story makes national headlines and draws attention to the high suicide rate among sexbot users.

Botboy, a successful chain of Japanese doll clubs, opens 15 branches in the U.S. and Canada. The company also launches Botboy magazine, a monthly celebration of sexbots and the botboy lifestyle that features lavish erotic photography, plus fantasy fiction, sexbot advice and maintenance tips, and the latest in sexbot technology. The magazine is a hit, and proves to be a popular ìgatewayî for non bot-users.

The 1st annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Sexbots and Social Upheaval takes place in Rome, Italy.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Interview with author of Love & Sex With Robots
• Real people who have (un)real relationships with Real Dolls
• One slightly used RealDoll for sale
• Real Doll sex toy maker has an anime doll
• Real Doll photography
• Nerve.com "Science" experiment: sex with a RealDoll
• Video of ultra creepy animated dentist training robot
• Japorn anime cosplay and living-doll erotica, part two: Kigurumi
• Supreme Court denies Alabama women mechanically induced orgasms

• [Xeni Jardin]

  I thought that read “Batboy” at first glance. Man I miss Batboy. He was hot. WWN FTW.

• [Jeff]

  It’s so wierd, I was thinking about that sex bot post and was trying to remember what the original Greek story was called “Pig…?” Design it the way you want it, with all the right emotional feedback. “I’m just an AI, but I know what I’m feeling is real. I love you Bender.” And then I though of Cherry 2000. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

  Jeff

• [jjasper]

  Until I’m able to somehow give an AI an orgasm, machine sex will just be enjoyable jerking off. For some people, sex is self centered, an only a means to pleasure for them. For sane people (by which I mean people like me, heh), it’s a physical dialog.

• [hapax_legomenon]

  Wow, I actually have something interesting to add to this discussion.

  I know sexbot stories are a dime a dozen, but here is a creative commons story I wrote in 1994. It’s pretty comic.

  Erotic Notion #27: Supersex 3000 .

  (BTW, the webdomain is NSFW and the story page itself is explicit, though the page itself has 1 tasteful graphic).

• [Moon]

  I HATE tasteful graphics! :D

  /However, I didn’t even see them – the page is 404.

• [Maurice Reeves]

  As an aside to this, I have been wondering for a while now what will happen as more people use the internet for porn, and having that computer there with them becomes part of the arousal? At what point does the brain associate the computer not just as what we work with, but as a necessary part of sex?

• [Baumi]

  That reminds me of Stanislav Lem’s old story “The Washing-Machine Tragedy”.

  A (rather uninspired and confusing) abstract of that great story can be found here:
  http://preview.tinyurl.com/36zcj3

• [A New Challenger]

  “And what was the name of Billy’s planet?

  IT WAS EARTH!

  DON’T
  DATE
  ROBOTS!“

• [Anonymous]

  Not Canada. There’s already rumbling in Canada to outlaw any private ownership of sexbots, among other regulations:

  http://iankerr.ca/content/view/656/145/

• [Joe]

  Scott Adams covered this ground some years ago, though we haven’t kept up with his predicted timing.

  Dogbert: “I can predict the future by assuming that money and male hormones are the driving forces for new technology. Therefore when virtual reality gets cheaper than dating, society is doomed.”

  The last frame is dated “Year 2004″ and has a woman at the door asking Dogbert, “Is Dilbert available?” to which Dogbert replies, “He’s been in the holodeck since March.”

• [coaxial]

  Wasn’t this on Futurama?

• [sp160n]

  Fry: Did you hear that? She likes me.
  Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Well Duh, she’s programmed to like you.
  Fry: But this is Lucy Liu, perhaps the only good actress of the 20th century. She’s more then just a piece of software.
  Lucy Liu robot: Would you like to take a moment to register me?
  Fry: Hmm, not right now.
  Lucy Liu robot: [tussling Fry's hair] I’ll remind you later, you hot stud you.

• [Anonymous]

  Wait … where’s the story? I enjoyed the snippets quoted above, but can’t find the link to the rest.

• [hapax_legomenon]

  Ok, let’s try again. Here is Erotic Notion #27: Supersex 3000 .

• [Marshall]

  It’s Cherry 2000 all over again.

• [Felixe]

  Good news everyone!

  Sexbots aren’t in the near feature. First we have to get good senses – taste, smell and sweat. Then you can go wild.

  But things are advancing quickly.

  I’d be really intrigued to see the future foreplay rituals: downloading an alternate firmware with “more features” and expecting an open hardware version really soon with some extra features (among those, the capability of loading more personae, a la Frets on Fire.)

• [noen]

  Xeni Jardin
  “I thought that read “Batboy” at first glance. Man I miss Batboy. He was hot.”

  Batboy got fragged in Iraq.

• [Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator]

  I expect it’ll be a non-universal kink, like latex.

  What I wonder is how many other kinks lie dormant within us, waiting for the equivalent of latex or sexbots to be invented?

• [sabik]

  @jjasper #2: I suspect simulating an orgasm wouldn’t be at all difficult.

  It’s been claimed that people respond to the Pleo as though it were a living creature. I guess it’s easier to fool the more ancient parts of our brains — and sex is very ancient.

• [jjasper]

  @ Sabik #12 A simulated orgasm is about as fun as cooking a meal for a garbage disposal that goes “yum” when you press the disposal button. I’m sure it’s someone’s kink, but it’s not mine.

• [LOLcat Stevens]

  Machine sex fetishes seem to rely in part on the active knowledge that it’s a machine you’re interacting with. I’m sure that bots could be “hot” within this limited realm, but how far is this robo-desire likely to, um, extend into the general population?

  The comments here seem to be envisioning some Stepford Wife/Husband that can really convincingly equal or surpass a human partner. I’m with jjasper on this one, in that I don’t think that fooling the ancient parts of the brain into making an object seem “alive” would be quite enough to make sex with said object seem “real.” There’s a lot of information that gets passed via subtle physical cues, and even with really fancy AI, I doubt you’d be able to overcome the knowledge that you’re interacting with a machine. It brings a whole new layer of meaning to the “uncanny valley.”

  People find all sorts of ways to get off, but no matter how sophisticated a sex toy you build, I think it’s only going to be a certain segment of the population that will find it “hot.”