Will we ever want to have sex with robots?

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.
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.
Magnificent but malevolent - Maria the
robot from Fritz Lang's sci-fi classic
Metropolis
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 (£5,700) 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
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% - told a YouGov poll
for the Huffington Post in the US 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".