ShoutingInDigital

Do you take this robot to be….

Posted by James | Filed under tech

In 40 years time you will be thinking all those romantic relationships you had ever experienced are a thing of the past or in this case, the future. David Levy, author of the book Love + Sex with Robots, recently at an international conference held at the University of Maastricht spoke of the concept, where he is “talking about loving relationships about 40 years from now” with the non human kind.

Scientists are expected to build robots that will match the emotions, personalities and consciousness of humans, where they can then maintain a human like relationship with their human partner. These robots will be built where “they can talk to you, they can make you laugh”. However, this is the area where they are struggling to develop, in terms of the human-computer conversational engagement but Levy strongly believes this will happen, “I am sure it will (happen.) In 40 years…perhaps sooner.”

He expects that those individuals who are unable to find satisfaction from relationships with a human could look elsewhere. The robot will also be able to say “I love you”, and with feeling to their human partner. However, some of the old romantics in the world will perhaps find it difficult to comprehend this new potential concept of relationships.

The main controversy that surrounds this concept is perhaps the ethical issues, due to the lack of choice the robot will have, being unable to reject human emotions of any form because they are programmed to accept their human partner. There are concerns by British scholar Dylan Evans that the robots could eventually become boring to their human partner, and as a result the “human becoming cruel against its defenseless partner.”

As expected at this stage of development there are many possibilities but researches are encouraging people not to over exaggerate just yet. This new age of robot’s being part of society will take time for many individuals to accept but in other parts of the world, the Japanese are already producing robots that look after the elderly.

There is still a long way to go until your potential mail order robot bride hits the streets, but eventually you could perhaps be falling in love with C-3PO’s much younger (and less aluminium orientated) cousin.

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