Depressed and Lonely? There Could Be a Robotic Sex Partner in Your Future (www.counterpunch.org)
from Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 11:03
https://programming.dev/post/28819123

#technology

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MagicShel@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 11:27 next collapse

We’ve had jerking off tens of thousands of years. It’s not a solution to either.

taladar@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 12:25 collapse

Pretty sure we even have plenty of depressed and lonely people who have actual sex. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them aren’t depressed and lonely precisely because they are surrounded by so many people who supposedly care about them but really don’t.

MagicShel@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 12:32 collapse

Marriage and kids did really help my depression. Not 100% but pretty well. I feel like I’ve accomplished many of the things in life I wanted. But it took 35 and a failed marriage to get there.

taladar@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 15:48 collapse

It is all fine if that is what you really want. It can cause depression though in people who didn’t really want it but tried to get it anyway because that is what society told them they should do.

BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com on 18 Apr 11:54 next collapse

Just the thought of sex robots depressed me even more than the state of the world already had.

piefood@piefed.social on 18 Apr 13:38 collapse

Why? People are already having sex with devices (vibrators, masturbators, real-dolls). I don't see why this is all that different

BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com on 18 Apr 14:00 next collapse

I don’t know why, somehow it just feels different to me. Or maybe it’s just the state of the world that tries to dehumanize everything with “AI” that depress me.

phdepressed@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 15:20 collapse

At least dildos and fleshlights don’t pretend to be anything more than a toy. No one is that emotionally invested in their sex toys. They serve a physical purpose and that’s kinda it.

When you get into real-dolls and using this type of AI. There are mental health issues that are not helped and probably worsened by the existence of these things. Human connections to non-“real” things is weird af. It’s a one-sided relationship until the AI is capable of breaking up and leaving not just getting powered down and restarted.

taladar@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 15:47 next collapse

It is probably unhealthy in a very similar way to parasocial relationships with celebrities are if people take those too far.

Ilflish@lemm.ee on 19 Apr 18:23 collapse

A good question to ask yourself is whether I’d the tool or the software. A bot using AI to me is not that different from trying to have an intimate connection with an AI without the hardware.

And this already exists. people are already using AI to accidentally or purposely create friendship or romantic partner substitutes.

phdepressed@sh.itjust.works on 19 Apr 19:04 collapse

I don’t disagree that it exists but I’m against purposefully expanding it. “People already have colds why not spread the flu?”

We’ve already outsourced our creativity and now we’re outsourcing our relationships? It’s just so abhorrent to me.

Ilflish@lemm.ee on 19 Apr 20:38 collapse

Suggesting it’s outsourcing relationships is a bit of a leep. Early adopters using this are going to be using this as a replacement for prostitution which is already generally illegal or a replacement for isolate masturbation

DemBoSain@midwest.social on 18 Apr 12:09 next collapse

Can I have two? I always wanted to do two sex robots at the same time.

tal@lemmy.today on 18 Apr 13:41 next collapse

I think that you can have as many as you want, though if you’re in Texas, it’d be technically illegal to have six or more:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_obscenity_statute

In 1973, the Texas Legislature passed Section 43.21 of the Texas Penal Code, which, in part, prohibited the sale or promotion of “obscene devices.” The statute defines “obscene device” as “a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” The legislation was last updated in 2003, and Section 43.23 currently states, “A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device.”[1] Section (f) of the law also criminalizes the possession of six or more devices (or “multiple identical or similar” devices) as “presumed to possess them with intent to promote.”[1]

kambusha@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 15:17 collapse

You don’t need a million dollars to do that.

hardcoreufo@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 19:03 collapse

A guy who looks like me does.

Samskara@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 12:12 next collapse

Cleaning your cum out from your sex bot would just feel sad.

futatorius@lemm.ee on 18 Apr 12:25 next collapse

Just open the felching hatch and have a spittoon handy.

Allah@lemm.ee on 18 Apr 12:48 collapse

or just ask it to incinerate it inside

T156@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 11:40 collapse

Incineration is a terrible idea indoors. At best, you’ve now got the smell of cooking and pyrolised human juices filling the place, and at worst, is the house being filled with carbon monoxide from the combustion.

KryptonNerd@slrpnk.net on 21 Apr 15:42 collapse

Also you don’t want something your body is going in, to also be capable of combustion.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 13:48 next collapse

People clean sleeves (fleshlights) on the regular. And an adult sized (please, dear Eothas, let it be adult sized…) android is not something you can hide in a sock drawer. So a cleaning station is very reasonable.

tal@lemmy.today on 18 Apr 18:11 next collapse

And an adult sized (please, dear Eothas, let it be adult sized…) android is not something you can hide in a sock drawer.

Not a sock connoisseur, I see.

MagicShel@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 19:32 collapse

100% cotton? My man!

Pirata@lemm.ee on 19 Apr 18:42 collapse

People clean sleeves (fleshlights) on the regular

I don’t imagine that to be the happiest activity. The post-nut clarity must be insane.

yuki2501@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 03:30 collapse

That’s the thing: A good quality sexbot would go to the bathroom and clean itself.

GooberEar@lemmy.wtf on 18 Apr 12:29 next collapse

Mark my words, Big Minge will never let this technology see the light of day.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 14:00 next collapse

Sensationalism/puritanical stupidity will always color this as “depressed and lonely” in the same sense that anyone who masturbates is a freak who can’t get a real partner (and those crowds are ALWAYS implying a cishet partner…).

“Sex robots” are more or less a middle ground between a masturbatory aide and a prostitute. People who use them aren’t looking for (simplifying) a girlfriend anymore than someone who has casual sex is looking for one. They may be looking for a way to blow off some steam. Sex releases a LOT of really nice chemicals into our brains and, if you do it right, is almost meditative when it comes to clearing thoughts.

Some are looking for a way to “get practice” for a “real girlfriend” because media makes them think they need to make their partner orgasm with just a single look. When the reality is… if you even give half a shit about how your partner feels you are well above the vast majority of people out there. And, if you actually ask for feedback and follow it, it is gonna be god damned niagara falls down there. The good Canadian side.

And, with the rise in long term long distance relationships as well as the acknowledgement of asexual folk, it can be a way for one or more partners to get what they need out of a relationship without burdening the person(s) they love.

I dunno. I generally hate most coverage of these topics because it invariably involves folk showing their crusty poorly wiped asses. Sex positivity! But only if you have sex the way the good book says you should (… with your daughter and against her will?). Same with when sex work comes up. It INSTANTLY becomes the assumption that anyone who has ever considered sex work is involved in human trafficking and blah blah blah. And some of that does happen (it is almost like legalization means victims have somewhere to go for help…). But it ignores the idea that someone might just realize they can trade their body for money in the same way that athletes and “the trades” do.

goldemboy@sh.itjust.works on 19 Apr 07:08 next collapse

Very well said. Also, what about the sexual needs of people with disabilities? That’s a real tabu in societies almost everywhere. There is a lot of good that can potentially come from this. But just like everything it’s in the execution…

blarghly@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 09:05 collapse

Sounds like a pretty big cope. Sex isn’t about cumming. It’s about emotional connection with another human being. Being unable to get fulfillment of this basic human need is sad and lonely. This is why fleshlights have a stigma that beating your bishop the old fashioned way doesn’t - every healthy teenaged boy spanks it on the reg. But actually purchasing a device speaks to a level of hopelessness at obtaining actual sex that is sad, which implies a failure to be attractive, which is itself unattractive.

[deleted] on 19 Apr 12:59 next collapse

.

Aethr@lemmy.world on 19 Apr 20:06 next collapse

Do you feel the same way about vibrators?

blarghly@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 14:28 collapse

No, because women can get their sexual needs more or less without trouble. A male sex robot owned by a woman would make me feel the same way though, similar to the man’s-arm-shaped pillows. It is sad, because they can’t get a their emotional needs for intimacy fulfilled and are resorting to hollow physical proxies

Aethr@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 15:48 collapse

I am asking specifically about vibrators vs penis sleeves. Are you saying the latter is and should be more shameful than the other?

gruhuken@slrpnk.net on 20 Apr 02:20 next collapse

Me and my partner are asexual and prefer to fulfil our needs by ourselves + with devices, does that make our wonderful and loving relationship sad and lonely?

blarghly@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 14:28 collapse

No. But you are an extreme minority, and your existence won’t change overall cultural views of sex robots.

DancingBear@midwest.social on 20 Apr 03:49 collapse

No

Derpenheim@lemmy.zip on 18 Apr 14:13 next collapse

This can only cause more damage. Replacing a relationship with a sexbot reinforces already ingrained sexualizations and the perceived transactional nature of said relationships. I.e., women are for sex.

yournamehere@lemm.ee on 18 Apr 16:01 collapse

“this can only…” sounds like a reflex. there is at least two sides to everything. hm, how about it could replace sex workers. where i live people with handicaps can even get money from health insurance for that. you think all these toys will be for men,right? i heard women learnt they dont need an entire pig for a sausage. these toys will free humans from the force of nature.

interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml on 18 Apr 14:24 next collapse

Fucking finally!

grue@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 14:57 next collapse

Sigh… Better get out the ol’ PSA:

Don’t Date Robots!

houstoneulers@lemmy.world on 18 Apr 15:51 collapse

Say no to robosexuality

sprite0@sh.itjust.works on 18 Apr 16:14 next collapse

it better be a Cherry 2000 model or I don’t want it

yuki2501@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 03:32 collapse

Upvoted for cult movie reference. 👍😎

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 18 Apr 19:56 next collapse

Clank clank clank

Rhoeri@lemmy.world on 20 Apr 04:05 collapse

Incels unite! Love is finally within reach!