# Sex robots for Incels? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783 "2018-07-12T15:15:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/461 "2018-08-04T11:52:52Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And yet you want a free society to pay for your sex toys. I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. But I suspect it would cost considerably more, and I wanted to be frugal with the taxpayers money. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/462 "2018-08-04T13:00:09Z")
How about we offer actual emotional and mental health care? That might include some sex therapy or sex surrogates (more likely human interaction therapy, but I can see the need for both), but the point of real health care is not to satisfy someone’s sexual cravings, but help them deal with the fact that you can’t always get what you want. That’s really the problem here. It’s not that someone is failing to get basic survival needs, like food, clothing, shelter, and basic human interaction. It’s that they’re failing to get something specific—a satisfying and fulfilling sex life—and that is something that many, many people don’t get to have. The real issue here is not finding some public way to fund that need, but rather a public way to teach individuals how to deal with the pain of life, some of which includes “you just don’t get what you want.” ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/463 "2018-08-04T13:40:59Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. But I suspect it would cost considerably more, and I wanted to be frugal with the taxpayers money. It’s so thoughtful of you to want to be frugal with the taxpayers’ money. :rolleyes: Have you got any other cravings that the taxpayers should fund? How about a 90" flat screen TV? I’m sure you feel very deprived and unhappy without a 90" TV. Society really _owes_ it to you to give you one. You _deserve_ it. Maybe you could go around threatening to rob electronics stores and beat up their employees, unless the government gives you vouchers to satisfy your burning desire for a large-screen TV? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/464 "2018-08-04T14:22:30Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. But I suspect it would cost considerably more, and I wanted to be frugal with the taxpayers money. You need to understand, if you are in fact earnest in these things you write, that you are not entitled to anything like what you’re asking for. You are meant to find it on your own, w/ your own skills, or else you just do not get to have them. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/465 "2018-08-13T07:53:54Z")
Good article in the NYT: [There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/opinion/there-will-never-be-an-age-of-artificial-intimacy.html) _by Sherry Turkle, professor in the Science, Technology and Society program at M.I.T._ > [@](#): > > These robots can _perform_ empathy in a conversation about your friend, your mother, your child or your lover, but they have no experience of any of these relationships. Machines have not known the arc of a human life. They feel nothing of the human loss or love we describe to them. Their conversations about life occupy the realm of the as-if. > > Yet through our interactions with these machines, we seem to ignore this fact; we act as though the emotional ties we form with them will be reciprocal, and real, as though there is a right kind of emotional tie that can be formed with objects that have no emotions at all. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/466 "2018-08-13T13:39:05Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. But I suspect it would cost considerably more, and I wanted to be frugal with the taxpayers money. Then how about going to a free website with the words Use Your Hands printed in hot pink with a winking eye gif? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/467 "2018-08-13T16:04:59Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > How do “rape” a non-sentient sexbot? How is this different, morally, from a human couple that are into BDSM? The difference is that there still may be a moral issue with BDSM, despite consent. There can’t be moral issue with a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/468 "2018-08-13T17:12:54Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. Too bad – it’s not the government’s job to give you an orgasm, and I find attitudes like your’s vile and disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/469 "2018-08-13T17:33:53Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Then how about going to a free website with the words Use Your Hands printed in hot pink with a winking eye gif? Hands are for women, penises deserve better! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/470 "2018-08-13T17:41:47Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. In fact, I’d prefer that. But I suspect it would cost considerably more, and I wanted to be frugal with the taxpayers money. Again, no one cares if you buy a sex robot, hire an adult prostitute or look at legal porn. But you haven’t presented any case why the government should pay for it. There are people living and dying on the streets, people who can’t afford desperately needed medical treatments; why should the government prioritize your orgasm over their lives? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/471 "2018-08-14T19:49:31Z")
No government-funded sex slaves for incels but … “How Sex Robots Could Revolutionize Marriage—for the Better: With sexual needs outsourced to robots, marriages could become stronger than ever.” > **[The Proliferation of Sex Robots Will Probably Destroy Marriage—for the Better](https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/sex-robots-could-totally-redefine-the-institution-of-marriage.html)** > > With sexual needs outsourced to robots, marriages could become stronger than ever. > [@](#): > > The question then is: What happens to marriage when sexbot technology provides a low-cost alternative to easy sexual access in marriage? One possibility is a reversal of the past century of societal change, which tied together marriage and sexual intimacy, and a return to the perception of marriage as a productive household unit. > > Those who fear that sexbot technology will have a negative impact on marriage rates see sexbot technology as a substitute to sexual access in marriage. If they are correct, a decrease in the price of sexual access outside of marriage will decrease the demand for sexual access in marriage, and marriage rates will fall. It could just as easily be argued, however, that within marriage sexual access and household production are complements in consumption—in other words, goods or services that are often consumed together, like tea and sugar, or cellular data and phone apps. If that is the case, then, consumer theory predicts that easy access to sexbot technology will actually increase the rate of lifetime marriage, since a fall in the price of a good increases the demand for complements in consumption, just as a fall in the price of cellular data would likely increase demand for phone streaming services. Moreover, if sexual access through sexbot technology is a complement to household production, then we could observe an increase in the quality of marriages and, as a result, a reduction in rates of divorce. My question is why doesn’t society dispense with sexual fidelity as an assumed component of marriage? Polyamory seems a much more natural and healthy alternative to robot sex slaves. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/472 "2018-08-14T20:49:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > No government-funded sex slaves for incels but … > > “How Sex Robots Could Revolutionize Marriage—for the Better: With sexual needs outsourced to robots, marriages could become stronger than ever.” > > [Sex robots could totally redefine the institution of marriage.](https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/sex-robots-could-totally-redefine-the-institution-of-marriage.html) > > My question is why doesn’t society dispense with sexual fidelity as an assumed component of marriage? Polyamory seems a much more natural and healthy alternative to robot sex slaves. Polyamory is natural and healthy in a world where jealousy doesn’t exist. I’ll be interesting to know when such a planet is discovered. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/473 "2018-08-14T21:38:52Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Polyamory is natural and healthy in a world where jealousy doesn’t exist. I’ll be interesting to know when such a planet is discovered. Jealousy and polyamory have existed together for the majority of human development. You don’t need to eliminate jealousy, only teach people to cope with and manage their jealousy and not let it become the foundation of a relationship. It’s exactly what we are telling the OP do do with feelings of being denied something he wants. Sometimes you have to cope with it. In the same way, society shouldn’t give excessive power to individuals’ feelings of jealousy. Just learn to cope with it. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/474 "2018-08-14T21:50:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Jealousy and polyamory have existed together for the majority of human development. You don’t need to eliminate jealousy, only teach people to cope with and manage their jealousy and not let it become the foundation of a relationship. > > It’s exactly what we are telling the OP do do with feelings of being denied something he wants. Sometimes you have to cope with it. In the same way, society shouldn’t give excessive power to individuals’ feelings of jealousy. Just learn to cope with it. So if I understand you right, in a thread suggesting that we go to extraordinary measures to avoid incels having to learn to cope with the difficult emotion of jealousy, the suggestion is that we attempt to teach _everyone_ to cope with the difficult emotion of jealousy? I’m not sure I’m on board with this plan. Also, on further reflection, I’m not convinced polyamory would help with the incel problem anyway, because they’re not going to be satisfied with sharing. They want to _own_ their compliant smoking hot sex doll women. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/475 "2018-08-14T22:00:39Z")
I agree. Polyamory won’t help incels. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/476 "2018-08-14T22:41:40Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > smoking hot sex doll women. This is my Osmond Family tribute band. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/477 "2018-08-14T23:07:25Z")
Poly women have high standards and wouldn’t fuck an incel with yours. If they can’t get their dicks wet by negging some poor young woman with terrible self esteem they’re going to get WAY nowhere with an adult, aware woman who’s in charge of her own sexuality. It wouldn’t even GET as far as jealousy, lol. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/478 "2018-08-15T00:41:18Z")
People who think sexual needs can be outsourced to sex bots could already outsource their sexual needs to another sex toy or their hands. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/479 "2018-08-15T02:32:12Z")
To be clear I don’t necessarily think that the idea of a sex robot is necessarily bad. I do have serious reservations about creating a robot sex slave at public expense for the sole purpose of quenching the sexual urges of people who are so extremely socially dysfunctional as to end up in a hateful, violent, misogynistic cult. Such people might need treatment or therapy of some kind and it might be in the public interest to fund such treatment. However I am very wary of the idea that the public should pay for simply their sexual satisfaction because they want something they aren’t getting. And I also am very wary of letting people with hateful, misogynistic tendencies have a realistically human-like plaything that they can just have their way with. It’s basically letting them practice mistreating people and there’s no reason to believe that this won’t carry over to their attitudes and actions with respect to real humans. If there’s some scientific reason to believe that having some people interact with a cybernetic sexual surrogate would help treat mental or emotional disorders then maybe that should be considered, but under the strict supervision of a licensed professional, and certainly not just for the purpose of quenching their unmet sexual desires. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783/480 "2018-08-15T04:31:37Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > I’d be happy to look at other alternatives, like government issued vouchers to hire prostitutes. Would you consider a sexbot [bikeshare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle-sharing_system) arrangement, where there’s a small pool which is shared among a number of public users? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-robots-for-incels/817783.md?page=25)