As someone pointed out elsewhere, the government can’t ensure that Americans have adequate food and shelter. To expect it to attend to incel’s emotional needs is laughable.
lol. That does raise an interesting question if we ever develop holodeck or Westworld-style host technology. I’m sure one of the first use-cases will be to have virtual sex with various celebrities.
It will be covered by what is known as “personality right” or “right of publicity” law, which allows an individual to control commercial misappropriation of his or her name, image, likeness, and other personal characteristics.
There are already sex toys that are molded from the bodies of adult performers. They get to control use of their likenesses.
It’s more than laughable – it’s downright disturbing. To them, women are nothing more than a means to an orgasm, and they think they’re so entitled to it that they want the government to provide it?
I do think that “robot companions” will be more of a thing in the future, although I think that many may be cute/attractive in non-human ways (similar to the lil dementia comforting plushie.) Not just for the elderly, but for other people who need company or comfort in some way, as well as possibly having uses similar to Alexa and other home voice computing systems.
I doubt the government will pay for them unless they are developed into tools for more direct medical care (as opposed to comforting but not vital to keep living) and while I’m sure sex toys will be in the mix… I don’t think most people who have some sort of robotic presence in their house will have a sex robot, and they’ll probably be just as prohibitively expensive as RealDolls would be to any but the most interested.
And… yeah. Sex won’t solve it. I’m not as skeptical that a ‘social’ robot couldn’t be useful for people, even if it’s just for the elderly or otherwise extremely isolated. But the sexual aspect is really overstated, compared to the actual social isolation (sometimes self-inflicted) that’s the problem. Would a robot drive someone to hide more, or would they give someone feeling rejected a little comfort? It seems to me that it might be somewhat like video games–a person could just enjoy them casually, but sometimes you’ll have someone who loses touch with reality a bit.
That all sounds reasonable, as has just about everything else you’ve written about relationships in this thread. In fact your divorce story was my story a long time ago, but I was the one agreeing to end it so the other could be free. It hurt, and I would never say I married the wrong person, but obviously it wasn’t the end of the world, and in hindsight I was able to see the ways in which I contributed to the problem. We were both idiots in different ways. Life did go on.
As for dating, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with it, and Tinder and other apps effectively don’t exist for me. When it comes to talking about myself I’m about as inept as it gets, and I hate it. I avoid lots of things because of it. Nothing in this world could make me put up a dating profile on the internet. I’m thankful I don’t have to, and very sympathetic to those who feel that they do, and who suffer the soul corrosion that often goes along with it.
The sympathy does not extend to Incels though. To me Incels exist as a separate entity based more upon misogyny than on loneliness. Their misogyny has political messages and overtones that are hard to miss even if making allowances for the anger and frustration within it. So I mostly ignore them and dismiss whatever it is they want today. At some point, this will conflict with some of the more reasonable measures that people are proposing, and offend some of the more reasonable people…and it’s hard to know where to draw the line.
That’s nice of you to say. Many thanks.
I’m on a few sites. As odd as it may sound, I kinda like writing the profiles. Since high school, there aren’t many opportunities to write something clever and creative. Rather than say “I’m funny” I’d rather actually write something funny.
“Soul corrosion” is a good way to describe it. If there was a better alternative, I’d do it.
In the same way that people make efforts to deradicalize cult members and white supremacists (often from former members of those groups), there should be outreach efforts to Incels.
I agree. But I don’t think their radicalization has anything to do with having an orgasm, or having an advanced sex toy. It has to do with not connecting to actual humans. Handing someone like this a sexbot is handing a diabetic a Coke and considering them cured, or getting someone with a toothache a bunch of heroin instead of a dentist. A “solution” that makes the problem worse is not a solution.
Exactly.
We don’t help gang members by giving them money, even though low income is a proximate driver of gangs. We provide interventions in the form of CBT, mentoring programs, job training, midnight basketball. Money may or may not be a part of these interventions.
Incels rage against the stereotypes about them… that they are fat, neckbearded, tendies-addicted, fedora-wearing titty baby basement dwelling losers. Now throw “sex bot-fucker” in the mix. Does their image improve or become even more pathetic? So I have a hard time imagining how a sex robot will make the Incel problem better. Yeah, a fembot probably would bring hours of joy to some lonely dudes. I don’t think these are the dudes the rest of us are afraid of, though.
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As synthetic companions become more realistic and more popular, it will be a matter we could study empirically. It’s possible that having a synthetic companion could boost one’s confidence, thus making one more likely to attract a mate. If rejection doesn’t sting so much, maybe shy people will be willing to take more risks. Who knows?
What would happen if a significant percentage of men withdrew from the dating market because robots seemed a better option? That would put the remaining men in a vastly improved bargaining position with women, wouldn’t it? I have to confess, from a purely selfish standpoint, that seems good to me. But I can see why others would worry about that.
Hmm. What “others” do you have in mind?
I don’t particularly care about the “dating market.” I care about having functioning human beings who aren’t killing themselves or others in despair.
Just as you can imagine men growing more confident, I can imagine the opposite. We are already seeing young people suffering from social anxiety disorders at alarming rates, and I suspect over-reliance on electronic forms of communication is a major culptrit.
Socializing with humans allows a person to get feedback so they can grow up and evolve. What will happen if a significant chunk of men eschew real women for robots? I don’t know. But I am not guessing these robot-lovers are going to spend a lot of energy on hygiene, grooming, conversational skills, and interpersonal crisis management. We have a lot of “man-children” as it is. Society will not be advanced by adding more.
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If the robot in that video arouses you, more power to you. The only thing I can say it does for me is give me the heebee jeebees. Not understanding the rationale for no nipples on that thing…like, I thought nipples are what put the tit in titillating.
Isn’t a “sex robot” just a really sophisticated form of masturbation as with the sex toys that are already out there? The only thing that should count as truly ending a state of celibacy is sex with a real person.
To accomplish this, you would need to design the robot to do a lot more than just be a cleverbot sex fiend. It would actually need to give the kind of feedback that a therapist or coach would give.
Confidence doesn’t just come from the absence of rejection. It comes from having a sense of self-efficacy and internal validation. How would a risk-averse recluse with low self-esteem acquire these things from a robot that just exists to serve him? Unless the guy deludes himself into thinking a robot is actually a volitional lifeform, he will know that the robot only groans like that in bed because it’s following a program. Do we want a bunch of deluded guys walking around?
I reflect now on the Callister episode of Black Mirror (S4, ep1). It’s good for a watch if you haven’t see it. The main guy could very well fit the bill for an incel type. He constructs a virtual reality that has him as the alpha male and everyone subservient to him. The only reason others are subservient to him is coercion of the most evil kind, but he still basks in the glow of their faked expressions of adulation. Because he’s deluded. In that world he’s everything that he’s not in real life…and the result is that the virtual world becomes the only thing that matters to him.
Except, your self-esteem can’t be based on having a girlfriend. I can tell you right now that that’s a huge turn off: men who think that self-esteem is reliant on being able to “attract a mate” I hate it when guys are like, “if I only had a girlfriend, my life would be perfect!”
Your confidence, your happiness, cannot be dependent on being in a relationship. Does rejection suck? Yeah. Do people get lonely? Of course. But if it upsets you to the point that you feel the government should provide you with sex robots, then you need therapy, not a relationship.
This is one major thing that pisses me off about incels. That they see a relationship as a means to an end. That it’s solely about THEIR needs. THEIR wants. If they try to make their “mate” happy, it’s only because they can get something in return.
shudder
I agree that it’s a little odd to posit sex bots as a solution for incels and lonely men at risk of becoming incels; if all the thing does is provide sex it’s literally no better than masturbation and sex toys, which are available to us already. If the existing sex aids aren’t working, why should anybody think sex robots will?
The situation only begins to change as you start speculating that the sex robots will be sufficiently smart to be ‘relationship robots’ - able to hold conversations and convincingly playact as doting 50s housewives. At which point we start arguing about what ‘games’ the robots should play - whether they should always be lovingly submissive, or get pissed if you forget their purchase day.
I have to agree with others that the very word “Incel” pretty much poisons this discussion. Maybe some people just use it to mean “lonely and unhappy about it, also horny,” but the praising of violence and dehumanizing of women that goes on at the Incel forums I’ve seen is downright frightening. Moreso, given that at least two guys have already gone on killing sprees in the name of the “movement.”
I believe there are interesting things to be discussed about artificial companionship, but the flat “Sex Robots for Incels!” thing is never going to sell, any more than “Vibrators for Nazis!” would be a popular idea. And as so many of us keep saying, over and over… it’s not really sex. The sex isn’t going to fix it. If a government abruptly assigned everyone on an Incel forum a “free woman” like some of them seem to want, they still wouldn’t be happy.
Unhappy, depressed sex is not an improvement over no sex, in my experience. 
This project really looks like something that should be left to church based charities rather than government funding.