Since when has being sexually satisfied stopped anyone from lusting after other people? I’m happily married to a man who definitely satisfies me. He’s exactly what I want in a sexual partner, as well as a life partner. But that doesn’t make one of his friends less hot. No matter what the moral obligations or base level of sexual satisfaction, human attraction is there, and strongly so.
Again, I’ll say that sex is satisfying BECAUSE it isn’t perfect. BECAUSE the other person has their own desires and limitations and kinks. Cheap Trick says it best (and isn’t that always true?):
I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
I’d love you to love me.
Sex isn’t always about the physical act-- it’s about the underpinnings of desirability, emotional closeness (or lack of it), and just generally being wanted, on whatever level. The human element is so important because it’s the manifestation of reciprocity. I think Man X is hot and he thinks I’m hot, and so we get it on. A sexbot doesn’t think I’m hot, and though a sexbot might give me exactly the physical sensations I’m after, I’ll never think it’s hot, and I’ll never have the supreme satisfaction of knowing I was wanted.
So yeah, there are plenty of men and women out there who probably would buy a sexbot. I still don’t think most, but I’ll even give you that. None of that takes away from the fact that sexual satisfaction doesn’t eliminate sexual desire. Your sexbot might screw your brains out, but you’ll still want to nail that little hottie down at the coffee shop or, and I can’t stress this enough, your S.O.
I want my husband to want me. And I want his friend to want me (even though I’ll never act on it). Ain’t nothing going to change that, even a sexbot.
Steve, you’re still thinking of a sexbot as a human being. It’s not. NOt getting it up for your sexbot is like not getting it up to masturbate. If you don’t feel like masturbating, you … don’t masturbate … and that’s it. There’s no more pressure to perform for a sexbot than there is to perform for your hand. You can buy another sexbot or take yours in for a refit or date human women. It’s just a very advanced masturbation tool.
What a perfect partner of the sexbot kind will do is allow your personal flaws to be exacerbated, because it will never note nor try to cure or deal with those flaws, it will just accept them and deal with them. It takes humanity to note and care about your flaws enough to try to help you fix them.
Of course you COULD program a sexbot to be a shrink and try to help you deal with your flaws but I don’t think there’ll be a huge market for that. Most people would rather have their egos pandered to than deflated.
Evil Captor; You believe that most guys will find sexbots utterly irresistible, I believe that Some, possibly even many will, but a significant percentage won’t - they will not be able to forget that the thing is a soulless, lifeless contraption.
One of us, me or you, is projecting, maybe we both are.
Well, I’m projecting into the future. But I think “utterly irresistible” is putting words into my mouth, and I’m perfectly capable of putting my own words in my mouth. Hell, I’ve proved on several occasions that I’m perfectly capable of putting my own FEET into my mouth.
As for the market, I wonder if the same interests that make porn a billion dollar industry would just suddenly dry up at what might well be the ultimate form of porn? Well, actually I don’t wonder. I think you and Steve Wright would be in the minority, Mangetout, though I’m not sure how much of a minority you would be. I suspect a very small one.
I think that your average single guy who has his own apartment and a couple of grand to spare would be very interested in scoring with human women. But he’d find it hard to resist to give up his hand for a sex partner with the looks of Jennifer Connelly and the inhibitions of Jenna Jameson, however mechanical she might be, especially since no one but him and his sexbot supplier need to know. I also think a lot of older men whose wives had died or who’ve been divorced might find that a sexbot just like all the gals they used to watch wistfully in their married years would hit the spot.
I think married women wouldn’t tolerate sexbots, because being human there’ll always be things they wouldn’t want to do, or have done to them, and sexbots would be a perpetual reminder that there was someone out there to whom these limitation do not apply.
I think men would be extremely jealous of male sexbots as well. “Turning in your sexbots” might become a stage of relationships, somewhere between acknowledging being in a serious relationship and moving in together.
I don’t know how women would take to male sexbots. On gthe one hand, they do seem to li,ke sex toys. On the other hand, they seem more focussed on emotional relationships and might find a sextoy that’s a little too human disquieting.
You know, Evil, I would make the exact opposite prediction. I would assume that if sexbots became common as masturbatory aides, that many people would begin staging 1 or 2 person orgies. I mean, provided they’re getting their (ahem) fill, how many guys would mind sharing a bed with their girl and their girl’s sex aid(e)?
Naw, Evil, I think Steve and Man are on to something. I think the percentage of men who use Sexbots (owned or rented) will be comparable to the percentage of men who hire prostitutes (in places where porstitutes are legal). In fact, once sexbots become sufficently advanced and common, they will replace the prostitution market (live prostitutes become an expensive and rare kink).
This is because a sexbot is different than a masturbation tool as we now think about it. Unlike a porno or a vibrator, it is a replacement for sex, not an additive to vanilla masturbation. It is too human, too expensive, and too complicated. People who use sexbots will be seen as unable to find a real mate (or hook up). There will be a strong stigma, and not just from the same social conservatives and radical left who oppose porn and such. Mainstream, even young swingers, will see something pitiful about guys who needs (or wants) to get a robot to get laid, just as most people won’t rate using prostitutes as their proudest moments.
I think the point will not be lost on most that sexbots are not human. Whether that makes them more attractive to the men who visit prostitutes or less attractive is an interesting question. I have always assumed that men go to prostitutes for something they can’t get at home (i.e., oral sex – I’ve read a lot of quotes from prostitutes saying that if wives would go down on their husbands, they’d be out of a job, or at least, a lot less popular) or because they just want some sexual adventure, or because they can’t maintain a long-term sexual relationship with a woman for whatever reason.
When they go to a prostitute, are they perhaps looking for a little bit of that human touch they don’t get at home masturbating? Would they therefore find sexbots less attractive? Or would they not care? It’s a hard question to answer, absent actual sexbots.
**This is because a sexbot is different than a masturbation tool as we now think about it. Unlike a porno or a vibrator, it is a replacement for sex, not an additive to vanilla masturbation. It is too human, too expensive, and too complicated. People who use sexbots will be seen as unable to find a real mate (or hook up). There will be a strong stigma, and not just from the same social conservatives and radical left who oppose porn and such. Mainstream, even young swingers, will see something pitiful about guys who needs (or wants) to get a robot to get laid, just as most people won’t rate using prostitutes as their proudest moments. **
There’s always been strong stigma keeping men from engaging in all sorts of sexual activities up to and including masturbation in the privacy of their own homes. (People used to think it made you weak – some still do.) This has NEVER stopped men from engaging in various sorts of sex, and I don’t think it’ll stop men from buying sexbots and using them privately. There will be no stigma if no one knows you own a sexbot, and how will anyone know if you don’t advertise that you do in some way? It might stop sexbot owners from taking their sexbots out on dates, is all.
I do predict the rise of ‘sexbot’ T-shirts that will be sold in pairs, each one with an arrow pointing toward the other.
I think some people would give up dating altogether. This is already a pretty reasonable option for women. Men are totally unnecessary to women with modern technology, as they can have children without the help of men. They can satisfy themselves sexually quite easily without men, and considering how few women can get orgasms from intercourse (apparently less than half can) they really get very little sexually from a male partner. And their presence in the workforce and growing opportunities there means that they no longer “need” a man for economic reasons. However, as it stands, men still need women for both sex and procreation. Being able to adequately satisfy their more demanding sexual needs without having to obtain a partner would be really empowering for men.
Sex and the pursuit of sex just distracts people from self-actualization, it distracts people from their true creativity and potential. Being freed of sex might lead to a new age of enlightenment.
Widespread use of sexbots could be the biggest step for humanity away from the natural biological situation as regards social interaction. The consequences might be quite incredible, and there’s no telling whether it would be positive or negative on the whole. The internet has already made it feasible to have social interaction with a wide group of people without actually having face-to-face interaction, and it has had mixed consequences. Given sexbots, humanity might go the way of Asimov’s Solarians, who almost never interact with another human being at all, and only through video links when they need to.
