# The New Movement to Ban Sex Robots. Wait. Sexbots are a thing now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 16, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511 "2015-09-16T21:42:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/61 "2015-09-18T19:13:05Z")
According to the linked article, the people who want to ban sexbots see it as part of the effort to eliminate prostitution. Isn’t that … completely backwards? You’re trying to abolish a whole class of human labor, so you try to ban the technology that might replace that labor? If sexbots ever get advanced enough to seriously compete with human prostitutes, won’t it be the prostitutes themselves who want to ban them, in order to protect their livelihoods? Or does the sex trade work by reverse economics? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/62 "2015-09-18T20:43:29Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Sometimes for amusement, I will pay a visit to Amazon’s sexual wellness shop and read the reviews for SexFlesh sex toys. … You are a much more interesting character than I had previously thought. I’m not sure which of these icons best describes my reaction: :D, :eek:, or :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/63 "2015-09-18T21:06:30Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I don’t remember (and, if I did, wouldn’t admit it) how I got into it, but I saw a bunch of the non-moving (but pose-able) ‘dolls’ being shown by their ‘boyfriends’. > > To say these were ‘creepy’ is a massive understatement. > > The only one I remember specifically: > Doll is posed sitting in a chair beside a Christmas tree. She is wearing a glittering sheath-type dress. With a strand of tree tinsel draped around her neck. She is posed with her hands holding a large box decorated in gift wrap and ribbon with large bow. > IOW: He has given his ‘girlfriend’ a Christmas Present and she is about to open it. > > The creep-O-meter has already been pegged. Adding some kind of robotics and intelligence can only be slightly better than the current ‘state of the art’. I saw that too…was it maybe on VICE? It was fascinating and completely creepy how serious these guys were about their ‘girlfriends’ or even ‘wives’. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/64 "2015-09-18T23:05:33Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > Don’t be silly. Women’s sex toys are “empowering” and “liberating”, men’s are “objectifying” and “demeaning” (not to mention “sad” and “creepy”). > > Besides, if women need sex toys to get off then it’s men’s fault for not being aware, sensitive, and responsive to their needs, whereas if men need sex toys… see “sad” and “creepy” again. > > I think that’s it. Would anyone care to check my math? The math checks out! ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/65 "2015-09-19T00:02:07Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PfCsPzggdP8/hqdefault.jpg "Whitest Kids U'Know Sex Robot") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfCsPzggdP8) Sex robot, sex robot. Sex robot, sex robot. Coming to your towwwwn. Do you wanna get dowwwwn? Sex robot, sex robot. Sex robot, sex robot. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/66 "2015-09-19T03:20:28Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > According to the linked article, the people who want to ban sexbots see it as part of the effort to eliminate prostitution. > > Isn’t that … completely backwards? You’re trying to abolish a whole class of human labor, so you try to ban the technology that might replace that labor? > > If sexbots ever get advanced enough to seriously compete with human prostitutes, won’t it be the prostitutes themselves who want to ban them, in order to protect their livelihoods? Or does the sex trade work by reverse economics? The elimination of a whole class of human labor is incidental to the end goal of the complete eradication of sexual objectification and of anything that even looks like it or could look like it. Part of that is the eradication or at the very least the cultural censure of commercialized sex in every form. And as mentioned before, until and unless you get a sex android with full self-aware agency, people will prefer to experience their naughty fun with an actual _person_ if they are going to go through the bother. I mean, as it stands, five fingers, a tube of lotion and the Internet or a magazine or DVD are far more economical than the cheapest stripclub or massage parlor, and you know the girl there does not actually dig you, yet people still go there. So abolition of sexwork would be one serious uphill battle. I even suspect that after there are “fully functional”, as Mr. Data put it, prostidroids, there will still be for a while demand or space for human sexworkers both at the very high end of the market, for people who will pay a premium for a real live human sex queen, and at the very bottom end where a vulgar street pimp can still shake down some poor dropout while requiring lesser capital investment and technical knowledge than for buying and maintaining a handful of secondhand economy-model sexdroids bought off-lease (How’s THAT for objectification!) ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/67 "2015-09-19T03:47:51Z")
This is close - what sexbots would do is make a non-consensual master-slave relationship legal and acceptable. Now, this might not matter to the bot (for a few designs at least), but it would demean and degrade the human. A tool, including a dildo, is not the same think as pseudo-slave. I’m upsetting myself. > [@Malthus](#): > > How about - a sexbot will only become a true object of lust for more than a tiny number of fetishists when it is realistic enough, in look and also in acts, to successfully imitate a human and so avoid the instictive “uncanny valley” revulsion towards the almost-human. > > However, part of being able to pass for human is to pass the Turing test - meaning such a bot would be able to learn and adapt. > > Therefore, a sexbot truly capable of successfully imitating a human would also, presumably, be capable of resenting being a sexbot … ! > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Well yes, if the AI gets to the point of emergent consciousness, wouldn’t “it” become “s/he” and gain autonomous agency? > > Before that point, you are right, it will be just a very very fancy sexdoll, for a small core of fetishists who actually dig “I-am-programmed-to-obey-my-huge-penised-master” type reactions. The usual “slave/master” fetishists IRL get off on that the “slave” is \*consciously accepting \*his/her role. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/68 "2015-09-19T04:29:06Z")
> [@j666](#): > > This is close - what sexbots would do is make a non-consensual master-slave relationship legal and acceptable. Now, this might not matter to the bot (for a few designs at least), but it would demean and degrade the human. A tool, including a dildo, is not the same think as pseudo-slave. > > I’m upsetting myself. Yes and I’m sorry for that, but… Unless the AI has that quality of self-aware consciousness we’ve discussed as some hypothetical future, as long as the state of the technology is still just a sort of chimera of Siri and a RealDoll then whether it will “matter to the bot” is as meaningless and “consent” as relevant as if referring to a car or a soda vending machine. There is no self in the vending machine so nothing to which how it is treated “matters”, you do not enslave your car by making it shuttle you around and naming it Brad. ISTM you may be getting hung up on the form factor of the object and on what you believe are the sentiments of the user thereof, which you believe harm or at least endanger the user. OTOH I believe, as I said, only a tiny fringe minority of robofetishists will be into that _precisely because of the robotic aspect_ (it will not be what corrupts them, if corruption it be) and do not fear an effect to legitimize \*slavery \*in the culture. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/69 "2015-09-19T08:58:04Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Unless the AI has that quality of self-aware consciousness we’ve discussed as some hypothetical future, as long as the state of the technology is still just a sort of chimera of Siri and a RealDoll then whether it will “matter to the bot” is as meaningless and “consent” as relevant as if referring to a car or a soda vending machine. There is no self in the vending machine so nothing to which how it is treated “matters”, you do not enslave your car by making it shuttle you around and naming it Brad. Wait until those Googlemobiles are fully developed. “Car, take me to the red-light district!” Car: “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Or: “Roxxxy, my beloved sexbot, lay with me tonight!” “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I’ve got a headache.” ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/70 "2015-09-19T12:06:49Z")
You might have misunderstood me - I appreciate a bot is not a person, does not have free will, and cannot be enslaved (although I can image a sufficiently advanced bot to challenge our concept of personhood). I am not “hung up on” the form of the bot; I really believe that a bot nearly human in appearance would be easily conflated with humans within the user’s mind, and possibly brain. I think that interacting with a near-human in a situation where a human would be powerless and vulnerable would effect how users viewed both other humans and themselves. This isn’t some “Eew, icky” reaction; I think our brains just work that way. People thank Siri; they say good-bye to recordings; they get annoyed at cars that tell them they are too close and traffic lights that tell them when to cross the street. People conflate human and human-like now, even with just a disembodied voice. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Yes and I’m sorry for that, but… > > Unless the AI has that quality of self-aware consciousness we’ve discussed as some hypothetical future, as long as the state of the technology is still just a sort of chimera of Siri and a RealDoll then whether it will “matter to the bot” is as meaningless and “consent” as relevant as if referring to a car or a soda vending machine. There is no self in the vending machine so nothing to which how it is treated “matters”, you do not enslave your car by making it shuttle you around and naming it Brad. > > ISTM you may be getting hung up on the form factor of the object and on what you believe are the sentiments of the user thereof, which you believe harm or at least endanger the user. OTOH I believe, as I said, only a tiny fringe minority of robofetishists will be into that _precisely because of the robotic aspect_ (it will not be what corrupts them, if corruption it be) and do not fear an effect to legitimize \*slavery \*in the culture. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/71 "2015-09-19T12:36:14Z")
> [@j666](#): > > People conflate human and human-like now, even with just a disembodied voice. Totally. You don’t even need a voice. Or moving parts. Slap a [heart-shaped sticker on a box](http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/3/35811/971897-companion_cube_.jpg), put it in the right context, and you’re good to go. Speaking for myself, the main reason why I shouldn’t have a sex bot is that I would fall in love with it. I have that problem with potted plants already. I mean, maybe it’s not wrong to love a bot, morally speaking. But is it healthy? Doesn’t seem like it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/72 "2015-09-19T12:58:24Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > … > Speaking for myself, the main reason why I shouldn’t have a sex bot is that I would fall in love with it. I have that problem with potted plants already. … What’s the fancy Latin term for sex with plants?? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/73 "2015-09-19T13:07:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > What’s the fancy Latin term for sex with plants?? :eek: I think the word you want is “phytophilia”. It’s not Latin, though, it’s Greek. You’re welcome. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/74 "2015-09-19T13:44:57Z")
> [@j666](#): > > I really believe that a bot nearly human in appearance would be easily conflated with humans within the user’s mind, and possibly brain. I think that interacting with a near-human in a situation where a human would be powerless and vulnerable would effect how users viewed both other humans and themselves. > > This isn’t some “Eew, icky” reaction; I think our brains just work that way. People thank Siri; they say good-bye to recordings; they get annoyed at cars that tell them they are too close and traffic lights that tell them when to cross the street. People conflate human and human-like now, even with just a disembodied voice. Ah, yes, I see your point better now – a process of reverse anthropomorphic conditioning at work in the minds of the users. Instead of the thing being adscribed the attributes of the person, the attributes of the things become considered desirable in the person. Similar to people getting body shape issues due to the exposure to unrealistic media standards, or to a point analogous to PUA theories about specific patterns of communication targeted at getting sex from people, or to how some people out there expect regular sex to work and look like porn sex and boy do they get a surprise. Still we do not (yet) ban these things outright, we seek to have the industries self-regulate or to educate people as to the risks and/or how they are getting it wrong. I suppose I just have a greater confidence in my own object/person boundaries (and brain wiring) and in the general population’s. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/75 "2015-09-19T13:51:15Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I think the word you want is “phytophilia”. It’s not Latin, though, it’s Greek. > > You’re welcome. 😉 Just watch out for Ivy. She can be poison. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/76 "2015-09-19T14:00:53Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > or to how some people out there expect regular sex to work and look like porn sex and boy do they get a surprise. A very, very pleasant surprise, in my case. I never did understand most porn. That’s what people actually like, want and get off to? WTF is wrong with everyone? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/77 "2015-09-19T18:01:10Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Speaking for myself, the main reason why I shouldn’t have a sex bot is that I would fall in love with it. I have that problem with potted plants already. I mean, maybe it’s not wrong to love a bot, morally speaking. But is it healthy? Doesn’t seem like it. That is between you, the bot(s), your plants, and any one or thing else involved, as long every one and thing is treated with respect. Oh, hell, I just squicked myself out again. I think I’m going to have to leave the thread. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Ah, yes, I see your point better now – a process of reverse anthropomorphic conditioning at work in the minds of the users. > … > I suppose I just have a greater confidence in my own object/person boundaries (and brain wiring) and in the general population’s. I envy you that confidence in the general population. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/78 "2015-09-19T18:42:20Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Oh, hell, I just squicked myself out again. I think I’m going to have to leave the thread. A low self-squick threshold _can_ be a disadvantage here at the Dope. We ofen contemplate appalling things at the dinner table and with the children in the next room. Now I’ve got in my mind the germ of a storyline for humanity finding itself in a sexual Rise Of The Machines/Butlerian Jihad scenario, wherein everything sucks but not in the nice sense of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/79 "2015-09-19T19:01:42Z")
I’ll need an autographed copy please. I’d also like to recommend Hajime Sorayama be commissioned for the cover art. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511/80 "2015-09-22T19:00:38Z")
LOL! These idiots should have known by “forbidding” something that people would immediately do it. Using the iPad is pretty clever way to sex it up. 😉 > **[Buyers of robot 'Pepper' to sign contract vowing not to use it for sex](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3243051/No-sex-robots-Buyers-hit-new-emotional-robot-Pepper-sign-contract-saying-won-t-used-sex-porno-films.html)** > > Japan-based SoftBank included a clause in the ownership contract which said using Pepper the robot (pictured) for 'the purpose of sexual or indecent behavior' breaks this rental agreement. > [@](#): > > The creators of Pepper the ‘emotional robot’ have forbidden users from ‘having sex’ with it, creating ‘sexy apps’ for it or reprogramming it to stalk people. > > One thousand people paid £1,300 to buy the ‘companion bot’ within one minute of it going on sale in Japan this June, and then £250-a-month in rent. > > Japan-based SoftBank included a clause in the ownership contract which said using the robot for ‘the purpose of sexual or indecent behavior’ breaks this rental agreement. > > Disturbingly, computer pranksters have already reprogrammed the iPad hanging from its neck to give Pepper ‘virtual breasts’ which makes it shake its hips and moan when touched. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-movement-to-ban-sex-robots-wait-sexbots-are-a-thing-now/731511.md?page=5)