Will companion robots solve relationship problems in the future?

[Luca]

Alexa, Siri, self-driving Teslas, and chat bots are bad enough…

 

[Progster]

It's a 'thing' already. In Japan, people are already marrying holograms.

 

[VictorR]

Futurama tells us that the Earth got destroyed 80 years after people started dating robots.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Bill Burr did a very good sketch on AI sexbots in his Paper Tiger standup special on Netflix.

Ed

 

[AGXStarseed]

I get the feeling that if these were made in the future, you'd see at least one YouTube video of an angry woman in a store (presumably older and angry that no-one wants to commit to her) smashing up the ones for the guys - all while ranting about how any man who buys one is a pig who "can't handle a real woman!"

 

[Mr. Stevens]

I get the feeling that if these were made in the future, you'd see at least one YouTube video of an angry woman in a store (presumably older and angry that no-one wants to commit to her) smashing up the ones for the guys - all while ranting about how any man who buys one is a pig who "can't handle a real woman!"

I'd probably want to date her! (Aside from the violence part.)

 

[maycontainthunder]

A dog is better. You can't blame a robot for your farts nor missing food.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

The idea of humanoid robots being part of the workforce, as personal assistants, as companions, etc. is a very real thing. Many people are of the mindset that there are too many people in this world, but in some countries, the ratio of adult diapers to baby diapers is in on the side of adult diapers. For Japan and China, for example, they have been in decline for about 10 years. At some point soon, they will experience a population collapse when their elderly quickly die off. The US and many other countries will also be in decline, if they are not already, very soon. The so-called "baby boomer" generation are in rapid decline right now. The consequences of this is on many levels. As more and more elderly are in need of support, financially and otherwise, it puts an increasing burden upon the dwindling younger generations. Enter the humanoid robots to make up the difference in terms of a workforce, and financially, it is a "no brainer" for employers that do manufacturing. Pay for a robot once, who doesn't need a break, a vacation, health insurance, social distractions, and once programmed, will be consistent with repeatability and quality. It has the potential to raise profit margins several fold. However, this idea that robots are going to put us out of work may be wrong given that we are unable to fill positions right now, let alone in a future with fewer and fewer younger workers. Time will tell, but I give this about 5 years and I think this will be a common thing within the manufacturing sector, another 10 years for the service workers, and maybe 15 or so for personal companions.

 

[Forest Cat]

A dog is better. You can't blame a robot for your farts nor missing food.

Tesla did have built-in farts in their cars... I think that says so much about humans beings, we made our electric cars make fart sounds. Only on earth, that would not happen on any other planet.

Tesla's fixes feature that lets drivers blast farts from exterior speakers after it was found to break federal safety rules

Tesla's "Boombox" feature could interfere with the pedestrian warning sounds required in quiet electric cars.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[Forest Cat]

Why are people mocking this? This is obviously going to happen. Whether you personally think the idea of talking to a robot is funny isn't going to make a difference.

Maybe not, but I can still make fun of it and refuse to participate in the madness. It doesn't have to change anything, I can just have fun with it.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I think the problem is how Bill Burr highlighted it.

Nobody is going to make average looking sex dolls or AI bots. They'll look like supermodels, be programmed to treat you like a king/queen.

So why would you then want to be with an average looking person, with all their quirks, hopes, dreams, problems etc. When you could just have a robot that looks amazing - treats you amazingly.

Bill jokingly said it'd get to a point where humanity goes extinct because only the hipsters and hobos wouldn't want to/get to be with such robots, and they'd be the last people you want to fight a war against AI robots.

Ed

 

[Forest Cat]

I doubt the sex robot is going to kill anyone.

One little techincal glitch, one software error, one little hacker, there are many ways this experiment can go horribly wrong. Just look at the electric cars and self driving cars, they are crashing and bursting into flames and hitting people. Things they are not supposed to do.

 

[Forest Cat]

But how would that physically even happen? Is it going to crush me with its thighs?

That's a very real possibility. A machine that is designed to move can malfunction and the mechanics in robots are more powerful than we are. I suggest we just wait and see, there will be some very interesting headlines in the news in the near future.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

The solution is easy and obvious: Get rid of contraception.

That sort of thinking will get you burned at the stake. Females need control over their own bodies. "Well, just don't have intercourse then." That's all fine and dandy, if you are in a position to plan to abstain. Sometimes that is not the case. As long as people have been around, there will be intercourse, in one form or another, good and bad, a blessing and a curse. You may not be a sexual predator and rapist, may not be one to pay a sex worker, may not be one to freely engage in these activities, you may not be a married man that has two children and not wanting a third, you may not have a wife that has health issues in which a pregnancy could be life-threatening, so on and so forth. However, there are a lot of people in which those situations are relevant.

I've just realized you and I may have opened up Pandora's Box. Pulling the pin on a hand-grenade and handing it off to someone else now.

 

[Magna]

I think the problem is how Bill Burr highlighted it.

Nobody is going to make average looking sex dolls or AI bots. They'll look like supermodels, be programmed to treat you like a king/queen.

So why would you then want to be with an average looking person, with all their quirks, hopes, dreams, problems etc. When you could just have a robot that looks amazing - treats you amazingly.

Bill jokingly said it'd get to a point where humanity goes extinct because only the hipsters and hobos wouldn't want to/get to be with such robots, and they'd be the last people you want to fight a war against AI robots.

Ed

I haven't seen his special that you're talking about but that's exactly what I was thinking might end up happening in the future.

At present, apparently there's an increasingly high number of "average" men who are perpetually single and not by choice and online dating is the main culprit of that.

There's a current statistic that says that at least 50% of young women will be single (presumably a good number of them not by choice), by age 35. Online dating plays a part in this as well.

Enter the companion robot. One that does treat the person like a king or queen. Would the people who have such a robot think it's a perfect situation? Maybe, maybe not. Would they think having such a robot is vastly desirable to living alone and lonely without any type of communication or interaction? Of course.

Also, any generation from Generation X onward has grown up with the human/robot companion trope as being a meaningful and beneficial thing: R2D2, C3PO, BB8, IG11 along with many others.

Humans are very adaptable. I would argue that men have been wired to handle more solitary times in general. Since the very beginning of our species they've largely been the ones who went on long hunting missions, explorations, new territories, etc. Make well made companion robots available for those who have a desire for a mate but can't seem to find one and it's possible over time that the robot companion might fill the companionship void so well that such men no longer have a need or desire to pine for something that was previously unattainable for them..

Between the two sexes, the "biological clock" isn't just a silly euphemism based on fantasy; it's fact. There will always be sperm available for women who choose to have children. This pathway to motherhood has already been used to the point of being considered common enough to be largely without stigma. As such, a companion robot boom, helping people who would otherwise have been single and childless anyway, wouldn't have an appreciable effect on humanity's ongoing populations.

The biggest difference of present day (ie post-online dating, post-adversarial viewpoint of the sexes) vs prior generations is that in prior generations, most average people (average in looks, etc) married each other and had families. In prior generations the idea of an average person of either sex searching for, holding out for or expecting to land an above average mate would have likely been laughed at or dismissed as foolish. Now it's a goal that many young people have; to their own eventual detriment.

Do I hope we have a future as painted? Personally no. Are there those who lose in this type of future? Absolutely and it would be both men and women. But unless something changes drastically and very rapidly in how people choose to date and how each sex perceives the other sex (ie complimentary rather than adversarial), friends, the trajectory has already gained so much momentum there's likely irreversible.

 

[Forest Cat]

Enter the companion robot. One that does treat the person like a king or queen. Would the people who have such a robot think it's a perfect situation? Maybe, maybe not. Would they think having such a robot is vastly desirable to living alone and lonely without any type of communication or interaction? Of course.

That is an interesting thought, because I can't imagine having a machine like that in my home no matter how it treated me. It wouldn't be desirable in any way even if I was very lonely because I would know it was just a machine. So nothing it said or did would matter to me in any way. It wouldn't change the feeling of being lonely. I live alone now, I would prefer to not live alone, I think it's much better to live with someone but not a machine.

 

[Magna]

That is an interesting thought, because I can't imagine having a machine like that in my home no matter how it treated me. It wouldn't be desirable in any way even if I was very lonely because I would know it was just a machine. So nothing it said or did would matter to me in any way.

I would just be sarcastic to it all the time and make it trip over things and fall over just for fun. It's just a machine so I wouldn't care at all about it. I would never treat a person like that of course, but a machine is not a person so it doesn't matter how I treat it. And it wouldn't change the feeling of being lonely. I live alone now, I would prefer to not live alone, I think it's much better to live with someone but not a machine.

Have you ever seen the Tom Hanks movie Castaway? His character in the movie was so lonely that he found companionship...in a soccer ball (volleyball?) on which he painted a face. Imagine someone with that kind of loneliness who would have a moving, talking "intelligent" conversationalist who could assist the person in many different ways rather than being an inanimate object. It would likely be life changing for such a person.

 

[AGXStarseed]

That is an interesting thought, because I can't imagine having a machine like that in my home no matter how it treated me. It wouldn't be desirable in any way even if I was very lonely because I would know it was just a machine. So nothing it said or did would matter to me in any way.

I would just be sarcastic to it all the time and make it trip over things and fall over just for fun. It's just a machine so I wouldn't care at all about it. I would never treat a person like that of course, but a machine is not a person so it doesn't matter how I treat it. And it wouldn't change the feeling of being lonely. I live alone now, I would prefer to not live alone, I think it's much better to live with someone but not a machine.

I guess everyone is different in that regard; some may be able to get past that mental barrier. After all, I've encountered people online who have crushes on anime characters or anthropomorphic animals.

 

[Forest Cat]

Have you ever seen the Tom Hanks movie Castaway? His character in the movie was so lonely that he found companionship...in a soccer ball (volleyball?) on which he painted a face. Imagine someone with that kind of loneliness who would have a moving, talking "intelligent" conversationalist who could assist the person in many different ways rather than being an inanimate object. It would likely be life changing for such a person.

Yeah I saw that movie. I get your point, I guess people are different. It may work for some. For me it just wouldn't work. And I just don't like robots and those kind of things.

 

[Nitro]

Yeah I saw that movie. I get your point, I guess people are different. It may work for some. For me it just wouldn't work. And I just don't like robots and those kind of things.

Oh
The machine of a dream
Such a clean machine
With the pistons a-pumpin'
And the hubcaps all gleam

When I'm holding your wheel
All I hear is your gear
With my hand on your grease gun
Mmm, it's like a disease, son

I'm in love with my car
Got a feel for my automobile
Get a grip on my boy racer roll bar
Such a thrill when your radials squeal

Told my girl I'll have to forget her
Rather buy me a new carburetor
So she made tracks saying this is the end now
Cars don't talk back they're just four-wheeled friends now

When I'm holding your wheel
All I hear is your gear
When I'm cruisin' in overdrive
Don't have to listen to no run-of-the-mill talk jive

I'm in love with my car (I'm in love with my car, love with my car)
Got a feel for my automobile
I'm in love with my car (I'm in love with my car, love with my car)
String back gloves in my automo-love