Tech news headlines are speaking out as if they are heralding the arrival of the latest threat to humanity posed by artificial intelligence since combat robots. The movement, led by academics Katherine Richardson and Eric Billing, argues that the development of sex doll robots should be stopped because it exacerbates gender inequality.
Sexism
Society has enough problems with gender stereotypes, entrenched sexism and sexual objectification. But banning the development of sex doll robots seems short-sighted and even unpopular. Existing research on sex and robots has typically focused on superficial explorations of human attachment, popularized in films such as Her and Robo-Hi: a male-dominated, male-focused machine known as a sex doll robot, often without regard for gender equality.
David Levy's groundbreaking work builds on early research on remote interaction - remote erotic toys operated via the Internet - to describe a society that is increasingly likely to embrace sex doll robots. For him, sex is a paradigm that can be reflected in the human-robot relationship.
Shaping a New Species
Richardson doesn't like this prospect, and in a way she's right that this claim should be challenged. What Richardson says in her recent paper: A discussion of gender ethics in robotics Gender identification of robots and the anthropomorphic process of gendering machines often requires assumptions about its identity that have so far been given little consideration.
The relationship between humans and artifacts can be traced back to ancient Greek mythology, where the sculptor Pygmalion's statue was revived by a kiss. It is the stuff of myth and science fiction - part of the history we write, part of the future we imagine. Feminist thinker Donna Haraway's famous Cyborg Manifesto, written in 1991, laid the modern groundwork for serious consideration of a post-gendered world, prescient in its thinking about artificial sexuality. But just as we should avoid introducing existing gender and sexual biases into future technologies, we should also refrain from introducing established prudish attitudes. The lack of openness about sexuality and sexual identity has been a source of great mental and painful suffering for many people, and even for society as a whole, for centuries, and this lack of openness behind it is very harmful.
The movement is trying to avoid the sexual objectification of robots, but at the cost of politicizing them, and doing so in a narrow way. If robots shouldn't have artificial sexuality, why should they have a narrow, unthinking sense of morality? It's one thing to have a conversation and summarize technological developments, it's another to demand silence before anyone has a chance to speak. Sex doll robots have applications far beyond his definition of "a machine used in female form as a sexual object, a substitute for a human sex doll or sexual instrument. We impose our beliefs on these machines, personify them, and bring our own prejudices and assumptions to bear. Sex doll robots, like much of the technology we use today, are designed by men, for men.
Machines Are Made By Humans
But robots also allow us to explore problems without the limitations of humans. The machine is a blank sheet of paper, and it gives us the opportunity to re-imagine. The Internet has opened up a world where people can explore their gender identity and politics and build communities that share their views. With the help of technology, society is rethinking the gender/sexual binary. Sex doll robots can go beyond sex, so what about the scope of therapy? Not only for personal therapy (after all, sex dolls and care robots are already in use), but also for treating those who break the law. VR technology has been tested in psychology and has been proposed as a way to treat sex offenders. For ethical reasons, sex doll robots may be a valid way forward for this approach.
Opposing development is short-sighted, and instead of calling for an outright ban, why not use this topic as a basis to explore new ideas of inclusivity, legitimacy, and social change? It's time to get rid of the hegemony of the machine and all its associated biases. For now, if we lose control of this issue, then we will face another set of problems. Fear of a branch of AI that is still in its infancy is one reason to shape it rather than ban it.
Like any addiction, a preference for substances can ruin a relationship, and if one cannot have it to gain satisfaction, it is not the substance that destroys the relationship, but the need for it. Whether it is an addiction to toys, alcohol, games or something else, it is not the problem itself, but the individual's addiction to it that is the destructive factor. Just like alcohol, most people can enjoy a sip, but some people can't drink a drop. Sex dolls have both saved and destroyed a relationship, but if the question is asked as commonly as you are, then I think it can happen, but as an addition to life, it's not by its very nature what destroys a relationship.
