Slashdot Mirror
What Sex is Your Robot?
Ant writes "Technology Review has an article about how the more robots interact with humans, the more important their apparent gender becomes."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
"...this is gonna be the best prom ever!"
...that i see word "sex" on slashdot. For a second i thought that we geeks are finally getting lives :) But only for a second - then i read the entire subject.
by the inability of the quips to come up with any good material in the first minutes after it was posted.
My robot is an arm and hand only. And since it doesn't have fingernails, there is no way to tell if its a girl or boy.
Honestly, as robot builder I find this a little boring. It has little to do with robotics. You can take the same robot and give it a different costume and maybe a new voice to change it's sex... big deal.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
I don't want to offend anyone, but I'd really love a gay robot. That way I don't have to strain myself over choosing what to wear in the morning - the robot would have that kind of knowledge embedded in him - some say it's genetics, some say it's the way he was raised, but either way he makes a snappy dresser.
And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud, became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Considering that a certain portion of the population is willing to have "sex" with a blow-up doll, it's just a matter of time before robots are marketed for the same purpose.
I'm not joking when I say that the "roboporn" industry is likely to be a significant driving force when it comes to creating cheap, lifelike robots.
I don't know if you could even make a female robot. Since the robot's consciousness would have to be controlled by a computer, I assume it would be based on logic and reason. Both of those qualities are sorely lacking in the females that I've known.
Although, I suppose with good enough pseudo-randomness it might work.
Best slashdot comment
"Whoah, whoah, wait, Bender. As long as we're here, why don't we take in some exotic dancing?"
"Hey, great idea!"
*gasp* "But those girls don't wear cases! You can see their bare circuits!"
Great idea! Let us intruduce sexism to robots!
I ask you, is this really a world we want our robots to live in?!
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Methinks we need to get Dr. Phil on this site. There is a lot of pent up weirdness building up.
Today on Dr. Phil, "Me and my trans-sexual robot, are we healthy"?
Sig it.
A class learning French and trying to get to grips with gender wondered if the word "computer" should be masculine or feminine. Split into two groups, men and women, they were asked to say which they considered a computer to be, and to give four reasons for their decision
The women decided that computers are masculine because:
-In order to gain their attention, you have to turn them on.
-They are full of data, but are still clueless.
-They are supposed to help you solve your problems, but most of the time they are the problem.
-As soon as you commit to one, you realise that if you had waited a little longer, you could have had a better one.
The men decided that computers are feminine because:
-No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
-The language they use to communicate with each other is totally incomprehensible.
-Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.
-As soon as you commit to them, you spend half your disposable income on buying accesories for them.
$cat
Much better to have female robots. They're much more reasonable and reserved, not going berserk like the males.
Wait, what parallel universe am I talking about?? They're both crazy!! </joke>
I say, leave gender out of the equation. It's kind of creepy if you have robots lamely emulating human characteristics. Also, it's not a good idea to include gender, because it introduces complexity which we don't really need at this point. Perhaps it would be useful for recreational robots, but for robots that actually serve a purpose... No thanks.
The author of the article says that taking on genders will allow them to better interact with humans. I think it would make things more difficult, because gender is such a human construct. We have so many complex psychological issues with our fellow beings. I think it would make things much simpler if we just made perceptions of robots as they are, without intentionally engineering them to appear as a certain gender. Robots should behave like Robots. We don't really know what that is yet, but I think "behavior" of robots is a long way down the road. We're not there yet.
BTW what's the point of having a gender associated with a robot? I don't think Robots have need of those characteristics, or sex for that matter. Well, maybe Infrared port sex. Or maybe Seriel port....yeah...
Well, now that I think of it, I can think of a purpose. Marketing. So, for an assistant robot, you make it abundantly female, and of course, all the guys will want one. Then you make the "security" droid male, (Personally I think a female security robot might be more appealing, but then you've got to play on the typical Male Protector stereotype), and this will get all the females buying one. I think it's a little cheap. But, the markedroids have got to have something to keep them busy, I suppose.
OK I'm thinking about this way too much. Off to finish finals...
An important distinction to be made is that sex is not gender. Sex should be used only when referring to the biological nature of the object in question, whereas gender refers to a set of socially-constructed rules governing the objects behavior in society. To quote Everything2: "In anthropology gender is the accepted way to refer to a set of behaviors/beliefes often related to physical sex traits. You can have a gender that is different from your biological sex, if your culture premits."
Unix, of course!
(sayonara karma)
eleven plus two / twelve plus one
I want my robot to be... robotic
Seriously. I can't be the only one that finds it really annoying when my Windows XP machine modifies the way it behaves because it is guessing what I want to do. It's damn irritating. Or when it suggests I might want to clean icons off my desktop, or whatever.
I do not want my robot to start cleaning things I haven't told it to clean. Or comment on the fact that it's a nice day. Or try to be funny or cute. Just do as I say. You're a frickin' machine.
Which leads to all kinds of fun at Brookstone/Sharper Image:
Me: So you're saying this thing will vacuum all the floors in my house?
Sales associate: Yes
Me: Will it also give me a blowjob when it's done?
Sales associate: Uh, no.
Me: Looks like I'll be getting back together with my girlfriend after all.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)