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The Future of Love and Sex - Robots
nem75 writes "The New York Times has a review of British AI researcher David Levy's book 'Love and Sex with Robots'. He claims that within a span of about 50 years the day will come when people could actually fall in love with life-like robots. While this may seem far fetched at first, he has some pretty interesting views. 'He begins with what scientists know about why humans fall in love with other humans. There are 10 factors, he writes, including mystery, reciprocal liking, and readiness to enter a relationship. Why can't these factors apply to robots, too?' The case he builds goes much further though, and certainly provides food for thought." Update: 12/14 16:16 GMT by Z : This article is very similar to a discussion we had recently.
Hence the large number of pets people have.
But loving of pets is illegal in most places, no matter what you see on those websites.
The housewife/robot tale was originally titled "Flesh and Metal", but was published(in Amazing, I think) under the more amusing title "Satisfaction Guaranteed".
Ever read Isaac Asimov's Robots of Dawn?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I think you hit the nail on the head with this.
However, the type of people who typically believe they feel "love" for a fictional character/doll/piece of machinery may find it easier to trust them. I think the majority of these people have social issues, maybe including social anxiety or paranoia. A relationship with something that won't judge them is appealing to them.
I recently watched a documentary about people who own Real Dolls. They personify their dolls as if they are actual people; holding conversations, hanging out with, getting "intimate" with them, Most of these men explained that they're simply unappealing to women, and while they'd prefer the company of an actual person, the doll is better than nothing to them. One of the men did describe how he'd been abandoned and treated in ways that drove him to the dolls, and claims he prefers the dolls because he can't trust a human. He also claimed to love several of his possessions (car, guns, sword).
I guess my point is that this cascading logic for love isn't universal, though I'd agree it applies to the majority. Some people will fall in love with an inanimate object MUCH faster than they would with a human being.
Star Trek: TOS, Episode 74: Requiem for Methuselah Just watched it last night actually. Kirk falls hard for an android (but he doesn't know it she is one), and goes rather mad in my opinion. I thought he was about to sexually assault her at one point, really. Good thing M4 was around... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_Methuselah_(TOS_episode)
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
So hows that RealDoll?