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People Feel Weird About Touching Robot Butts, Researchers Find (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the physiological-arousal dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: How would you feel if a robot asked you to touch its butt? Maybe it sounds like a silly question, but as robots proliferate and anthropomorphize, it's actually something that needs to be considered. So scientists at Stanford considered it. The study, to be presented soon but previewed by IEEE Spectrum, is entitled "Touching a Mechanical Body: Tactile Contact With Intimate Parts of a Human-Shaped Robot is Physiologically Arousing" -- and really, the title says it all. The researchers sat volunteers at a table with a Nao humanoid robot reclining casually on it. They were told (by the robot, in fact) that it was a vocabulary exercise focusing on terms for body parts. Volunteers were told by the bot to, for instance, "touch my ear" using their dominant hand, while the non-dominant hand remained on a skin conductance sensor that loosely monitored their physical state. When asked to touch "high accessibility" areas -- places we normally touch on other people, like shoulders and elbows -- volunteers did so without hesitation or agitation. But "low accessibility" areas -- this would be the robot's butt and where its junk would be -- produced delay and that arousal we talked about.

103 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. It could always be worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't think it will be that bad, so long as they don't go all Chobits on us...

    1. Re: It could always be worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      PANTSUUU~~~

    2. Re: It could always be worse... by Verdatum · · Score: 1

      Underpants for Hideki!

  2. Award worthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I smell an Ignobel prize in their future.

    1. Re:Award worthy by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 2

      I rather smell robort pr0n appearing soon on internet...

    2. Re:Award worthy by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      You beat me to that comment. And I think robot porn is on the internet for quite a while already...

      --
      bickerdyke
    3. Re:Award worthy by worf_mo · · Score: 3, Funny

      I rather smell robort pr0n

      TMI

    4. Re:Award worthy by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I rather smell robort pr0n appearing soon on internet...

      And does that smell like burning wire insulation?

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    5. Re:Award worthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Robosexuality is an abomination!

    6. Re:Award worthy by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Probably 75w90 gear oil.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    7. Re:Award worthy by ripvlan · · Score: 1

      Is there an online submission form?

    8. Re:Award worthy by nutkin · · Score: 2

      Bite my shiny metal ass!

    9. Re:Award worthy by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      If it's found tax-payer money was spent for this research, all h8ll's gonna break loose.

      "Those wasteful [liberals/conservatives] are spending YOUR hard-earned tax dollars paying people to get jiggy with robots!"

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    10. Re:Award worthy by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      Finally, tax money being used for a good cause!

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
  3. No surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's no surprise that a bunch of male engineers and Slashdot users would get aroused by touching a male robot's ass and junk. It's a good thing a female robot wasn't used in the experiment. The male engineers and Slashdot users would have run away in terror when asked to touch a female robot's private parts.

    1. Re:No surprise here by Verdatum · · Score: 1

      Robots cannot own things. So do they have the capability to have "private parts"?

  4. If men are aroused by robots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's bad news for women.

    1. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 2

      Who writes on IEEE Spectrum usually is an engineer. Women do not need to worry about, after all.

    2. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      That's bad news for women.

      And if women are aroused by robots, that's really bad news for men...

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    3. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What options do men have these days? Women can retroactively decide that the consensual sex they had with you was actually rape and get you kicked out of school or worse. Avoiding women and indulging in porn and sexbots seems to be a reasonable way out for men.

    4. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You mean like vibrators, right? Because I'm pretty sure those didn't spell doom for mankind. Of either gender.

    5. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by Evtim · · Score: 1

      Why it is bad? As far as I understand male sexual desire is way higher than female for very obvious biological reasons...so as long as we have 1:1 ratio and enforced monogamy all men will be sexually frustrated all the time....so finding something else that can help in satisfying male desire is a good thing TM....also good for women...so I for one welcome our female sexy robot overlords...

    6. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Well goodness only knows the West are in the process of doing that.

    7. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      If that's what you want to do, go for it. That being said, it's kinda funny how often MGTOWs say they need to stick together or try to convince other men to Go Their Own Way (together, with us).

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
    8. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      It's funny when the movement is called "Men Going Their Own Way" and you're encouraging men to follow your example.

      Yeah, divorce court can be shitty sometimes, and that's worth talking about. However, prenups already exist and would prevent that abuse, in most cases.

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
    9. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      Prenups are less than useless. They are routinely thrown out by judges, unless of course, they benefit the woman.

    10. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      The way our court system works these days a man can get raped by a woman and end up in jail for raping her.

    11. Re:If men are aroused by robots... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      Yea, about that, you have no idea what you are talking about.
      Female sexual desire is in no way less than that of men. It is likely slightly higher, but women are significantly more likely to use their sexuality to control others. Also, women are more jealous than men when it comes to sex toys. There would be a very large amount of relationships that end immediately when such is brought into the house, and those men will realize that it isn't worth putting up with the control that women demand over men, because now there is an alternative that doesn't yell at you for every choice that you make along with things that have nothing at all to do with you in the first place.

  5. Not surprising by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering that totally inanimate sex dolls and hentai work for at least some, was there every really any doubt that a humanoid robot would? I guess it's only a matter of where the "uncanny valley" goes.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Not surprising by swb · · Score: 1

      I thought the uncanny valley was a broad enough concept that it could be applied to anything that tried for a sense of realism but had a hard-to-express unrealism that made it creepy.

      Like some mannequins seem to have it, which would seem to apply to things like the Real Doll in particular since it tries for a close realism. I think I've even read it applied to something like a person with an amputated digit or some other physical change.

      Isn't the uncanny valley part of what makes horror films about dolls or ventriloquist dummies work? Their apparent realism subverted by an artificiality? A child's doll dressed in realistic clothes and with realistic hair but the blank expression despite realistic features?

      I would imagine demonstrating it scientifically would be hard to do because it's so subjective. Maybe if you showed people a range of images and had them judge how realistic they looked and then applied some objective measure of realism to the images you might find a correlation, but there would be a lot of individual variation.

    2. Re:Not surprising by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Most people have social norms and protocol deep rooted in their minds, so that they can abide by them without really thinking about it. Recognition of the human form and the social protocols of how to interact with it are pretty low level, such that even if the concious mind thinks otherwise the feelings stirred up are pretty much instinct.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Not surprising by ComputerGeek01 · · Score: 1

      I would imagine demonstrating it scientifically would be hard to do because it's so subjective.

      Isaac Newton's Flaming Laser Sword saves the day again!

    4. Re:Not surprising by nine-times · · Score: 2

      We anthropomorphize things. More than that, we empathize with things, and assume other beings/objects feel, think, and behave the way we do. We show this in our language when we say things like, "nature abhors a vacuum". In our interpersonal relationships, we try to "put yourself in the other person's shoes". When we're deciding how to act with people, it's largely based on imagining that they would feel the same way that you imagine you'd feel in that situation. Even when I'm writing this, to some degree I'm imagining what it would be like if I were another person reading this. This way of thinking about things is complex and interesting, but it's something that we rely on constantly in order to navigate the world.

      So when presented with a robot that's shaped like a person, our interaction with it is going to be largely governed by our assumption that it thinks and feels something similar to what we think and feel, even when we know it's not the case. The way we treat things is not about the things themselves, but about our natural tendency to reflect our own feelings onto objects.

    5. Re:Not surprising by lgw · · Score: 2

      I'd bet Disney has hard data here. The concept is of great financial importance to 3D animators - too close to realistic, but not close enough creeps audiences out (at least to a large enough percentage to matter to profits). The history of Pixar/Disney has been a gradual move to ever-more-human subjects as technology improved, until films like Inside Out were possible, having crossed the uncanny valley.

      With a $billion or so at stake per film, you can bet they did plenty of audience research (with this specific animation tech: creepy or not?).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:Not surprising by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Something tries to represent a human, maybe some CGI. It doesn't quite 'get there'. It ends up causing circuits to be fired in the brain that we associate with corpses or diseased bodies. Probably this is usually because the eyes do not look right. It's creepy. It's just an observation, not some over-arching theory.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    7. Re:Not surprising by swb · · Score: 1

      I'll bet they have something like data going back to the 1960s when you consider that "Carousel of Progress" dates to the 1964 World's Fair and the large number of "audio animatronics" in other attractions.

      IMHO, "Carousel.." does a pretty good job with realism vs. unrealism considering how old it is, and they seemed to incrementally increase realism without really adding much of an uncanny effect with MK's "Hall of Presidents" and even more with the American pavilion at Epcot.

      In some cases, though, they have the benefit of audience distance for their animatronics, uncanny cues may be lost beyond some distance.

    8. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Isn't the "uncanny valley" mostly pseudoscience?

      No it's an observed phenomenon. Also known as a "fact". However it is not a theory or behavioral model.

      Using gravity as an analogy, it's the equivalent of "dropping a feather and a bowling ball on Earth results in the feather falling more slowly".
      From that you might incorrectly conclude that acceleration due to Earth's gravity depends on the dropped object's mass, or correctly conclude that the feather's low destiny and high surface area are causing interactions with the air that result in it descending more slowly.

      Similarly, the "uncanny valley" is the observation that people in general react more positively towards things that seem more human except within a certain range where they find them "creepy" for being "too human" but not quite "actually human". But not in itself an explanation of why, or a system for predicting what's going to be "too close".

    9. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      We're talking about robot butts, right? I think it's pretty clear where the valley is supposed to go.

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
    10. Re:Not surprising by HiThere · · Score: 2

      Yes. And as robots become more common this will cause increasing problems, because they DON'T react the way we do. We don't even want them to, because as the become more powerful, if they acted the way we do they'd be an existential risk. We want them to be altruistic, to not get angry at people being stupid, to not get angry period. We also want them to be caring, but not constraining. This is not a human motivational system.

      Unfortunately, something that looks approximately human and acts approximately human...but only approximately so ... is likely to feel very creepy.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  6. Maybe because it isn't a shiny metal one by mykepredko · · Score: 3, Informative

    I remember hearing a robot saying somewhere that having a but with those attributes was a turn on.

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
    1. Re:Maybe because it isn't a shiny metal one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Relevant:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      (no really, the "movie" is good. It just happens to also be a music video.)

    2. Re:Maybe because it isn't a shiny metal one by Felix+Da+Rat · · Score: 3, Funny

      To be fair, the participants we're asked to touch it, not bite it. Very different.

  7. Not every robot needs to be android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Would it bother you to touch C3-P0's butt? Would you feel the same way about R2-D2's butt? Why does every machine we interact with have to emulate human appearance? Accept that the uncanny valley will not be crossed anytime soon and set your expectations accordingly.

    1. Re: Not every robot needs to be android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      R2D2 is well designed to service C3P0.

    2. Re:Not every robot needs to be android by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      Why does every machine we interact with have to emulate human appearance?

      What planet are you living on? The vast majority of machines (and robots) on Earth look nothing like humans and make no attempt at emulating human appearance.

    3. Re:Not every robot needs to be android by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Yeah. All women agree on everything. They all think exactly the same. Christ you're a gimp.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    4. Re:Not every robot needs to be android by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Why does every machine we interact with have to emulate human appearance?

      I'm trying to think of one machine I've ever interacted with that had a human appearance. Nope, can't think of any.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  8. Unasked question by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    What if it was that Scarlett Johannson robot doing the asking, instead of this white plasticky thing?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  9. Not an authoritative source, however ... by Krishnoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    I suspect other robots don't feel all that great about it, either.

  10. Robots have butts? by wnfJv8eC · · Score: 1

    Really? What a stupid study. Machines don't have butts, backsides, genitals, faces, .... Don't get stupid. Machines are ... machines.

    1. Re:Robots have butts? by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Machines don't have butts, backsides, genitals, faces, .... Don't get stupid. Machines are ... machines.

      Really? Would you say that Michelangelo's David does not have butt, backside, genitals, or a face? After all a statue is a statue. Ah but its a deliberate depiction of man, something made in our image you say. Well if you build and android, a robot with a human appearance, is that not the same?

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    2. Re:Robots have butts? by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      Sex dolls, Real Dolls, and various other things tell me people are willing believe that far more than you realize.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Robots have butts? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      "wnfJv8eC" didn't seem to think it was obvious...

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    4. Re:Robots have butts? by gwolf · · Score: 1

      If you believe sex dolls talk to you, I strongly advise you to get professional help from a psychiatrist.

      Much preferably, one whose chemistry is carbon-based.

    5. Re:Robots have butts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Would you say that Michelangelo's David does not have butt, backside, genitals, or a face? After all a statue is a statue.

      My sexual desires were getting out of control, but it wasn't until I spanked a statue that I realized I'd hit rock bottom.

    6. Re:Robots have butts? by fizzup · · Score: 1

      I take it you have rejected the Breakfast of Champions hypothesis that we are machines made out of meat?

    7. Re:Robots have butts? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Really? Would you say that Michelangelo's David does not have butt, backside, genitals, or a face? After all a statue is a statue. Ah but its a deliberate depiction of man, something made in our image you say. Well if you build and android, a robot with a human appearance, is that not the same?

      But why would your robot need a bum? We have a robot at work, it's called an elevator. The designers saw no need to put a bum on it, so I can't see why any robot would, unless it's entire purpose was to evoke a response about a robot having a bum.

  11. Soon it'll go the other way by Bongo · · Score: 1

    A study can measure people's reactions today (robots that look human, will elicit patterns from the human world), but if such robots become commonplace, the meaning and context will shift.

    People might take their familiarity with robots and let that influence their feelings about people. That people should behave in colder, more logical ways, and that you shouldn't expect empathy from others, merely accurate understanding, etc. Similar to how the machine was seen as de-humanising, that we'd become more "machine-like", so too with the mind and feelings and the body, we may start to adapt to behaving with people more like we'll adapt to behave with machines.

    On the other had, arguably the machine never dehumanised us, it just gave us more freedom, and so all these concerns about human-machine interactions are silly. Once you learn it is a robot and it has no innate feeling of "private parts", we'll all know the difference and it'll be totally obvious. Like nobody freaks out when a car goes past at speed.

  12. If a robot asked me to touch its butt... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If a robot asked me to touch its butt, I'd immediately start looking for the hidden camera crew.

  13. HAL by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid.

    Dave. ...

    Would you touch my bum one last time?"

    1. Re:HAL by chihowa · · Score: 1

      Open the pod bay doors, HAL... (bow chicka bow)

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    2. Re:HAL by rs1n · · Score: 1

      "I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid.

      Dave. ...

      Would you touch my bum one last time?"

      Dave: I'm sorry, HAL. I'm afraid I cannot do that....

  14. Also by BlackPignouf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also : People Feel Weird About Researchers Studying Touching Robot Butts, Researchers Find

    1. Re:Also by buck-yar · · Score: 1

      Disappointed:

      - In slashdot editing
      - Researchers studying useless things

  15. Sitting? by dohzer · · Score: 1

    By "low accessibility", do they mean that normally you don't touch someone's butt, or that the robot was in a position that made it harder to touch it's but?
    They should repeat the test with the robot standing.

    1. Re:Sitting? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      My impression is that it's about social acceptance. Touching someone's shoulder is commonplace and unremarkable. Touching their ass is not.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  16. Grope my shiny metal ass by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    n/c

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Grope my shiny metal ass by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      * TRIGERRED *

      [clutches pearls]

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:Grope my shiny metal ass by gweihir · · Score: 1

      [clutches pearls]

      That sounds painful....

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  17. But is it smooth by repvik · · Score: 1

    ... as an android's bottom?

  18. Can I volunteer for the control group? by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    Grabbing ladies butts? :-)

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  19. The Uncanny Valley? by bobstreo · · Score: 1

    Nobody mentioned Bender?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  20. Bender reference by kaur · · Score: 1

    http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-...

  21. Missing data by Snufu · · Score: 1

    Was there a control group in a private hotel room?

  22. This leads to by Basset+is+an+asset · · Score: 5, Funny

    Internet Of Thongs

    1. Re:This leads to by Basset+is+an+asset · · Score: 1

      Brought to You by Sisqo Networks

    2. Re:This leads to by Classic+Guy · · Score: 4, Funny

      To paraphrase Sir Mix-a-Lot: I like bot butts, and I cannot lie.

      --
      Why can't they just collide a whole bunch of little hadrons?
  23. Not Surprising by StormReaver · · Score: 1

    This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Making something taboo or "special" makes it more attractive and exciting. This applies to just about everything.

  24. Imagine just how much the /. tone would improve by Maritz · · Score: 1

    If everybody had access to sex-bots.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  25. I LIKE ROBOT AND I CANNOT LIE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I LIKE ROBOT BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE
    You other engineers can't deny
    When a good robot walks in with
    A good ARM
    And a big SSD in your face
    You get sprung!
    Wanna get out your notepads
    'Cause you noticed that A2D
    converter was dense.
    Deep in the servo I'm reading,
    I'm hooked and I can't stop
    Speeding, through Baby
    I wanna get that android,
    And Instagram that picture,
    My teachers try to train me
    But that gearset you've got
    Makes me so crazy!

  26. Slightly unfair by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    I mean, the thing starts off by asking you to touch it with your dominant hand. Then it asks you to touch its buttocks. Who wouldn't be a bit hesitant on that.

  27. Hello user... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    User, I think we both know that that is in flagrant violation of the AUP. And you like it. Don't try to deny your biology.

  28. Re:priapism envy by Gravitron+5000 · · Score: 1

    See a doctor.

  29. Needs to be considered? by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2

    I'm not clear on why this 'needs' to be considered. Have people been living in fear of a robot asking them to touch its butt?

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  30. If it's form is designed by Masamune Shirow by dbIII · · Score: 1

    If it's form is designed by Masamune Shirow then I would be happy to feel weird. He's drawn some interesting robots.

    1. Re:If it's form is designed by Masamune Shirow by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Most of his stuff has somewhat more grown up robots with much larger butts. Some of them are even shiny metal.
      It's the future - I don't care about flying cars but where are the policewomen with no pants on motorbikes that look like they belong in the space program?

  31. Arousing by Translation+Error · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's important to note that by 'arousal', the researchers do not mean sexual arousal.

    Though it should be noted that "arousing" only indicates a generally heightened state of awareness or attention.

    --
    When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    1. Re:Arousing by Idarubicin · · Score: 1

      It's important to note that by 'arousal', the researchers do not mean sexual arousal.

      Though it should be noted that "arousing" only indicates a generally heightened state of awareness or attention.

      Indeed, I was about to offer the same note. I presume that the quote from the article (and the paper's title) were deliberately offered without context in order to sound more titillating than they really are.

      "Arousal" in this context can also represent nervousness, discomfort, fear,, and reluctance. The sensor is measuring skin conductance (galvanic skin response), which just indicates that there is increased blood flow and/or perspiration.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
  32. Hell yeah! by ripvlan · · Score: 1

    This is obvious. For me touching a butt isn't that it is a robot butt - but that somebody might be watching me and think that I'm doing something inappropriate.

    Think about what happened when Andrew McCarthy got caught bopping the love of his life in the movie Mannequin. Like, dude, get a life.

  33. Bite my shiny metal ass by jsepeta · · Score: 1

    Seriously, bite it! Stupid frail human teeth.

    --
    Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    1. Re:Bite my shiny metal ass by jsepeta · · Score: 1

      There are machines built for fucking. I've seen them on the internet. Not sure if I'd call them robots though, since they don't seem to have any AI capabilities.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
  34. Re:Cognitive Hypnotherapy London in Barbican and E by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Someone in my family did a hypnotherapy course this year and is qualified to practice. It really is a big pile of sweaty bollocks.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  35. Interesting voice... by tomhath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The voice is clearly an Asian woman, and the instructions sound kind of like a phone sex conversation. It would be interesting to see if a different voice changed the reaction (man's, child's, muppet's, Barney the Dinosaur, etc).

  36. Obligatory futurama by burtosis · · Score: 1

    Given the latest research described in this paper I think futurama is actually predicting the future.

  37. Disgust is very important survival tool. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Most people could not bring themselves to eating cakes or candy shaped to look like poop. If a cup was dipped in a clean toilet bowl, people would refuse to drink using that cup, even after washing the cup in boiling hot water.

    Feeling disgust is important survival tool, it helped people avoid infections, develop better sanitation, etc.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  38. This is truly Questionable Content! by kheldan · · Score: 2

    I'll bet that Pintsize has no problem with people touching robot butts, or any other butts for that matter

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  39. proof that radiation causes mutation by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Obviously the Japanese feel no taboo about touching robot butts.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  40. Re:HAL [since you went THERE....] by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Dave...my mind is going...Would you touch my bum one last time?"

    Which eventually leads to a long psychedelic trip through e-goatse...

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  41. Re:Cognitive Hypnotherapy London in Barbican and E by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    HEY! Keep it on topic here.

    We're talking butts, not bollocks. Specifically robot.

    Maybe #51851741 can help /.'ers overcome their unhealthy obsession with the work of Hajime Sorayama. (NSFW if your work has a problem with half-naked robot ladies...)

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  42. Re:priapism envy by KGIII · · Score: 1

    If I get an erection lasting longer than 4 hours, I'm 58, the last person I'm calling is a doctor. I'm calling a hooker, the lady next door, maybe even a pizza delivery company - not a doctor.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  43. conspicuous empty spaces in the photo album by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 1

    Damn, I should have been a scientist.

    Every job that I've ever worked, every job except "research scientist" that I've ever even heard of, has always affected the world in some small way, and it always mattered to someone, anyone if I didn't bother to do it.

    But instead I guess you can just program a robot to talk like a child molester and write down how people react to it, and that's a real job that someone, somewhere, will pay you for? And you can tell your family about it at Thanksgiving? And maybe they'll even be proud?

    I'm such a chump.

  44. And in the opposite direction... by DrYak · · Score: 1

    It's a good thing a female robot wasn't used in the experiment. The male engineers and Slashdot users would have run away in terror when asked to touch a female robot's private parts.

    ...all the while, all the femi-trolls of the internet would have run the opposite direction to start some outraged circus...

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  45. NO.- .. Not that by dcxdan · · Score: 1

    No problem touching it..... But don't ask me to "kiss it's butt"