Timesonline has a story from The Sunday Times raising ethical questions about the future of robotics, and specifically human robot interactions. In it they quote Henrik Christensen, a member of the European Robotics Research Network ethics committee, who predicts that we'll be having sex with robots within the next five years. The authors of the piece question whether limits should be set on the visual appearance of robots, and ask what I can only assume is a rhetorical question: what happens if robots turn out to be sexy?
Read more - TimesOnline: No sex please, robot, just clean the floor (via BoingBoing)
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I don’t think robots are yet sophisticated enough for ‘real’ human-robot interactions. As far as I know, even to smile and show affection is complex enough–and robots can’t show real affection–yet. They can be programmed to mimic such feelings(look at animatronic robots, such as can be found in theme parks)but the movements aren’t as subtle as human expressions are–again, not yet.
Still, the possibility is there, and for some, the seeming affection of a mechanical lover might be enough for some…
For myself, though, a real human is more than enough. We are not yet at the stage described in Asimov’s books, where a robot detective like R. Daneel Olivaw can probe the depths of human motives, much less show love or desire!