Читать книгу The Shape of Shit to Come - Steve Lowe - Страница 14

Repliee Q2, an uncannily life-like robot developed by roboticists at Osaka University, can mimic such human functions as blinking, breathing and speaking. It also has skin sensors, so can respond to people’s touch. And okay, it’s not leaping about like Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner – it’s more sort of wobbling its head and blinking a lot – but still, the days when we thought of wobbling your head and blinking a lot as quintessentially human activities are clearly over.

Repliee Q2’s alarmingly realistic face is based on a famous newsreader, Ayako Fujii. So yes, imagine a Japanese Sophie Raworth, in robot form. It’s not a big leap. Just to be clear, this ‘actroid’ was not based on Fujii’s features because the Osaka roboticists really fancied her. Not at all. (It was really.)

Robots are getting more lifelike. They are not fooling anyone just yet. But that will come. We are looking at the dawn of the squishybot. Squishybots, the name of which clearly needs some work, are robots constructed from bendy materials, so bringing their appearance closer to organic life-forms. Then there’s Frubber, a lightweight elastic polymer that allows realistic movement and has been used to make a robot with the head of Einstein. The name, which clearly needs some work, is a contraction of face and rubber.

Robots with squishy Einstein heads are all good fun. But this push for lifelike robots does, of course, bring up questions of a sexual, sexy nature.

According to futurologist David Levy – author of Love and Sex with Robots – the sexbot revolution is on its way. Given the advances, ‘love and sex with robots on a grand scale’ is not just desirable but inevitable: ‘My thesis is this: Robots will be hugely attractive to humans as companions because of their many talents, senses and capabilities.’

By ‘talents’ he is talking about doing mucky stuff. Robots doing mucky stuff on a grand scale. That is the future.

A 2012 report from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, predicts robot red light districts by 2050 and claims this would cut down on sex slavery and also cut down on infections. And what did they call these prostitute robots? They called them ‘hoe-bots’. For real.

Meanwhile, a US producer of cutting-edge sex bots, Douglas Hines, has produced Roxxxy, who can do pelvic thrusts and even simulate orgasm. Of course, to some degree, all robot orgasms are simulated. Which would at least remove any uncertainty. ‘Were you faking?’ ‘Yes, I am a robot.’

Roxxxy, who has an enormous tongue, can be programmed with different personalities such as Wild Wendy, S&M Susan, Young Yoko and Frigid Farrah. Quite why anyone who goes to the trouble of getting a sex robot would then want them to play hard to get is a real mystery – but then, human beings are mysterious. Roxxxy also has real human hair – which might be the freakiest bit about it/her.

Do you or do you not fancy the idea of fucking with a robot? This is the sort of question humanity needs to be asking itself.

It won’t just stop with sex, of course. Some will prefer to see sexual intercourse with robots as ‘making love’. Levy even expects marriage with robots to be legalised by the middle of the century. Would the Church allow such ceremonies to occur in places of worship? (Will there even be places of worship? Yes, there will.)

Even if humans do for some reason decide to just stick with human spouses, there is great potential for a robot bit on the side. Levy believes that while some will see robo-affairs as a form of adultery, some more forgiving spouses will see robo-affairs as essentially meaningless. As long it stays out of sight of the kids, figuratively as well as also literally.

If we are entering a more narcissistic, impatient world of instant gratification – and we are – of course you’re going to prefer going out with a robot. A robot won’t have an hour-long argument about where to go for dinner: robots don’t even eat dinner. (Which represents quite a potential saving.) Equally, you can come home at two stinking of booze and pestering your robot for sex, and you won’t even be pestering it because it’s a robot. It’ll be like: ‘Yeah, knock yourself out, you pissed twat.’