Mac fanbois?

Just look at how we interact with human faces. Through evolution, we've developed the ability to use the human face to indentify people and read their emotions. The difficulty of fooling this ability has been shown by recent films such as Beowulf and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Anyone who's taken a drawing class knows that the human face is the most difficult thing to get right: even if one detail is off, your drawing may look like a completely different person, or worse, inhuman.

I believe the same will hold true in trying to capture human personality/intelligence. We may be duped for a while, but eventually, the machine will do something that we perceive to be inhuman. It won't be able to keep up with conversation. Or it will be too accommodating/too perfect (humans are, after all, flawed.) When these inevitable moments happen, the "spell" will be broken and we will again realize that we are alone and with a machine.

In regards to pets, at least we don't expect them to be human. They are what they are, and even though we personify their behavior at times, there is no dissillusionment when they simply act like an animal. And this is OK because we love them both as surrogate humans AND as animals. But we would never love a machine for being a machine.

"Today, you watch your Roomba scurrying around your filthy floor, digging its nose into your grime, and you hardly pause to consider its soul; the robot vacuum is a slave, and you are its master."

No Mr. Levy. It is a tool and you are the person who bought it and plugged it in--that's all!

We already have something close to this sexually don't we? I am talking about prostitution. In the case of robots you would only have to pay one fee or intallment plans perhaps. I think this concept is very fascinating and will truly test the difference between the give and take of true love and the self serving hedonism of robotic love/sex.

And because of this I've already lost four Nanos.

My computer and I had a talk about this and we decided the idea was too far fetched to be taken seriously.

I don't get it. For example, lots of people LOVE their cars. They shower them with attention and gifts. They give them cute names and, as with ships, refer to them as "she." A deep and complex relationship with a machine, yes. But they are not copulating with the carburetors.

Or consider this. The instant access to Internet porn has speeded up the process of graduating from wanking to a 2-dimensional still representation of Jenna Jameson to wanking to a moving 2-dimensional representation of Jenna Jameson. But it's still wanking. Next would be holo-Jenna which is 3 dimensional and VR-Jenna which is 3 dimensional and somewhat interactive. Then beyond that Robo-Jenna which would be 3 dimensional, multisensory and fully interactive. But wanking with Robo-Jenna will still be seen as wanking, nothing more.

"It seems crazy -- doesn't it? -- to think that people would choose to love robots rather than other people."

I don't know what Levy says in particular, but it doesn't seem necessary that he's arguing that it's one or the other. This is a telling response to the issue though.

Why is it that to love a robot would, in this person's mind, mean loving that robot (perhaps all robots) at the expense or exception of humans, to say nothing of the rest of the world? It's the same way with sexual orientation. I notice that over the last 50 years we've managed a dramatic naturalization of strictly homosexual relations at the expense of bi-sexual relations, to say nothing of zoophilia or polyamory.

It's ridiculous to dismiss at any level the possibility of intimate relations with machines, by virtue of the pre-conceived fear that it means you betray your humanity and ONLY involve yourself with machines. If anything like that was the case, normal heterosexual relations would have destroyed humanity before it got off the ground.

Perhaps this has to do with Foucault's argument that sexuality is not natural, did not exist in human societies until very recently. We can only imagine that relations with a robot would mean an orientation towards robots, rather than a more personal, real relationship with this or that thing (to say nothing of other, sentient beings).

Another interesting dimension: robotic babies

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/business/robots1128/

Humans will always be cheaper and more convenient for fulfilling these needs.

Typically a Nerd and a Robot Maid, usually, but not always, played for laughs.

No doubt life will imitate art soon enough.

if this ever ceases to be the case the fake will still be just a much of a fake. It's one thing to play with your own emotions knowingly, if people ever really can't tell the difference it will just prove that there is a limit to human intelligence and a limit to how much technology people are intelligent enough to be capable of living with. I don't really think this will happen.

I had an physical orgasm when I saw a blue Lamborghini Murcielago, just hearing the engine and seeing the design.. unbelievable, a little odd but true..that has never happened with a physical(real) man or woman/or any other machines.. but I confess a chill runs through my body when I see in print 16GB on sale.. odd maybe a little..

I think it's a great idea, specially for people that live in areas where it's hard to meet somebody who is intellectually stimulating or artistic or is into potato sex..or is into celebrity secrets.. or into exchanging sex organs.Or all the other things we do when nobody is looking.

this reminds me of a song by The Dresden Dolls song "Coin Operated Boy"...

maybe that song should play in the background of this article .

and if that man came along with great recipes and cleaning and manners, wow.. I would take two.