Robotic Prostitution
The visions of the future found in anime – Japanese animated movies that usually have a science fiction or fantasy theme – are compelling and often disturbing. Movies such as Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed present a world that seems all too likely, one that is inspired by a combination Japanese culture, high population densities and technological innovation.
A frequent theme is the engineering of humans and the creation of humanlike machines, leading to philosophical questions of human identity and what makes humans human. Genetically engineered people, cyborgs (humans who are part machine), androids (humanlike robots) and robots are the classic sci-fi anime characters.
This is not the realm of pure imagination, however. The science fiction of yesterday is the science fact of today. We already have the technological capability to clone human beings and the moral and ethical questions this raises are being asked, and answered (though not all answers are convincing). The uber robotically-assisted abilities of anime cyborgs seem fantastic, but there is a clear technological progression from current artificial limbs and organs. I’ll give a more compelling example shortly.
As in Western movies, the depiction of women in anime is dualistic. On the one hand, anime frequently features strong female lead characters, such as the heroes of both the movies I mentioned. On the other hand, submissive female characters are also common, and sexual themes that seem to be mainly for the benefit of male audiences (such as unconvincing lesbianism) also crop up.
Motoko Kusanagi, hero of Ghost in the Shell
In the science fiction anime world, submissive female characters are often not even human. The plot of Innocence, the sequel to Ghost in the Shell, revolves around androids that are called “gynoids” – super realistic female robots who are created specifically for sex by criminal organizations. Compassionately portrayed as having human emotions and consciousness, the gynoids exist as sexual slaves without rights, a situation that forces the movie’s characters to once again examine the question of human identity.
Life imitates art. The BBC reports today that Professor Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University has created the “most human-looking robot yet devised”. Given the previous paragraphs, it should come as no surprise to you that this robot is “female”. According to the report:
She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.
Professor Ishiguru and his creation
The questions posed by science-fiction anime – and some that are not, like “Is it cheating if it was with a robot?” – are going to need answering perhaps sooner than we thought. Joking aside, is it ethical to develop lifelike human robots intended for sex? Should robotic prostitution be legal?
Perhaps Professor Ishiguru is a humanist who envisions his robots used as attractive answering machines or automated vacuum cleaners, but when he says “I have developed many robots before, but I soon realised the importance of its appearance”, I find myself wondering if perhaps he is also a fan of his country’s famous movies. That soft plastic skin…she’ll never tell…
Regardless of his personal motivations, there are certainly those who would pay dearly for such services. After all, men pay every day for the opportunity to risk disease and legal prosecution in pursuit of guilty pleasure. What would lifelike “female” robots who are sexually functional, legal for that purpose and guaranteed disease-free be worth to a corporation? We may soon find out.
July 28th, 2005 at 9:49 am
I love this topic.
This post is an interesting dichotomy of subjects. On the one hand, the depiction of gender roles and sexualized narratives, in particular, those in Japanese anime. (Which, I should add, deserves a passing reference to the rigid patriarchal nature of a Japanese society – geishas and all – which I think is remarkably dissimilar from our own North American patriarchy) In a McLuhanist sense, Anime films are this society’s taboos. They are, to many audiences, the taboos portray.
On the other hand, a reflection of a larger meta-narrative in western traditions – that of technology and its relation to natural humanity. This is often depicted as a battle for supremacy. A battle between the id and superego. More on this later, but suffice to say for now, it worth thinking of this battle in relation to gender, and more specifically, sex.
Like you Ade, I have no doubt that new advancements in technology are bound to raise questions on moral grounds. I find the topic of sexual automatons a little icky, but not implausible. The human sexual appetite is very lucrative to feed. That said, developing a robot that can pantomime as a sexual partner is likely a good investment.
Porn was quickly the most lucrative use of web technology, in terms of both prevalance and widespread money-making. We will likely see the sexualized extension of most new technological advancements.
That we have already developed vibrating, oscillating, self-lubricating, portable, and even inflatable genitals, torsos, and humans to satiate our need to get-off, says that humans are willing to have sex with toys. A sex robot, may just be an expensive new version of the blow-up love doll – a new sex toy. The formation of the ethical conundrum, (which I feel is inherent in the process of creating technology) remains to be seen.
I imagine the ethical questions involved will first be waged on the development of “AI” itself, and the degree to which we can/should humanize technology. Rest assured, if AI successfully clears the moral bar, it will quickly find its way into our sex shops. (I can’t believe just wrote that.) Back to the philosophical.
Perhaps any technology we develop is, again in McLuhanist terms, a reflection of its creative medium – the human mind. Robots are an act of human conquer. They are the human conquer of nature and creation, which is really about the human control of sexuality. One could argue convincingly that we develop robots purely in the pursuit of submissive sexual partners. I know this sounds crazy but hear me out.
Freud wrote often about the sexaulity deeply embedded in human motives and relations, I think it might be a theory applicable to this topic. Robots are made by us for us. They are ours to conquer, and for us to conquer. In a sense, making humans god. Robots represent power over our partners and adversaries. The two most common themes of robots in the western meta-narrative on technology are as tools of sex and tools of war. Envoking the metaphorical thoughts of Timothy Beneke: Sex is war.
Their creation is an act of birth, a sexualized and deeply violent betrayal of nature. They embody dominance in human relationships with nature, creation and sex. In a less-than-obvious sense, humanity pursues the technology of robotics from the Freudian id – the personification of the id being a newborn child – both primative and unconscionable.
We are troubled by our own progression in this field; scared by our moral authority over our own creation. Id versus superego. How can we keep our primative desires (primative creations) in check? We are out to conquer nature and each other. How can we embue this uncontrollable pursuit with moral bearings?
I wonder, when we go this far, what we will lose? Will we successfully vanquish desire? How will this affect human relationships?
Great topic for more discussion. What are others’ thoughts?
July 29th, 2005 at 10:59 am
I think your comment about the “ethical conundrum” that has yet to be formed is interesting. Is a sex robot just another sex toy? As robots become more and more sophisticated and ever more humanlike, does an ethical conundrum arise simply from the degree to which the robot is perceived as human?
We are used to the term ethics in relation to a person’s relationship with society. For example, it can be considered unethical to engage in a romantic relationship with a supervisor because of how this affects others in the workplace. We often ignore the ethics of a personal relationship between two people when we are not involved in that relationship. If someone has an affair, it is unethical, but we look at it as their business.
However, it’s personal relationships that will likely be the first to be affected by the development of humanlike sex robots, so the ethics within that relationship are worth considering. I suspect many wives would feel grossed out if they found a rubber pelvis in their husband’s underwear drawer, but few would feel betrayed. Would that change if the sex toy was actually a functional robot that had at least the initial appearance of being human?
Let’s get a little dirty and imagine a potential application of primitive android technology in a technologically advanced brothel in a country where prostitution is illegal and it’s illegality enforced. Knowing that customers must be able to suspend disbelief long enough to get off, and aware that since their androids lack artificial intelligence they aren’t very convincing sex partners, the brothel’s owner decides to put a little humanity into his androids: he hires women to operate certain of their functions remotely, especially their ability to speak.
Hooked up with a microphone, and able to view the room remotely through a video camera, a woman in a control room is able to speak to the client via microphone, and is also able to issue basic commands to the android. The android, previously stupid, now speaks like a woman and is able to conduct events to a certain extent, overall providing a much more realistic experience. Even better from a business perspective, given an intuitive interface, multiple androids (and thus clients) could be dealt with at the same time.
A situation like this is much more plausible in the near future, since developing true artificial intelligence has so far been unsuccessful (and extremely difficult). The ethical conundrum for a married man then becomes, does participating in this scenario represent infidelity, or not?
It’s a difficult question, I think. When examining guilt or moral responsibility, I think you’d have to take into account at least two things: 1) Did you feel like you were cheating? 2) Was it your intent to cheat?
The problem is that some people will have cheated on their spouses, and yet still be able to answer no to both questions (“It felt right, I never meant to do it”). The conundrum is beginning to take shape: after all, these questions are not the simple black-and-white “Did you cheat, or not?” I could see my hypothetical brothel client being stumped by that question: “I don’t know…I mean, I felt like she was real, though in the back of my mind I knew she was a robot…I just don’t know”.
Once again, these scenarios are rooted in reality. I’ll give a concrete (hilarious) example. First the context. In 1996 a guy named Joseph Weizenbaum developed a program he called Eliza, which:
People would sometimes be fooled when communicating with Eliza (via a computer screen and a keyboard):
A couple of years ago, I came across the website of someone who created a modification of Eliza called “jenny18″, designed to run on Internet Relay Chat channels. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a hugely popular chat protocol – basically, it lets people create chat rooms. A lot of people like to have “cybersex” so they hook up in these chat rooms and then type to each other (of course, you never know who you’re talking to). This guy developed what is essentially a sex robot for IRC, with hysterical results. (Go here for the chat logs, BE WARNED they are very explicit).
Anyway, my point is that many real people were fooled by a simple software parody of a human being communicating in a chatroom, developed by an amateur. Men who “chatted” with jenny18 in these chat rooms had the intent to enter into some kind of sexual interaction with a human being, one that they may have guiltily viewed as cheating if they were in a relationship at the time. Except that they were chatting to a software program.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Yes, that’s the point I was getting at. Given that most technology affects the way human relationships unfold, I am prone to expect scenarios like those you have listed. I imagine that a million ethical conumndrums could exist involving a robot and a horny person. Or a robot and two horny people. Or three. Or four.
To add to the problem – cheating is only a matter of ethics if they are shared ethics. If your partner is alright with you jacking off to cyber chat, no conundrum. If you are OK with some microchip ass, and your partner isn’t, it’s likely more ethical that you do what makes you happy and let them make up their own mind too. However, if you have made a shared pact to monogmy, then you may have to establish the grounds for that monogomy – including a chapter on robot pussy.
Given how much you know about all this stuff, I think you and C should be having that chat soon.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Sorry, I have no intelligent response to provide but: Not only is screwing a robot gross but I would also consider it cheating.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Oh and…Regarding alevo’s reference to “robot pussy”, I think you and C should also be having a chat soon?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
This is my last comment, I promise! I don’t know why I didn’t chunk it all together. Ade, I am sorry to hear that you were one of “the many real people fooled by jenny18″. Good thing it was years ago! HaHa, good cover!
August 2nd, 2005 at 11:54 am
I actually came across jenny18 while reading about artificial intelligence, although you’re free to assume I’m an internet sex chat room addict nonetheless. But you might be surprised to learn that jenny18 and other AI programs like Mgonz actually play important roles in the development and analysis of artificial intelligence, studied by researchers and even featured in various teaching courses at universities, like these:
(The above information is somewhat dated, these courses may have since changed.)
The reason a program like this is worth studying is because of a famous test of artificial intelligence called the Turing Test, which was developed by Alan Turing, considered the father of modern computer science. From Turing’s perspective, if a computer were able to pass the Turing Test, it could be considered intelligent. The test works like this:
This test is interesting because it dispenses with untestable notions of intelligence or consciousness (e.g. possession of a soul, possession of “real emotions”, etc.) in favour of a simpler idea: if a computer shows intelligence such that a human being is unable to reliably tell the difference between the computer and a human being in conversation, then the computer is truly intelligent.
Programs like jenny18, although they fool people into thinking they are real people, don’t pass the test, because the person who is conversing with them has no reason to believe they are dealing with a computer. In the Turing Test, the human judge knows that each of the participants has a 50/50 chance of being a computer. The Wikipedia article specifically mentions IRC conversations from programs like Eliza and jenny18:
In spite of that, they are still interesting examples of computer programs that edge toward passing the Turing Test, and they show that it’s possible to fool a horny human into believing they have a human sexual partner even when that partner behaves unconvincingly.
But that’s enough thinking for me. I’m heading back to my favourite cybersex chat room. Nothing does it for me quite like having an uninspired sexual dialogue with a middle-aged man pretending to be a gorgeous 18-year-old girl.
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:16 pm
Fly your freak flag brother – shove your pecker right in the usb port.
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:46 pm
I wonder what roboterotica is like…though I’d much rather have a holodeck. :D
August 7th, 2005 at 2:32 am
Sorry, just wandered in…
Excellent points, all. I think that perhaps using human suspension of disbelief isn’t a very reliable standard for measuring artificial intelligence, because it’s changing all the time, and with different people. In fact, the creator of Ghost in the Shell, Shirow Masamune, defined artificial intelligence not as a point at which a machine achieves conscience, but rather, its ability to solve non-emotive problems (i.e., spatial understanding, etc.) For once, I agreed with him. He has some dystopian views, all right, but he was careful enough to point out that if we reach that point, we’ll just have to wing it and be cautious about what sort of people we might turn into at having that much power over the human spirit, even if the human spirit, being undefinable, was in a medium of our own creation. He gave his robots emotions (sometimes) but he steered clear of how we came to understand exactly what it was that enabled them to have those emotions, and rightly so—we just don’t know yet. Maybe we never will….etc etc…
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November 15th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Getting back to the original subject, I wonder if the moral question is in truth relevent in a society that seems to make a moral issue of just about everything …. say being married to having children.
Lets face it in this day and age we are being forced more and more into social isolation by society itself. While we speak of Morality as being an absolute, we seem to fail to recognize that morality is in and of itself only an individual opinion and not a guiding social standard.
Sex with artifical beings is not a what-if but a certainty in the here and now. ( Look up I-doloid to see what I mean. ) What really worries me is the economic value we will place on it ……. The cost of real vs. Artifical both in a dollar sense and an emotional sense.
April 7th, 2006 at 5:56 am
I am new to this particular concept, and am a recent fan of Ghost in the Shell [new as in, since last October, when I heard of Innocence first, but went on to watch SAC, and not Innocence].
This is the first time I am seeing this topic being discussed suchlike, maybe the question whether or not robotic prostitution can be legalised is not simply to be seen as a commercial/industrial leap towards technological innovation.
If robotic prostitution is legalised, the commercialism of building ‘artificial’ [I would need to rely on your definition of 'artificial' here] beings on a scale as vast I have just imagined would be an expensive process, therefore, the amount of consumers who would be willing and/or able to take advantage of such services would be greatly reduced, making the entire point of building such robots questionable to the makers themselves.
Other points that would, most undoubtedly seep into the mix, are social and ethical factors.
Many social groups may not accept this new system and the system itself may be at risk from these pressures [as I have observed, social/religious pressures can be very powerful at driving the mass].
Ethical questions are maybe a more serious factor, the entire point of having sex with an ‘unliving’ [once again, this depends on personal definition] ‘machine’ who is bound to it’s [I would prefer to use 'her's', bordering on the general perception] task, may seem disturbing to many.
The factor which may also arise as artificial intelligence evolves into actual intelligence [which I see arising in the future], is when machines themselves, [if they ever do actually get to that stage] question the reason for the existence for these objects [Slim chance of this happening, as many would think].
Humans themselves are bound to the system of life which has itself been generated by the shared fraction of the general perception of the ‘individual’ ideas of beings, in which case, they lose heir individuality, and are, inevitably bound to the system, but that is a discussion which does not fit with the flow of this ‘forum’.
The entire idea of legalising, and commercialisng robotic prostitution is quite interesting [to me, at least, I cannot confirm the views of others], but I see flaws in the system, some of which I have shared here on this webpage, and do not see it becoming a ‘real’ possibility within the course of the near future as I see it.
With that, I will end this reply.
I would have had more to add, if I didn’t have work to do, I will revisit this page, annd maybe will add to this reply of mine.
Signing off.
-0 .
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