NEATORAMA HOME | LITE/MOBILE VERSION | BEST OF NEATORAMA

Love, Sex, and Marriage with Robot Inevitable, Said AI Researcher

By Alex in Everything Else on Oct 16, 2007 at 1:42 pm


Artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands has bold predictions:

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots."

Levy had just completed his Ph.D. thesis on the subject of human-robot relationship, sex, and marriage:

In his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

"It may sound a little weird, but it isn’t," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."

Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that’s programmable too."

Links: article at LiveScience and Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends

But first, you have to let a robot massage your face!


Share


COMMENT
  1. L.B. Jeffries
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    I predict that by the year 2050 people will marry their pets.

  2. Alex
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    It's already here L.B. Jeffries: crazy woman married a dolphin.

  3. Meghan
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    Dude, how stupid is this?
    It would be like falling in love with a blow-up doll!
    Sick.

  4. L
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

    They'll have to come up with a term to replace "soulmates", then. Unless people are going to argue that robots have souls (and it's already hard enough to argue that humans do!).

  5. Stew
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    I thought women already did this?

  6. Eugenio Martínez Sierra
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

    Someday will be impossible to make a difference between natural and artificial humans.

    And it´s going to be wonderful: The artificial humans can work and the real humans live.

  7. Dogrun81
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    Hasn't Bill Clinton already achieved this?

  8. Tempscire
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Eugenio- If the artificial humans are that realistic, they're not going to want to work, either. ;)

  9. Jess
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    Meghan,

    Check this out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3710987618964917848

    It IS falling in love with a blowup doll

  10. Tom B
    Oct 16th, 2007 at 11:37 pm

    In Utah, you'll be able to wed several robots, some of them underage.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Keep track of the comments with Comment RSS

Lijit Search

T-SHIRTS FROM THE NEATORAMA SHOP

WRITE YOUR OWN NEATORAMA POST
Got a neat story? Share it with the world by writing your very own Neatorama blog post with the Upcoming Queue. Who knows, you might just win something ...

Here's how to get started:
FAQ | Tips