Goldsmith University in London will now host the two-day Sex Robot Festival in December 2016. This event was earlier scheduled to be held in Malaysia, but has now been banned in the country for being “too extreme”.
The event will feature academics and industry professionals who will discuss the latest developments in artificial sex industry. Some experts also believe romping with humanoids will overtake sex with humans by 2050. The two-day conference will focus on robot emotions, humanoid robots, teledildonics (cybersex toys), entertainment robots, intelligent electronic sex hardware, and more.
“I think robots could become our lovers in the future. Does love have to be reciprocated to be valid?” says Dr. Kate Devlin, a computing lecturer at the Goldsmith University in London where the International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots will be held in December 2016. Dr. Delvin recently authored a paper called “In Defence of Sex Robots” and suggests that society must be open to the idea that sex robots could play a great role.
“Our research aims to carve a new narrative, moving away from sex robots purely defined as machines used as sex objects, as substitutes for human partners, made by men, for men,” she said.
“A machine is a blank slate – it is what we make of it. Why should a sex robot be binary? What about the potential for therapy? It’s time for new approaches to artificial sexuality.”
However, police Chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in Malaysia describes the idea of sex robot festival as ridiculous adding there is “nothing scientific about having sex with machines.”
“Within the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Robot Interaction, the past few years have witnessed a strong upsurge of interest in the more personal aspects of human relationships with these artificial partners, said Goldsmith.
Anybody can take part in the two-day conference by paying registration amount of £200 ($244). Students will pay only £125 ($152).
“Sexbots would always be available and could never say no, so addictions would be easy to feed,” says Joel Snell, a robotic expert from Kirkwood College in Iowa, who thinks engaging sex with a robot can be addicting.
“People will rearrange their lives to accommodate their addictions.”
Apart from being easily accessible anytime, robots can be programmed to be superior to humans in sexual activity and tailor to a user’s needs.
“Let people enjoy sex robots – they will work in the same way couples introduce a toy into a sexual relationship. And if both parties are agreed, I see nothing wrong,” said sex therapist Gurpreet Singh according to the Daily Mail.
He however warns that robots shouldn’t replace humans completely.
“It takes on a whole different meaning if sex robots are used because of a fear of intimacy or because a person wants to be isolated,” Singh explained.
According to NUI Galway business lecturer Dr. John Danaher, sex robots are without doubt a superb replacement to human prostitutes.
“The cyborgs can cater desire for sexual variety, freedom from constraint and complication and fear of lack of sexual success. Technology may become better at developing emotional bonds with their clients,” said Danaher.
“They won’t need to ‘fake it’ the same way as human prostitutes.”
