Here's a link'>http://io9.com/347239/once-you-go-bot-you-never-go-back?autoplay=true">link to a clip of the author on the Colbert Report, basically getting ridiculed and calling his thesis "not science fiction, but science fact."
Science fact is that peeps have been doin' it with robots since the dawn of vibrators and those terrifying machines I have glimpsed from time to time when in the company of my more internet-porn-adventurous friends. But falling in love with them? Programming them to love you, and as the good (mad?) doctor says, ocassionally reject you because "an important part of sexuality is "the possibility of failure or denial," and thus sexbots will need to be able to mimic human "capriciousness." ??? That is a freaky possibility. I imagine this superlovebot would be a combo of an high-end "lifedoll", those expensive German vibrators they sell at high-end pleasure boutiques, and an iPod shuffle. On one hand, I see something as fantastical as this making some truly lonely people happy, but on the other...it makes me want to stockpile all technology and burn it in a sparkly display of rejection: rejection of the walls we put up to keep each other out in favor of some perfect thing that does exactly what we want all the time, never challenging us or teaching us anything. I think expecting whomever (whatever?) you love to be a conduit for your every whim and desire is pretty jacked.
Though I'm totally reading the http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002662_2.html">book when it comes out.
Thoughts?
And on the lighter side, which of these robots would win your heart?
