With the upcoming release of a new line of sex robots, two scientists from the United Kingdom and Sweden have already expressed concerns about the potential impact of the recreational robots to the established equalities in society.
Robot anthropologist Kathleen Richardson of the De Montfort University and lecturer Erik Billing of the University of Skovde launched the Campaign Against Sex Robots on Tuesday in an effort to raise the public's awareness on the potential harm the human-like robots could create to society in promoting sex between humans and robots.
Richardson said that while these sex dolls have yet to reach markets, they are starting to gain attention from members of the robotics industry.
In a latest interview, Richardson explained that she initially considered the sex robots to be harmless, and that they could help reduce the demand for women and children in the sex industry.
As she looked into the subject matter, however, she discovered that instead of reducing the objectification that the industry places on women, children, transgender people and even men, the sex robots would only contribute as well as reinforce this notion in society.
Richardson added that women and children suffer sexual abuse in the real world because of this objectification, and the sex robots serve to reinforce this idea.
Billing pointed out that the danger of these sex paraphernalia lies in how the products are viewed by the public for the purpose of acting out sexual fantasies. He said that the sex robots promote the notion that human male users can turn to their female robot companion to experience pleasure.
Billing said that most observers would agree that this type of behavior is far from being a healthy sexual relationship.
The use of dolls in the sex industry is no longer a new concept. Interest in sex robots, however, appears to rise, with many robotic and electronics companies offering more supplies to feed the market demands.
One of the primary goals outlined by the activists in their campaign's website is to encourage roboticists and computer scientists not to be involved in the development of sex robots by refusing to provide the industry with the hardware, codes or ideas that it needs.
This call from the activists is criticized by some computer researchers who consider its goals to be shortsighted.
Kate Devlin, one of the computer researchers who oppose the objectives of the campaign, said that rather than demanding for an outright banning of the sex robots, the topic could be used to start discussions on the products' potential benefits in terms of legality, social change and inclusivity.
She said that fear of this area of artificial intelligence, especially during its infancy, provides more of a reason to develop it and not to ban it.
Photo: Ricardo Diaz | Flickr
