After
a
recent
chat
with
Julie
(
www.jgcarpenter.com
-
twitter.com/jgcarpenter)
we
thought
it
would
be
a
good
idea
if
she
could
shed
some
academic
light
on
the
future
of
sex
robots.
Having
recently
written
a
chapter
for
the
upcoming
book
Robot
Sex:
Social
and
Ethical
Implications.
The
chapter
is
titled
Deus
Sex
Machina:
Loving
Robot
Sex
Workers,
and
the
allure
of
an
insincere
kiss
(awesome
title)
and
explores
models
of
understanding
human
love,
affection,
and
sexual
feelings
toward
robots
-
which
I'm
sure
is
something
everyone
reading
this
can
relate
to...
please
enjoy
and
comment
What
is
HRI?
Human-Robot
Interaction
(HRI)
is
a
field
of
research
and
study
that
pursues
the
understanding
of
communication
between
humans
and
robots.
Those
interactions
are
further
embedded
in
many
different
situations
and
social
systems,
and
my
work
is
about
making
those
connections
between
human-robot
patterns
of
communication
and
culture,
to
identify
reciprocal
influences
between
the
user
and
the
robot
design.
HRI
is
interdisciplinary
and
comprised
of
people
from
a
variety
of
disciplines
that
includes
design,
psychology,
engineering,
philosophy,
human
factors,
ethics,
sociology,
anthropology,
art,
rhetoric,
and
others.
The
strength
of
HRI
is
that
as
a
field,
these
multiple
approaches
to
investigating
human-robot
interactions
from
different
areas
of
interest,
scholarship,
and
training
provides
all
sorts
of
perspectives,
as
well
as
mutual
inspiration
across
disciplines
for
further
work.
What
impact
do
you
think
sex
robots
will
have
on
the
field
of
robotics?
The
sex
toy
industry—not
including
commercially
produced
porn,
but
just
things
categorized
as
“sex
toys”—is
estimated
at
a
multi-billion
(USD)
per
year
business,
worldwide.
Clearly,
emerging
technologies
like
robotics,
AI,
VR,
and
3D
printing
are
creative
mediums
that
have
all
sorts
of
potential
applications
in
that
industry.
The
effect
on
robotics,
means
possibly
focusing
some
of
that
economic
interest
in
new
areas
of
R&D,
and
therefore
likely
some
specific
aspects
of
robotics
may
get
pushed
forward
and
prioritized
in
the
research
because
of
the
new
economic
advantages
that
comes
with
financial
investors.
For
example,
robots
designed
to
enhance
human
sexual
pleasure
will
undoubtedly
incorporate
things
like
Natural
Language
Processing
for
humanlike
verbal
communication,
AI,
increasingly
humanlike
“skins”
and
movement
(such
as
walking),
and
bi-pedal
balance.
An
industry
focused
on
humanlike
sex
robots
will
also
likely
pursue
details
considered
unnecessary
in
other
robots,
but
perhaps
especially
desired
in
a
sex
robot
design
that
emulates
humans
in
sensory
detail,
like
robot
skin
that
emits
a
personal
scent
or
fluids.
While
people
outside
the
industry
might
at
first
wonder
how
else
these
innovations
could
ever
be
useful
in
completely
different
aspects
of
robotics,
I’d
say
you
might
be
surprised.
For
instance,
an
application
like
robot
skin
that
secretes
body
fluids
or
“sweats”
realistically
can
be
used
to
test
other
situations
that
are
not
sexual
at
all,
such
as
measuring
sweat
output
in
the
repetitive
testing
of
military
gear
in
simulated
stress
or
environmental
situations.
Similar
robotic
technology
has
existed
in
the
past
in
military
robots
for
just
that
reason,
so
there’s
obviously
uses
for
all
kinds
of
robotic
innovation
across
a
lot
of
industries.
It
would
be
short-sighted
to
be
immediately
disdainful
of
any
robot
or
AI
innovations
that
are
developed
in
the
sex
toy
industry,
because
there
will
likely
be
unforeseen
applications
for
those
same
innovations
outside
that
arena.
Of
course,
another
effect
will
be
as
the
field
becomes
more
mature
and
integrated
as
a
useful
resource
for
the
established
industries,
we’ll
see
more
formal
discussions
about
ethics,
policy,
and
law
that
centers
on
how
to
design,
sell,
and
even
use
sex
robots.
You
have
a
chapter
in
a
new
book
coming: Robot
Sex:
Social
and
Ethical
Implications.
I
know
it’s
going
to
be
quite
academic
but
can
you
tell
me
what
sex
doll
owners
may
think
about
it
and
do
you
think
they
could
contribute
to
the
growing
discussion?
The
book
was
written
by
academics
and
scholars,
but
I
wrote
specifically
with
interdisciplinary
audiences
in
mind,
so
hopefully
it’s
readable
to
a
lot
of
people
that
might
be
interested
in
the
topic.
The
handful
of
people
I
have
spoken
with
that
identify
as
Synthetikand
others
who
enjoy
the
company
of
sex
dolls
or
have
an
interest
in
sex
robots
have
the
real
expertise,
in
my
opinion.
My
research
is
often
about
listening
to
peoples’
experiences,
situating
patterns
of
those
experiences
within
larger
social
systems
to
offer
a
framework
for
describing
what
human-robot
interaction
phenomenon
are
occurring
and
explain
why
interactions
are
playing
out
the
way
they
are,
and
then
predict
what
might
happen
based
on
what
I’ve
learned.
Therefore,
my
work
has
always
been
rooted
in
a
basic
premise
of
focusing
on
the
people
interacting
with
the
technology,
the
human
side
of
human-robot
interactions.
I
plan
to
keep
speaking
with
sex
doll
owners
if
they
are
interested
in
speaking
with
me,
too;
I
hope
they
continue
to
share
their
experiences.
Because
my
research
methods
rely
on
listening
to
people
who
interact
with
a
technology,
that
often
means
someone
is
sharing
very
personal
thoughts
with
me,
and
so
I
approach
any
topic
from
a
place
of
respect.
I
regard
the
stories
of
the
people
who
speak
to
me
about
their
experiences
as
a
serious
responsibility
of
mine,
and
I
do
my
best
to
represent
people
in
as
an
authentic
way
as
I
can.
Do
you
think
robots
can
achieve
sentience?
I
think
first
we
need
to
agree
a
little
bit
more
among
roboticists
and
folks
in
the
industry
about
how
to
define
sentience,
and
how
we
will
determine
it
has
been
achieved
when
it
arrives.
There
are
certainly
already
religions
and
cultures
that
regard
some
non-human
things
as
sentient,
and
the
meaning
of
sentience
is
always
part
of
a
culturally-laden
system
of
beliefs,
an
agreement
about
what
sentience
means.
Often
when
we
talk
about
declaring
something
as
sentient
from
an
AI
perspective,
we
are
referring
to
a
humanlike
intelligence,
or
comparing
a
human
model
of
intelligence
and
self-awareness
as
the
measure
of
AI
sentience.
It
is
possible
a
robot
or
disembodied
AI
will
spontaneously
become
sentient,
or
what
we
think
of
as
sentient,
and
we
won’t
necessarily
recognize
this
change
until
larger
patterns
of
AI
behavior
emerge.
When
we
notice
this
change,
that
recognition
will
depend
not
just
on
our
perception,
but
the
AI
and
the
medium
it
is
in,
whether
it
is
disembodied
or
embodied,
and
the
situation,
such
as
if/how
it
interacts
with
humans.
I
believe
AI
can
achieve
an
intelligence
that
is
certainly
recognizable
as
having
lifelike
qualities,
and
even
humanlike
consciousness.
I’m
not
sure
our
end
goal
should
be
to
focus
on
recognizing
a
humanlike
sentience,
but
rather
to
determine
at
what
point
we
agree
a
significant
shift
toward
something
akin
to
sentience
has
occurred.
Will
AI
achieve
a
subjective
perspective,
or
the
capacity
to
feel?
I
think
so,
in
its
own
way.
Will
AI
achieve
self-awareness
as
we
understand
it
from
a
human
perspective?
I
think
it
is
more
likely
it
will
develop
a
new
type
of
system
processes
we
compare
to
our
own
to
understand
it,
but
it
will
be
different,
a
new
thing,
a
robot’s
subjectivity.
What
are
your
robotic
predictions
for
the
next
50
years?
Besides
social
robots,
other
areas
of
robotics
that
we
will
see
huge
growth
in
will
be
autonomous
vehicles
(AV),
agricultural,
and
military
robots.
Widespread
use
of
AV
will
change
our
environment
and
social
structure
in
many,
many
pervasive
ways.
Besides
the
changed
mobility
methods
of
AV,
societal
norms
will
need
to
catch
up
to
a
world
where
some
people
use
AV
and
others
do
not;
AV
use
will
change
our
transportation
infrastructure,
how
we
interact
with
vehicles
(and
others
in
vehicles),
social
norms,
and
law.
Sex
robots,
AVs,
drones
and
other
emerging
technologies
do
have
some
cultural
similarities
in
terms
of
their
being
integrated
into
peoples’
everyday
lives,
albeit
at
different
rates
and
in
very
different
ways.
As
a
society,
we
are
struggling
with
finding
agreed-upon
ethical
frameworks
and
developing
entire
new
bodies
of
legislation
based
in
those
agreements,
and
all
that
entails,
even
though
the
technologies
already
exist
and
can
be
bought
and
sold.
This
pattern
is
going
to
continue,
with
technology
outpacing
cultural
shifts,
for
a
long
time.