Whatever makes people happy but I cannot see AI that advanced happening anytime soon.

Hahaha,
Marriage with robots??? Well it does not matter how much AI you give to robots. A robot will still be a piece of junk made of metal. It would be very interesting to shag a robot. Pity I would be too old by then.

1964 the world had computers, the public did not. Now everyone owns a computer. This probably isn't that far off of a prediction. I just want to see a true learning machine first though. Maybe something set loose on the net, lol.

sounds painful...

So I GUESS I will just leave it to legitimate discussion rather than go down the "naughty" road. And yeah, sex with a robot is not a road I want to go down, unless of course there is some SERIOUS Virtual Reality going on.

ANYWAY, a relationship with a Robot? Would the robot be programmed to ALWAYS agree with you? Would it be some sort of super genius that did everything for you? How exactly do these researches envision this happening?

I think we're slowly but surely going down a road where human interaction is more or less eliminated.

I don't think I could do anything below a NEXUS 4

In the 50s they predicted everyone would have personal rocket packs by now, go anywhere by strapping them on our backs. To predict this so factually is ridiculous. People marrying animals is more likely to happen before this does, which is just as ridiculous. There won't be a robot this complex for at least 100 years. In Isaac Assimov's I Robot, the book was set in the 1990s. As you can see, we are far off track for that.

Ok. This AI guy from whatever university is nasty. Bottom line. Although this puts a whole new twist on "watching the sparks fly" Gross. fucking weirdo...

We are so incredibly far from real AI that his statement is ridiculous. People are always talking about how computing power will increase with [insert invention name here], but it doesn't matter how much computing power we have because programmers still haven't the slightest clue how to make a self aware machine.

And here he is suggesting not only a self aware machine, but one with reasoning powers equivalent to those of a human, and a physical form appealing to a human as well. Give me a break.

Heck, if they build robots that resemble Tricia Helfer, the Cylon from Battlestar Galactica, then I might just marry one to.

Otherwise, I agree with the "sounds painful" comment above.

But only if the 'robot' is one of the hottie Cyclons from BSG... Who wouldn't want to come home to Number 6 or Sharon... hehe...

robotic companies begin to sell Most Hot Looking robots then men are simply go for those hot "girls", so who will marry those real women who able to give birth human future? Are we having some missing link?

it was homosexual marriage in the near-past, and now... human-robotic marriage in the near-future...

fortunately,
i still prefer females... :P

bwahahaha :D

Women already use sybians. This is just the next step.

Fat chance of people marrying them. More than likely robots will be used as alternatives to prostitutes.

One guy two years my senior at uni has built a robot that can learn to walk. It did not have any specific walking programs to begin with but just tried out things, and in just about 2 hours it could walk quite well. On a second note he built the robot when he was a first year student.

So logicaly we can build some really cool stuff and some really nasty stuff.

No fury like a skynet scorned...

Well... not as painful as an ex-girlfriend or wife. A little plastic pain is a vacation!


PS: with Real Doll - the sex with fake-body is pretty much here... just need to get the AI working and motors light enough to move the body with as much motion as a real person the nuclear reactor to power it up....

But who wants a possible TERMINATOR sleeping in their bed>?

If they can have really big boobs and know not to talk so much. Hell yeah bring them on.

Just think of the possibilities. You can't possibly shut your wife down without risking of being prosecuted. But a robot wife? If she (it) was nagging, you could simply shut her down, and do whatever you please. No one would occupy your TV set watching stupid drama..wow ;-)))

I am so there. I'll be the first to get one when available. No worries about STDs, no worry if she's pregnant, and if she gets on my nerves I'll simply hit the OFF button or better yet...the MUTE button!!!

As a proverb says:

Professing themselves to be wise they became fools !

Are their talking about metal robots, like the ones vacuum floors now, or cyborg oranisms like terminators? Cyborg girl from Terminator 3 was pretty ok, if it's true, I don't mind that.

Oh boy, it's just a matter of time before some of these robots come out of the closet. Then what? A robot divorce? Who gets custody of little wratchet?

I'm already in love with my computers, I don't know what this 2050 stuff is all about.

Marriage though...ummm probably not. Unless upgrades and replacements are allowed. Just imagine being stuck with a 486 DX2 with Windows 3.11 for the rest of your life. Yikes

i can't wait!

At current stage AI is not even advanced enough to hold a real coversation, let alone anything else, the advances in ai have been a snails pace compared to the cpu market.

Also robotics are also very slow in advancing we don't even have human looking robotic servants yet.

Combined we wont see a human looking robotic servant for at least 200- 300 more years.

My guess is manufactured humans will exist before this happens, not cloning but made from scratch.

I once saw an episode of futurama that talked about something like this... and there was a little commercial about the fact that the entire civilization was build upon the objective of seducing the opposing sex, unless we get some robots with reproductive capability we are as good as extinct lol xD
this might sound extreme but think about it... if u have a robot that does everything they do, minus the talking :D, most non-smart people will just forget about the importance of well... matting :D thus populations would decline WAY faster then the smart ones would be making them... lol the only usefull thing out of all this is that we (smart ones :P) would get rid of the non ones, so the world would technically be a better place... an empty one, but better non the less. xD

Robot AIs aren't clouded by emotion, as soon as you pass the threshold of net worth that's double what you provide your robot, you can expect them to divorce you and take half your assets.

is that women will be marring their vibrators since every young male will just be a little wuss, half already are today. So in the future it will just be worst.

untill you see the blue screen of death

Darn, I'll be too old to enjoy them.

Worse, they'll likely run on windows, so just as things are starting to "heat up" you'll get a blue screen of death, and that will mean something ENTIRELY different.

dang i just had a new flash "1,000,000,000,000 jap robots storm us territory today crossing the border from the south, Mexico sais that they have no recollection of seeing anything out of the ordinary and they are in full denial of harboring....."

50 years ago nobody would have ever believed that it would be legal for gays to get married, so why not.

If we as a species would be foolish enough to marry a robot then we are ultimately doomed. Our destruction by our own hands is imminent if the types of thought processes that lead and individual to marry a robot persist in other parts of our society as well. If we go against nature too much, nature will push back. Its sad that our species is no better than those hentai-otaku in Japan that want robots to screw...

Raise your children with a good moral grounding and we can avoid such a disaster.

Science fiction is full of instances and reasons why humanity and AI would ultimately go to war. Robots will either try to nuke us (Terminator), make us into batteries (The Matrix), or control every aspect of our lives to protect us from ourselves (iRobot). AI is logical and cold. It will see that we are too flawed for our own good and will probably take action to control us. Damn I hate robots!

From the full article: "In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that's quite likely."

Duh, we have those; they're called vibrators. Having strong enough AI for a person to engage it in a meaningful relationship, let alone for others to recognize it enough to allow legal marriage, would be the far more impressive development.

I thought this was already happening.

sounds more pathetic than painful.

Just ask Maria Shriver (Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife) or Tipper Gore.

I guess I'm one of those old fashioned people who prefer human interaction, (which by the way we’re losing everyday to technology). With any luck I'll be dead by 2050.

In response to the earlier "We are doomed" post, I would like to add a point or two: Since our world is over populated with genetically inferior people (all kinds of genetic/hereditary disorders these days) maybe we can breed out the weak and reduce our planet's population. Mankind is not adding to our environment, we are decimating it and a few less of us will ensure the survival of our entire world. Then again, we have strength in numbers. If nature decides to fling an asteroid upon us or set off another ice age due to our climate tampering then having 6 billion of us will ensure some of us will survive to do it all over again 10,000 years later =)

Finally, at last....when we always want a hyper-active female sex robot whose we can program to meet our male's desires. Blowjob 3 times a day? Not a problem. Threesomes - Not a problem.

The only genetically inferior people are the ones with your mentality. If we could only eliminate your kind we could accomplish all sorts of great things.

Predictions like this are just absurd. I can't stand "futurists" and their predictions. Saying something like "I predict the majority of the world will be using a worldwide broadband wireless internet by 2015" is much more reasonable. You can realistically only go about 10-15 years in the future before it gets very murky. Society changes too much, and too rapidly for predictions far into the future to even have a strong chance of being accurate.

On the moral side: a "relationship" with a robot would be very unfulfilling. It would be like playing chess against yourself. Don't believe the hype.

Further more, robots can't be trusted.
;)

Many people have more feelings for their dog than fellow humans. Look on the net or sex shop - there are molded vagainas that men buy (and of course the sex toys for women)... only thing is, its not a body.

If a person has little or no social skills - they'll take what they can get... even if its artifical. While dolls, creep me out - the bigger the worse it is - there are advantages (not in a joking way)

- never get old
- Most likly not cheat (unless programmed)
- never nag, never have a PERIOD,
- Won't spend your money on things like dresses (now, YOU will do that - if you take her out)
- Won't dump you for a loser
- Can't have kids (perhaps in 100 years)
- Won't talk about the "Last guy"(s).
- Upgradable
- Plays Doom or UT games with you.

Bad: If you can actually Marry a robot (think of that robin williams movie that was boring-long) and it HAS feelings - especially with learning software (which we today in games and science systems - the learning part, not feelings) - then you'd have the PROBLEM of robots demanding rights as sentient beings. (Think of Animatrix)Then the robots with rights will...

- Refuse sex if its unhappy with you, or to mess with you.
- Demand the ability to HAVE children
- Lie
- take your money and buy toy-boy-robot things
- divorce you
- Have sex with others (that STD thing is there)... and other than the AGE thing, the sentient robot ends up being just as much of a pain as a real woman. (Don't worry ladies, Men are bad guys too, in different ways).

Nope, a Good sex-bot cannot have REAL feelings. Fake ones that are user selectable, yes (Tonight, I want her to hurt me reeeeaaal good - click click click) - but there is still the problem of taking out a Smart Sex toy in public as your date.

The good: Help reduce the over-population of the Earth.

Not that i want to start flamming anyone but he is kind of right, and rather you like it or no we have to much genetic garbage running around, consuming important resources that we might need in the future . Further more its people like you who apparently cant accept the view of someone who apparently actually knows the state of our world, that will probably take us in the future to get rid of half the population for the other half to survive. You probably live in a rather well developed country and have never gone to africa, or india, and dont see the amount of people who are dying of hunger and etc... yes most their problems came from the fact that we rather developed country's took advantage of their not so intelligent minds and that most their politicians dont give a crap about it... but a disturbing amount of them were born when their parents where already starving themselves to death... even if we can stop their hunger we (Humanity) dont have, nor will have in a close future, the means to sustain all those people.

I just read this lol
"Further more, robots can't be trusted.
;)
Jack O'Neill"
i just imagined a robot during intercourse getting a BSOD AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA xD
BLUE SCREEN OF DEATHHHHHHHH!!!!!
XD

pop conversations about such things are always too loosely defined,loosely constrained. A vibrator is not a robot, nor is a dildo. Our definition of robot is far too wide and loose to have any meaning whatsoever. So whole discussion is kinda pointless. I can only hope that we NEVER try to make truly self aware, self learning, self building, self-programming (the really scary part) autonomous creatures that could somehow self-aquire the resources to independently exist and reproduce. Thats too far away if ever to imagine. That kind of AI doesnt seem a part of robot evolution. Rather it would be a new beast. As far as love and marriage, I think that would require (artificial)life to be there, which means alot
(beyond horizon). I could see robots as prostitutes, but never more than that, and would never totally replace human escorts. I feel sorry for and a bit ashamed of anyone who could be truely,deeply in love with a mere computer, (but I cant say for sure nobody will). No matter how subtley and eloquently and appropriately randomized its responses and behaviors (etc), it could never ever be more than some really awesome entertainment/assistant tool. But I guess ones emotions about such a thing would be somewhat related to ones understanding of it. For example, we can surely 'love' our cat. Not in same way as spouse, but still a real category of love/emotional attachment FAR beyond any kind of techno-affection. But if a good 2099 cat-bot was made, nearing indistinguishable from real meow, how might someone not too tech savy feel about the bot if we never told them it wasnt real? Oh but we're forgetting cyborgs. Bring on the human body car-wrecked brain-dead wives with
replacement cyber-brains! Brings new meaning to technophilia! hmm would that be worthy of love?
(I liked you better with your previous firware)

This interesting article *almost* offended me, not because I think the author is wrong; it IS likely to happen some day. But we still live in an age where gay people are bashed or killed on the streets, often with impunity and the U.S. is among the worst "First World" nations on Earth to live in in this regard. Luckily for myself, I was prepared in 1991 and was able to shoot my attacker (the one who ignored 8 warnings to stay away or be shot) while his two accomplices were smart enough to run when they saw I could really defend myself. Is it much better in 2007? Only a little, and that's only if you don't count the hate-mongering right wing that's managed to get everyone in the world to hate us even more than they did before 9/11. People (mostly guys, I'd say) who use artificial surrogates for sex are still thought of as at least "losers" or creeps, but that may change once technology allows for intelligent, humaniform robots that might even be able to carry on a better conversation than some people I know. But *intelligent* isn't the same as *sentient*. As Ray Kurzweil, the futurist/inventor/writer, makes a pretty good case for, we WILL be merging and likely co-evolving with our machines in this century. But once your intelligent sex-toy significant-other gains a sense of self-awareness and cognition at least equal to our own, won't be right back in the days of slavery? Won't they have (or demand!) full rights to make their own decisions too? This is one of those slippery slopes that is coming, probably can't be avoided (short of a war that destroys our technology) and is worth talking and arguing about. People might laugh or call it creepy now, but as far-out as these ideas are, some day, in some court or other the judge will say: "All rise or hover" while adjudicating the first divorce.

if robots replace humans, u better have less humans or else there will be no jobs for them

we need robots to help humans no replace them

The population of the United States represents just 5% of the worlds total population yet accounts for over 50% of the world’s total resources. So it seems that if we just eliminate the US and all the Fat Bastards there who over consume their fair share that alone would solve most problems.

I would not expect intelligent reasoning from someone who would dare refer to any human being as genetic garbage. What can be said about a people who’ve created a world in which it’s no longer safe to breathe the air, drink the water, eat its food or stand in the sunlight?

As for the problems of India, Africa, Iraq, and other such places, I think you’ll find that in most cases you don’t have to look too hard to find the many tentacles of the US Governments involvement at hand. Ruled by a government making loans to people in need then proceeding to set loan sharking terms that in no way benefit those it’s supposed to help, always shouting about freedom and democracy yet supporting every dictator that turns up. Not to mention your arms industry selling weapons to people with no real enemies except those selling them the weapons in the first place, who then set about destroying their country causing the need in the first place.

Don’t you find it strange that every time the US gets involved in a conflict your soldiers end up dying from weapons supplied by US companies to your so called enemies with the full consent of the US Government. How long is it going to take before you realize that while perhaps most Americans, unlike yourself, are fairly decent people, your government is by far the sleaziest out there, doing things IN YOUR NAME that make the world a worse place to live.

Here is one possible place that might have started this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbFFs4DHWys

an interesting idea to have, although I doubt it if they could have the same feeling of natural flesh and perhaps more ....

It's interesting he is mentioning an empty planet because it just so happens that in I Robot, by Assimov, one of the planets was pretty much empty of people and it was basically run by robots serving what few people were left. And actually mentioning the word "Mother" or "Father" was considered crude if not obscene in that society.

This robot would have to be very advanced in the AI to simulate a real person and we are very, very, very far from that. We barely have speech recognition, much less being able to carry on a conversation. Again, the idea is ridiculous and ludicrous. Sounds like someone who likes to hear themselves talk and thinks their ideas are so prophetic, no matter how idealistic and unrealistic.

think about it, you will be all wanting some action from your sexbot and you turn it on and next thing you know....red ring of death...haha no thanks I think we should leave these up to another company that will have more features built in...:P

If society decides to go this route, there is possibly another obstacle in the way. The "uncanny valley" theory (do a wiki search). From the wiki entry:
"The phenomenon can be explained by the notion that, if an entity is sufficiently non-humanlike, then the humanlike characteristics will tend to stand out and be noticed easily, generating empathy. On the other hand, if the entity is "almost human", then the non-human characteristics will be the ones that stand out, leading to a feeling of "strangeness" in the human viewer."
So, it most likely won't happen unless the robots are virtually indistinguishable from humans, and even if the physical characteristics are, the other characteristics such as movement, emotion, etc. will still create that uncanny feeling.
Of course, there's a criticism section, but it's still something to think about.

If they ever did come up with a robot that was even moderately appealing in _that_ way, it would wind up being managed like a cable-box, or cell phone. They will bring a whole new meaning to "service fees".

The way biological brains work is very different to how we have designed computers in an architectural sense. In fact IBM simulated half a mouse brain recently on a supercomputer and it was not even real time, I think 1 sec of brain activity was 6 secs of 'processing' time.

Why are people so fixated on having sex with robots when there are so many other issues facing us.

I can see what's coming with robots, there will be a big discussion on their rights, freedoms and other BS for what is essentially an human derived electrical device. Not to mention properly defining in Law what it is to be a sentient being.

All emotion is derived from a need for survival (Individual and genetic). If you want to build a device that has or emulates human like emotion, you must first give it a real or simulated drive to survive. This could lead to aggressive behavior.

Dropping human population to the level it was a few hundred years ago would be a very good thing. The largest problem with a population crash would be the number of people in the work force VS the number of people too old to work.

Augmenting the workforce with devices that consume 1/100th or less the resources of a human would solve this problem.

100 years is not an unreasonable time frame. Look at where the computer industry was 100 years ago. Look at where it was 50.

For the people who think they will be too old, Viagra will only get better :)

On last point, marriage is first and foremost a legal contract granting rights to both parties. By granting a device the right to marry, you are giving it the rights of a human. Marriage will always be between humans, just different kinds.

Sorry for jumping around, I had allot to say.

"I'll have a Martini on the rocks and my friend here will have a shot of Tri-Flo"

That thing is sexy the way it flashes its lights at me and nuzzles my feet when I'm at my desk. Think I'll take the relationship to the next level.

Ima gunna make millions...sheee-ooot. I also have dibs on the first robot massage parlors.

Sex with robots? Fine, its like jacking off, or using a dildo. Marriage with robots? Damn, what is this world coming to...Besides, how did this topic get into the heads of these scientists anyway? It reminds me a lot of that episode in Futurama with the guy makin in out with a robot girl...creepy.

As a long standing supporter of age-old male tradition of screwing anything that moves, sex with a good enough bot is fine by me.

Gotta make sure I get the version preloaded with all Kama Sutra positions and clearly I don't want anything to do with ones loaded with Windows 2057, Windows 2055 is much better, it doesn't crush in all the important moments and it's more user-friendly.

Also, no way in the world am I getting an iBot, that thing is waaaay to expensive and you can't even upgrade the damn thing.