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It's a lonely world out there -- even surrounded by millions upon millions of other people, there just might not be that special someone for you. Perhaps it's for lack of a connection, or perhaps it's because that connection you did find is a little bit on the unconventional side. But whether it's the cold embrace of silicone and steel that one lusts for, or just simply some sort of connection, artificial intelligence researcher David Levy (courtesy of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands) is putting forth a viable answer for the near future: robots.
It is by no means a new idea -- what Levy's research is proposing, however, is the idea of proposing to your robot before the point where it magically transforms into a real girl (or boy) is an option our world is hurtling toward at record speed.
"There's a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans," Levy said. "At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony's Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis."
In his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.
"It may sound a little weird, but it isn't," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."
Well, of course sex with robots is inevitable -- at this point, what with MP3-enhanced real dolls and all, I'd wager it's well beyond inevitable and on its way to the point of "already happening." Not that it's mentioned much in the mainstream, which is the difference here, and which Levy suggests will become much more commonplace once robots become a little less Rockit and a little more replicant. As it is, like a replicant, Levy suggests that robots are not so different than you and I to begin with. Structural integrity notwithstanding, anyway.
Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, "and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that's programmable too."
Personally, I'm all for it -- love is where you find it, be it in the kittenish motor hum of a warm hard-drive or the diesel thunder of the kid snoring next to you while you write a Newswire article. However, I do have this to say, regarding this of his predictions:
Levy predicts Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize human-robot marriage. "Massachusetts is more liberal than most other jurisdictions in the United States and has been at the forefront of same-sex marriage," Levy said. "There's also a lot of high-tech research there at places like MIT."
Although roboticist Ronald Arkin at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta does not think human-robot marriages will be legal anywhere by 2050, "anything's possible. And just because it's not legal doesn't mean people won't try it," he told LiveScience.
Is it too much to ask that, before we get the ball rolling on marriages to robots, that we make sure everyone not reliant on artificial intelligence gets their rights taken care of first? Besides, I have a feeling Massachusetts, for all their friendly liberalism, is a little less versed on technology than one would need for such endeavors to happen.
Then again, anything is possible when it comes to love, right?
_DictionaryGirl_ says: extra points to anyone who knows what the title says, and even more extra points if I got it wrong and you can correct me. We can't all be robots.
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