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The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet

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MeganGlass 就是一个古代的三明治
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
Just for the record: Le Trung is not a Japanese name. He is not a Japanese man. He is Vietnamese. Aiko is a Japanese name, and can read and speak Japanese because its creator is a nerd who built it out of a sex doll.

So yes, Aiko is anatomically correct, and Mr. Trung most likely has put that to good use.
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braak
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet

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nellicat
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
Only slightly related (re: masturbating): CNN has a story about that Playboy Virgin Mary cover. It's title? "Priest Blasts Playboy."

Heh.
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Remedios Varo can't see no huevos.
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
I've had a distaste for intelligent humanoid robots ever since reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which is the book on which "Blade Runner" is based. Also, one word: Terminator.
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braak
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
"Robots are really slaves without the inconvenient ethical issues."

I think this is a really interesting thing to say. Like, it kind of suggests that you should feel bad about having a robot slave. But aren't you supposed to feel bad about things because they're unethical? I mean, slavery is implicitly unethical; so if having a robot isn't unethical then why is it slavery?

zomg. whoah.
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Merkin
12/16/08

@braak: Except anyone who's read any sci-fi at all knows that it does become an ethical issue. Very popular theme.
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braak
12/16/08

@Merkin: Yes. Of course, in the first place, those are fiction, and therefore bear no necessary resemblance to how a robot would work in the real world.

And, in the second place, those scenarios and the dilemmas they explore are widely, widely varied.

I mean, consider someone like Asimov: Asimov wasn't just writing about robots--he was writing about artificial intelligence. The dilemma was: at what point of sophistication does consciousness constitute personhood?

Such a question simply doesn't apply here, as Aiko, and even her increasingly sophisticated successors, do not have anything that can accurately be called consciousness--only a series of increasingly complex rote behaviors that can be said to resemble consciousness.

In that case, we can't rightly say that there is an ethical dilemma regarding Aiko's slavery (sexual or otherwise), only that because Aiko's actions resemble consciousness, the situation resembles an ethical dilemma.

It's more than a little disingenuous, I think, to use "robots" to refer to all kinds of artificial entities. The definition of "robot"--nowadays, anyway--implicitly does not include consciousness or selfhood.
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hatepaperdoll
12/16/08

@braak: @Merkin: Just wait until this happens:

[www.theonion.com]
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nellicat
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
I don't have any problem with this. At all. What people do to masturbate is NONE OF MY DAMNED BUSINESS. If other people carry it even further than sexual masturbation and have, in essence, masturbatory "relationship" with their doll, why is that weirder than the person who stays home with her cats instead of going out on a date? Or people who really don't want/can't handle/whatever a romantic relationship and so spend their evenings reading or cooking or watching DVDs?

How is it any of my business?
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braak
12/16/08

@nellicat: It's your business because ROBOTS ARE AWESOME.

Also: what if people are secretly building the future army of sexbot overlords that will enslave humanity?
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Alwaystheangel
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
This is part of the video. I din't realize that it was japanese-Canadian fellow who made her. And he really doesn't seem like the type that made her for anything sexual.

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SurrealKiller
12/16/08

@Alwaystheangel:

aah this is even creepier!

And she's handicapped... which means she's angry and probably resents humans.
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LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues
12/16/08

@SurrealKiller: "Please let go of my arm. That hurt. Why did you do that for." CRREEEEEEEP-SAUUUUUUCE.
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hatepaperdoll
12/16/08

@Alwaystheangel: AHHH! The dead eyes instantly made me think of Asami from Audition. BAD BAD BAD!
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thesciencegirl
12/16/08

@Alwaystheangel: I have to stop watching this because I'm laughing hysterically at my desk. That robot is creepy.
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angelheadedhipster
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
We're still waiting on the Woomba, people . . .
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CrossWord
12/16/08

@angelheadedhipster: It cleans my business. My lady business.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
I had a vibrator once who always beat me at chess. More intelligent, yes, but it got too uppity to do it's job. It's batteries were donated to a cute but dumb model who just likes watching reruns of Golden Girls with me.
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morninggloria
12/16/08

@BrutallyHonestBabes: My vibrator couldn't pay attention in school and had to be prescribed some pretty powerful attention promoting drugs. Thanks, vibrator!
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LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues
12/16/08

@morninggloria: Your vibrator needs to take supplements instead of drugs, so it can get to the root of its problem. Drugs are for sissies, you know. And if your vibrator hasn't fallen down a manhole, it's not a cool vibrator.
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morninggloria
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
This story is a lot more heartwarming when set to the Field of Dreams soundtrack.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
If you gave my vibrator a face and made it talk ... yes, I would be creeped the frack out.

Some things are better left to the imagination.
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braak
12/16/08

@Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka: What if it could talk to you about Schopenhauer, and only in your lonely, pensive moments?
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
Le Trung, inventor of that fembot named Aiko says he didn't create it for sex.

And the Hitachi Magic Wand is a massager.
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VaginaWig is A Merkin
12/16/08

@BrutallyHonestBabes: But the box says it is a massager! You mean I've been using it wrong all this time?
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gostasgostas
12/16/08

@BrutallyHonestBabes: Which only brings back the still-painful memory of getting a knock on my door from the very elderly neighbour down the hall. She had signed for my post the previous day and had come over to give it to me. So OF COURSE she signed for my post the day that my new vibrator was delivered. And OF COURSE it had a customs label on it that said in clear writing, "2x massagers" (what? it was buy one get one free). Sigh. I'm still scanning the hallway to make sure she's not around before leaving the house...
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LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues
12/16/08

@gostasgostas: You know, when my mom had carpal tunnel surgery, her PT required her to buy a mini massager to encourage healing. I've always thought that would be a good excuse: "It's medical!"
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YourScreenplaySucks
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
Will the (inevitable) age of highly realistic sexbots/virtual reality porn create a generation of shut-ins with no inclination to deal with the stress associated with getting their sexual needs fulfilled by real (and physically imperfect) human beings and eventually will bring about the downfall of Western civilization? I vote probably.
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DangerMouse
12/16/08

@Your Screenplay Sucks: I think that, instead, it might weed some people out of the gene pool. I prefer to be optimistic about it.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
12/16/08

@Your Screenplay Sucks: Well Playboy, Hustler, etc. have helped create a generation of men who have very narrowly defined depictions of what a woman *should* be and *should* look like, and porn has helped contribute to the idea that women are all walking nymphs who secretly like to get manhandled and jizzed on, so... yes.
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braak
12/16/08

@Your Screenplay Sucks: It would be like, "Why would I want to go out side, when I could just stay in here and make out with my Marilyn Monrobot?"

The only danger that remains, of course is electric gonorrhea--the noisy killer.
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Agent355
12/16/08

@braak: The Space Pope implores you not to date robots!
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braak
12/16/08

@Agent355:

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Kilotwat
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
MO is still my favorite robot:

FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!
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Penny
12/16/08

In reply to The Fembot's Not For Sex... Yet
In a video, Le shows what happens when he squeezes the robot's boobs. Aiko says, "I do not like it when you touch my breasts," and swats the inventor away with her right arm.

Did I miss a memo?

Sorry, all this brings to mind is some pervert getting turned on by that and jerking off into her face.

I know....I have little faith in the male sex. Well, the male sex who would buy a Fembot.
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PilgrimSoul
12/16/08

@Penny Plastic (Archetype): See, you are a feminist after all! I shall present you with nutcutters in the small initiation ceremony we like to hold over here at Bonerkillers & Shrews 'r' Us.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
12/16/08

@Penny Plastic (Archetype): I got the creepo vibe about that too. Especially after reading about that virtual toy, where the women appears on your desk from that little box. And how people like to push her around and make her cry.
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DangerMouse
12/16/08

@PilgrimSoul: Do you also burn bras and throw away razors?
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Penny
12/16/08

@PilgrimSoul: Oh yee of little faith!!
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rocknrollunicorn
12/16/08

@Penny Plastic (Archetype): I'm with you on this. I'm pretty sure that in "not intending to create a sex robot," he created a "rapebot" for the perverts.
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PilgrimSoul
12/16/08

@DangerMouse (was ejc....): I have been growing my pubic hair for months as part of the preparations.
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nellicat
12/16/08

@rocknrollunicorn: Well, okay, but who cares? A lot of people (men and women) get off on rape fantasies. I wouldn't go so far as to call them "perverts" - no one is being harmed by this fantasy, so why is it your business? Why do you get to call someone else's fantasy "perverted?"
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Eleanor Ramilly
12/16/08

@Penny Plastic (Archetype): The thing is, if it wasn't intended for sex stuff et all, why program it to say anything or react in that manner when she's touched there?
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D'Amicos one good year
12/16/08

@Shannon: That's exactly what I was thinking. He may WANT it to fight back. Just enough.

I think I just threw up a little.
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Eleanor Ramilly
12/16/08

@D'Amicos one good year: See, I understand some people are into role play and enjoy participating in consentual power struggles, that's all well and good and not really what I'm after here so long as no one is getting hurt. When that robot sheds a tear and releases a white dove on a roof top in dismay than maybe I'll care about its feelings.
The point is he didn't need to make it say anything, by having it react sexualizes it instantly.
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D'Amicos one good year
12/16/08

@Shannon: I know what you're saying... But this robot is obviously not just a robot to him. It's a human-interaction replacement. Which is to say, that without that programable replacement at hand, what's to say he wouldn't find something (or someone) else to "program".

I know part of it is that I'm humanizing an inanimate object. But that object is a reflection of the man who created it, and his desires... And I'm calling into question just what desires he's fulfilling.
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Eleanor Ramilly
12/16/08

@Shannon: For shame, that is the second time today I said "than" instead of "then."

@D'Amicos one good year: Yeah, it's all a bit icky in a "what does the future hold" sort of way, also.
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rocknrollunicorn
12/16/08

@nellicat: Um, ok, I wasn't really talking about consensual rape fantasies being acted out. I was thinking more along the lines of people who might start out with a robot who only says pre-programmed things, and escalate. It's really not judging people's fantasies to say that this robot creeps me out.
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rocknrollunicorn
12/16/08

@rocknrollunicorn: ugh that is badly worded. should say "rape fantasies being consensually acted out."

In any case, I didn't mention fantasies at all, originally.
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