21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Sex robot addiction — clinics braced for humans hooked on cyborgs like ‘problem drinkers.’

See, I told you so, says notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: What I Learned on My Date With a Sex Robot.

Not to trust notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias™?

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: A lot of Americans think they’d probably try sex with a robot.

Nobody tell notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.™

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future​: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants.’

Perhaps one day we’ll wish we’d listen to the prophetic warnings of notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.

At least I’m insured.

THE ULTIMATE VOX.COM WORKPLACE ACCIDENT? Vox co-founder Matt Ygelsias has deleted several thousand tweets:

Gone, as Steve noted earlier, was this classic tweet from the summer of 2013:

Could it all have been an accident? Perhaps — but this tweet from 2010, which also recently vanished down the memory hole, casts a bit of doubt on that theory:

Exit quote:

Heh, indeed. And note the irony of a notorious robophobe approvingly quoting one of the most famous replicants in history. Do androids dream of deleted tweets?

MAYBE THEY WERE ROBO-CURIOUS: ‘I’ve met some women who were into me because of the doll’… Man reveals the truth of his two year ‘relationship’ with a sex robot. Nobody tell notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias, who is likely to find this story even more triggering than most: “He seems to have a particular fear of fembots, the analysis of which I will leave to the professionals.”

WELL, FEMINISTS WILL PROBABLY TRY TO BAN THEM FOR MEN FIRST: Will Sex Robots Destroy the Human Race? Experts Host a Tech Conference to Discuss.

I hope they don’t invite notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias. No platform for robo-hate!

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: How Will Sexbots Change Human Relationships? Nobody tell that notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.

But if you’re going to worry, as this author does, that “female” sexbots will shape male expectations of real women, what about vibrators? The oldest of all sexbots, have they shaped female expectations of men? Plus, note this old post on double standards. Plus, a discussion in the comments here.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Are Two Actual People Still Required for a Relationship?

The next logical step, of course, is robot romance. Scientists have already created robots that can wash your hair, serve you tea, vacuum your house, mow your lawn, and even interact with you socially. With each successive generation these robots become more and more human in appearance and behavior. And they’re already pretty darn real. In fact, studies have shown that troubled children often respond more readily to therapeutic contact with a robot than a human caregiver. These well-programmed therapy robots are able improve almost any child’s mood, and they can nearly always get antisocial children to interact more willingly with other children and also with adults. Plus, these robots don’t get annoyed, impatient, or disappointed when children are challenging, unresponsive, or just plain difficult, so what’s not to love? And if children can have healthy emotional responses to non-organic beings, why can’t adults?

How much longer will it be before Rosie, the walking, talking, emoting robot maid from The Jetsons is real? And what will happen when Rosie’s manufacturer decides she’ll sell better if she looks like a supermodel and has realistic sex-toy genitalia? Will we suddenly prefer sexual activity with robots to real people? And if these ultra-sexy robots can be programmed to behave as if they adore their owner, as Samantha does in “Her,” it’s pretty easy to visualize humans bonding with these “beings” every bit as fully and intimately as they might with a real person.

Nobody tell notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Married to a Doll: Why One Man Advocates Synthetic Love. “40-year-old Davecat (a nickname acquired from videogames that he now prefers to go by) and others who call themselves iDollators see their dolls as life partners, not sex toys. Davecat and Sidore (or, as he sometimes calls her, Shi-chan) obviously aren’t legally married, but they do have matching wedding bands that say ‘Synthetik [sic] love lasts forever,’ and he says they’re considering some sort of ceremony for their 15th anniversary.”

Future generations of Robosexuals will view this man as a lonely trailblazer, like the Daughters of Bilitis or the Mattachine Society. Just don’t tell notorious robophobe Matt Yglesias, who clings to outdated prejudices against our silicon sisters with their manager misters.

IS ROBOSEXUALITY A CHOICE, OR IS IT INBORN? Will we ever want to have sex with robots? Don’t ask Matt Yglesias about this, as he’s a notorious robophobe.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE ROBOTS:

The robot equipment industry has one word for the alarmist articles and television news programs that predict a robot is about to steal your job: Fiddlesticks! Well, that wasn’t actually the word used this week at the Automate 2013 trade show held here through Thursday, but the sentiment was the same. During a presentation on Monday, Henrik I. Christensen, the Kuka Chair of Robotics at Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing, sharply criticized a recent “60 Minutes” report on automation that was based on the work of the M.I.T. economists Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson. . . .

During his talk, Dr. Christensen said that the evidence indicated that the opposite was true. While automation may transform the work force and eliminate certain jobs, it also creates new kinds of jobs that are generally better paying and that require higher-skilled workers.

Notorious robophobe Matt Yglesias was unavailable for comment.

ROBOSEXUAL: Today’s Humans Ready to Love Tomorrow’s Robots. “A world of lonely singles finding comfort in the arms of a robot lover may be closer than expected in human hearts and minds.”

UPDATE: In Maryland, standing up against robosexual marriage. Nobody tell noted robophobe Matt Yglesias! There’s already a book-length treatment. And hey, I’m married to a Cyborg and it’s pretty great. You know what they say: Once you’ve gone Cyborg, you’ll never, uh . . . anybody got a rhyming dictionary handy?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader J.C. Hinds writes:

Allow me to nerd out for a minute or three as I’ve given the relationships between all-flesh humans, cyborgs and robots a little too much thought. My fellow online gamers could verify this, sadly. As someone who plays a cyborg I always figured starting a relationship with a cyborg would be referred to as “going metal.” It’s a reference to those who have gone through a full-body “just a brain and glands in a jar” conversion and early bodies would likely be made of metal. Anyway, the best rhyme I’ve used so far to promote the benefits of dating a cyborg is “Once you go metal, you’ll no longer settle.” Also I’m pretty sure that a few wiseacres among the cyborg set would say “Cyborg is outdated. The preferred term is Mecha-American.”

Thought that might help you to a better understanding of this new world where metal & fleshy bits get a little cozier than expected. It may also say that I’ve read way too much science fiction in my life. Thanks for writing such an enjoyable blog for all these years.

There’s no such thing as reading too much science fiction!