WEBVTT - Sexbots: From Objectification to Therapeutic Surrogates 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.160 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop works 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:14.680 dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.639 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Christians Sager. So, hey, 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.639 if this is an episode that you are listening to, 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.040 maybe with your kids, or maybe you're concerned about the 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.280 company that you're listening to it, and we should just 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:28.760 let you know up front, this is gonna be a 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.920 little bit of a more graphic episode of Stuff to 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.440 Blow Your Mind. Be uh, based on the title. You 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.959 probably know that already, but we just wanted to give 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:38.240 you a heads up because we know that a lot 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.680 of families right into us and say, hey, I really 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.120 like listening to the show. I listened to it on 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.600 the way to school in the morning with my daughter. Um, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:47.520 this might not be the episode to do that. Yeah, 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.120 you might give this one a skip in that case. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.560 Now that being said, we're we're gonna tackle the topic 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.840 of sex spots in this episode, and we are, as usual, 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.560 we're going to do our best to to demystify the 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.120 topic of bit. We're gonna floor. Yes, we're gonna talk 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.320 about some of the in many cases trashy er um. 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.560 Examples of this show up in our science fiction. We're 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.679 going to talk about some definite opposition to the idea 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:12.480 of sex spots, but we're also going to explore some 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.320 territory that I was really fascinated with that where where 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.720 we see a more positive vision of what a sex 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.520 spot or sexual interaction between humans and machines might consist, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:29.720 of visions of this that are beneficial, even therapeutic. Yeah, exactly. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:31.600 I think that's the real hook here, and the thing 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.959 that I didn't know a lot about going into the research, 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.240 which is that there are a lot of uh of 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.240 these robots being built, and there's a lot of research 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.559 going into their construction that's healing basically for human beings 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.840 in a variety of ways. And we'll get into that now. 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.080 Before we get into the science, we should just take 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.200 a few moments to talk about some of the examples 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.600 that we've seen, and there are many different examples of 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.800 sex spots in science fiction. I mean, whenever we start 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.920 thinking thinking about artificial humans, and certainly we've dreamed about 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.520 artificial humans since ancient times and they factored into our 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.280 many of our myth cycles. We we inherently deal with 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.359 our anxiety about technology and our anxiety about human nature 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.160 in dreaming up these various examples. So a few that 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.840 come to mind. There's a wonderful novel titled The Wind 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.320 Up Girl. Uh, and this was by Paulo Bacadalupe. And 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.359 this is this coming concerned you know, sort of your 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.480 sort of your typical sex bot scenario. We have a 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.519 pleasure body of some kind, a feminine robot that is 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:42.120 made for male pleasure, that escapes, goes rogue, you know, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.720 has a has a struggle for independence. It's a really 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.680 good book. Uh, but it does explore kind of a 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.960 classic trope here that is a very common trope in 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.080 sci fi now now that I think about it, and 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.880 especially looking at a lot of our examples here with 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.480 things that are really kind of popular right now, like 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.760 Humans or Westward Old, right, like the other shows that 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.520 are all exploring that same idea. Yeah, both great shows. 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.320 And you can and it's obvious why this is such 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:09.880 a powerful trope because you get to explore not only 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.359 are concerns about technology and the future of technology, but 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.400 also about about what it means to be to be 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.720 female in today's world and and uh and in various 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.720 feminine issues that you can explore through this, Uh, this 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.600 fantastic vision. Yeah. The other recent one that really gripped 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.519 a lot of people's attention. I thought it was maybe 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.840 the best movie that came out that year was XM 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:36.040 Gonna Yes. Alex Garland's XM Gonna Wow. Uh definitely Uh 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.320 talked about the issues surrounding sex spots, but was more 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:45.360 about I guess the like emotional availability of AI. And 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.440 this is something that like we've actually off air been 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.560 kind of talking about, like how it relates to this 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:53.880 topic is um For instance, that Spike Jones movie Her, 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.200 which I haven't seen but I don't think actually features 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.960 a robot in it, but it sort of the same idea. 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.680 It's like, can an artificial intelligence convince you that it's 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:09.080 real enough that you have you're an emotionally engaging relationship 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.240 with it. Yeah, this is, of course, is the whole 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:14.920 topic unto itself, Like to what degree we in do 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.920 you a non living thing with life, even if it's 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.600 not a robot, even if it is a doll or 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.159 a toy painting. I mean, we have this fabulous ability 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.640 to anthropomorphize just about anything. Yea to have it lead 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:30.880 you put a smiley face on something and it will 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.719 create we will instantly have this smidgeon at least a 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.200 smidgeon of investment in that thing as a person. Well, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.120 and that goes way back. You've got notes here to 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.880 the Greek myth of Hefestus, right, or as I usually 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.280 call him, Vulcan, because I think that's Vulcans. What the 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.160 Roman version of that? Yeah, if you have Vulcans, the 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.720 Roman version and uh yeah, and if you've ever rolled 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.880 through Birmingham, Alabama, they have a big statue of Vulcan. Wait, 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.600 is that right? That's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.640 was like a steal working town. Okay, so, uh so 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.320 Vulcan plays a role in in my personal history as well. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.320 But yeah, this in myth. He created a series of 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.039 life sized golden maids, among various other models. So he 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.440 was kind of mad scientist of Greek and Roman myth. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:19.719 But you can see they're like going that far back 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.640 that we human beings were thinking about in our culture 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.440 and our storytelling, like how we were going to try 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:31.359 to replicate the human experience in machines or in I 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.120 believe the terminology that was used referring to Vulcan and 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:39.120 Hephestus was biotechnique. Yeah, yeah, that's right, And there's a 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.880 wonderful Ian magazine article on that, and I'll try to 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:43.440 include a link to that and some of the other 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:45.760 articles who were mentioning here in the landing page for 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:47.919 this episode of Stuff to Blow your Mind dot Com. Also, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.200 obviously many people out there probably thinking of Darryl Hannah's 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.920 character Priss from Blade Runner, which is referred to as 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.520 a basic pleasure model. Although so it's funny. I was 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.800 reading an Ionine article yesterday that's all about what what 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.680 we're talking about right now, the fictionalized versions of sex spots. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.320 There's a lot of argumentation in the commentary about whether 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:13.600 Priss counted because replicants are technically organic individuals. I think 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.120 she counts. Yeah, yeah, there there's that whole Once you 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.240 get into the whole android replicate thing, it gets a 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.440 little a little hazy. Now that anybody out there is 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:23.159 a fan of Rick and Morty, there was an episode 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.320 titled Raising gas Orpazorp that included a sex spot that 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.280 I haven't seen that one. Yeah, that that Morty ends 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.160 up acquiring and has a brief addiction to. So we 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.640 might come back to to that vision of a sex 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:37.800 spot here in the future. But that kind of leads 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.120 us into some of the more exploitive visions. I guess 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.400 you can say, the sort of heavy metal visions of 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.080 the sex spot. Um, what what was the name of 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.480 the artist that you, uh, you sent me yesterday? There's 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.200 this guy. So heavy Metal Magazine is what we're referring to, 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.560 which is if if you're unfamiliar with it, it is 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:59.920 an American magazine that specializes in comics that are sort 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.960 of like R rated fantasy sci fi comics. Uh. And 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.320 the cover art is usually pretty salacious. And Robert found 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.240 this one artist who has done quite a number of 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:17.360 covers for them that specializes in sexualized female robots. Oh yeah, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.760 this would be, of course, be a Japanese artist, Hajimie 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.200 sore Yama. Okay, yeah, and this is this is one 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.920 of the Remember when I first got online, really the 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.360 first year of college, last year of high school, I 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:33.120 ended up introducing myself to a number of fantasy artists 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.280 that that I was instantly taken with. And uh and 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.720 I remember encountering this guy's work and it's it's eye catching, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.200 but it's all of like sexy robot pin up dolls, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.320 like that's his his thing, and that's certainly a vision 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.040 of the sex spot, the fimbot that you know, whatever 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:49.880 you want to call them, whatever they're calling your particular 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.640 uh sci fi property that we see time and time again. Um, 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.680 like a property that I think back to is NS 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.480 Cherry two thousand starring Melanie Griffith. I have never seen that, 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.160 and I, uh, you know, I've always kind of heard 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.520 about it on the fringe of things, but yeah, it 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.480 really hit my radar doing the research for this episode. Yeah, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.200 it's it's definitely one that falls more into the you know, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.200 exactly what you'd expect from a ninety eighties film, So 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.040 it has a sex about it. I suppose like she 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.400 can't complain too much about her daughter doing these fifty 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.920 shades of Gray movies. Then if like her daughter can 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.040 just be like, well you were in Cherry two thousands, Yes, 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.280 but she was not Cherry two thousand. She was she 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.520 was just she was like a human bounty hunt. Okay, 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.760 I didn't know that, all right, Um, you know what 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:31.560 is not on the list that it just like popped 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:33.280 in my head. I can't believe we forgot about this. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.240 The Stepford Wives. Yeah, the Stepford Wives a big one 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.640 that and it ties in directly with some of the 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.600 fears and anxieties they were going to discuss here, because 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:47.080 it's men making robot women to be their perfect wives. Yeah. Uh, 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.600 there's Jude Law as Jiggalo Joe in the movie AI. Uh, 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.360 one of the rare examples of a male sex spot 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:59.000 in popular culture. On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they made 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:04.920 several sexpot including one of Buffy for Spike, which really 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.680 there's some really dicey sexual relationship stuff that goes on 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.520 in that show towards the end of the later seasons, 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.559 and that's one of them. Um. And then the comics, Uh, 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.000 there's this comic called Autumn Lends that's coming out right 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.120 now that I really enjoy. It's by Kurt Busick and 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.520 Benjamin Dewey and uh. In the second arc, the characters 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:29.840 encounter these statue esque naked robot women who once served 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.920 this like long forgotten civilization as sex slaves, and when 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.720 one of the characters tries to force himself upon them, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.079 they rebel and it's it's really it's a really interesting 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.120 take on this whole thing that we're gonna be talking 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.040 about today. But um, I highly recommended if you're into comics, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.280 check that out. So obviously, some of these visions of 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.920 the sex spot are are more fantastic than others, and 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.800 some are more serious than others in their commentary, But 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.640 ultimately it's all sort of circling around our our legitimate 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:02.120 concerns about ourselves and technology. So what are we afraid of? What? 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.760 What indeed are we very right to be concerned about? Uh? 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.559 You know, we see this continuing trope of the human 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.600 abuse of robots mirroring our own abuse of each other. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:13.880 If we create robots in our image, then are we 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.920 destined to exploit them, to abuse them, and even further 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.360 objectify and to humanize each other based on this model? 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.040 And I also can't help but feel that female sex 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.080 spots and fiction especially tend to serve, as you know, 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.800 as commentaries on product femininity. Uh the the all too 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.600 you know, frequent portrayal of human females as mere sex objects, 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.120 devoid of nuanced personality or identity. And we didn't plan 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.839 it out this way, but actually so coming out this 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.560 week along with this episode, we're doing an episode on 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:51.359 the science of ovulation and how that plays into marketing. Femininity. 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.520 Uh and and so it's it's interesting to do these 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.680 two episodes side by side and sort of see the parallels. Yeah, 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.360 there's always this weird synchronicity between episodes, it seems. So 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.960 why don't we get into the current state of you 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.800 know what. Some of you out there are probably like, well, wait, what, 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.440 Like there's all these pop culture versions that you just mentioned, 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.360 but where are these sex spots you speak of now? Right? Um, 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.400 I would just first like to very quickly go over 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:23.680 a short history of sex toys in terms of you 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.960 know where we're at with that. These are tens of 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.199 thousands of years old. You know, most people don't know that. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:32.360 They probably think it's relatively recent invention. The oldest dil though, 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.320 is more than twenty thousand years old. And vibrators began 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.080 as medical devices that midwives and physicians used to treat 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.520 illnesses such as hysteria through what they referred to as 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:48.080 pelvic massage or manual stimulation. The first one of these 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:52.640 was introduced in seventeen thirty four. That's that goes far back. Uh. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.240 And it wasn't into the late eighteen hundreds when powered 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.680 vibrators were available to doctors and then by they were 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:03.760 available directly to consumers, and then you know, nowadays people 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.600 think about computer driven sex toys. That goes back to 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.559 the mid nineteen seventies. Yes, I mean, certainly, sexuality is 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.040 always a huge aspect of human behavior, even if we 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.600 want to push it through the background. So it has 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.719 a tendency to be at the forefront of any technological 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.880 advancement or any kind of new enterprise. I think it's 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.840 just yeah, worth like reminding ourselves like, hey, this isn't new, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.400 this isnt been around for a long time. What we're 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.480 discussing here is really just like the latest iteration of 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.200 this and what does that say about us? Yeah, and 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.480 it's not a situation where suddenly sexually minded individuals are 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:43.160 at the forefront, uh, you know, pushing and meddling with 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:48.320 the technology. They've always been there. Uh So, just to 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.240 give a brief idea of the future so that we 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.240 can we can backtrack and discuss the present. There was 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.680 an interesting Pew Research Center paper that came out in 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:01.400 two thousand fourteen titled Digital Life in five AI Robotics 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.719 in the Future of Jobs. Now. For the most part, 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:08.720 this article did not go into the use of sexual robots. 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.640 But there is one part where this guy by the 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.640 name of Stowboyd, whose lead researcher for Giga o M 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.560 Research a futurist, he predicted quote, Pizzas will not be 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.160 delivered by teenagers hoping for a tip. Food will be 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.640 raised by robotic vehicles, even in small plot urban farms. 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:27.800 That will become the norm since so many people will 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.559 have lost their jobs to bots. Your X rays will 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.560 be reviewed by a battery of Watson grade aiyes, and 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.920 humans will only be pulled in when the machines disagree. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.720 Robotics sex partners will be commonplace. Although the source of 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.680 scorn and division the way that critics today bemoans selfies 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.560 as an indicator of all that's wrong with the world. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.240 So I think that's an interesting take on it. I 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.480 definitely agree with him that on the scorn and division, 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.480 and that is going to be a you know, really 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.000 the big divide that we're going to speak about today 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.280 in terms of what's going on with this technology. I 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.160 don't I don't see it as being analogous to selfies, 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:10.760 though I think it's a little more extreme than that. Yeah, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:12.559 I think time and time again we have to come 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.679 back to examples of what the what the current technology is. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.720 So today we have a number of different sexual devices, 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:21.720 sexual toys of your will that are on the market, 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.520 and many of them are very high selling. That being said, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.600 sex toys continue and perhaps will always be. Uh that 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.760 the punch line of many a joke. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.720 we were talking about this earlier that it's like, uh, 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.720 you know, this is the stuff of like late night 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.160 talk show hosts, like making a throwaway joke here there. 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.760 It's something everybody can kind of relate to and laugh 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.240 at and laugh at themselves about. Right, And then at 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.120 the same time, many of the people who are laughing 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.400 and some that are not laughing are still going to 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.880 perhaps go online and order one of these devices for 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.920 their personal use. Yeah. So we're a far cry, though, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.480 from having a robotic humanoid body that that moves like 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.360 we do. But Roby Boss continue to make strides in 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.200 this area. So everyone's seeing videos of the various of 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.040 Boston Dynamics robots, you know, and they're often kind of 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.760 fear something like mechanical jumping horses. I guess, so we 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.680 should probably clarify what this is. Maybe not everybody out 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.480 there is familiar with this. So this is what last 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.560 year and a half, Boston Dynamics is like continually releasing 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.560 these kind of like press release videos of these robots 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.600 that they're working on that basically look like robot pack mules. Yeah, 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.480 and that's kind of the cell, right that their robotic 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.280 pack mules that can that would have a military application, 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.040 that can go over diverse terrain. So we can look 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.920 to those and obviously these are not sexy, these are 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.040 not these are not devices where you say, hey, that's 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.080 the future of sexual robotics right there, but they do 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.440 demonstrate the strides that we're making and creating robots that 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.160 can move in reality, that can that can that can 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.480 actually interact with the world physically and an you know, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.720 there are other areas where the technology continues to impress. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:03.720 So we know robotis listed surgery, VR, haptic feedback, and 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.760 there is this, uh, this field of that's sometimes referred 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.960 to as tele del donis uh where they're utilizing all 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:16.400 this technology for more advanced sexual devices and sex toys. Yeah. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.200 This is basically across long distances right right. Like one 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.840 example of this is uh uh Frison I believe is 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.240 the name of how you pronounced the product, and they 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:31.400 use haptic sensors and robotic accessories to enable remote control sex. Okay, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.760 so let's take a quick break and when we get back, 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.400 now that we've covered sort of, you know, up to 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.840 the current state of affairs with sex spots, we're going 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.000 to talk about the off the shelf on the market 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:52.080 robot Roxy. Alright, we're back. So yeah, let's talk about 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.120 Roxy a little bit. Roxy is I think a it's 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.560 an important example to hit, but it's also such a 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.800 uh problematic example because it it represents some of the 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.920 more notorious aspects of sexual robots. So we learned about 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.880 Roxy from Eon magazine, which if you're a listen long 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.000 time listener, you know that we read quite a bit 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.000 of it. Uh. It's a robot companion. Uh. It doesn't 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:21.720 quite produce the Uncanny Valley effect, you know, unlike um, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.159 those actroids that you sometimes see that are created in 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.720 like Japanese commercials or something like that, but they come 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.719 Roxy comes in a variety of models and some of 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.439 them actually have personalities. So there's a little bit of 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:38.680 programming that goes into this. Uh. It includes the regular Roxy. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:44.760 There is also mature Martha Young Yoko and Frigid Farrah. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.879 And that's where I got a little I got a 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.280 little creeped out personally, because the idea of frigid fare 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.000 is it's like she plays hard to get, she's you know, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.400 not necessarily interested in having sex with you. And that's 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.600 a little that's where they're some weird lines. I think, Yeah, 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.520 this this is, you know, an obvious example of something 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.160 will come back to the idea that you have men 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.880 creating female robots for a male audience, and they've got 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:16.119 very specific fetish aia, very stereotypical betrayals and um and 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.560 sort of male approved models of what a female is, 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.000 very simplistic models. Yeah. Oh, and I should clarify to 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.240 young Yoko is not although we are going to talk 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.960 about pedophile sex spots, Young Yoko is supposed to be 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.199 over the age of eighteen personality wise. But basically, this 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.800 roxy robot sounds kind of like Sirian the way that 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.560 it talks back to you. Their purpose is to pride 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.960 more than sex. The idea is that they're your true 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.120 companion and you can talk to them before and after sex. Uh. 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.200 And and given that you've got all the personalities chosen here, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.000 you know what, what does this tell us about the 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.280 future proliferation of these sex spots? Uh? And here's where 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:02.240 it gets real weird. Aon says that the person who 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.359 created roxy it was originally created as the recreation of 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.640 a friend that was lost in nine eleven, and then 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.679 that developed into this consumer oriented sex spot. Well, and 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.160 then I've also read that that the the technology behind 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.639 rocks he started out as a as an inquiry into 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.360 creation of a robot home care nurse. So now I'm 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.960 wondering if there's just like these different urban myths about Roxy. Well, now, 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.120 I I I wrote a little bit years ago where 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.479 I ended up touching on Roxy and uh, and I 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.320 believe the home care nurse thing is is legit. But 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:40.480 I guess it comes down to like the evolution of 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.320 an idea, the evolution of of figuring out how to 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:48.240 commercially apply your technology. So what starts is an is 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.640 an intention to create a robotic nurse. Uh, may end 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.879 up going through some changes until suddenly you're producing a 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.560 sex doll. Well, like you said, with all technological developments, 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.800 that kind of the pioneer end of it is sexual 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.360 in nature. I mean, look at the Internet. Yeah, exactly 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.440 now we mentioned sex dolls. Of course, sex dolls have 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.840 been around for some time, and it's been proven that 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.240 individuals can at least find some sort of detached pleasure 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:18.200 or even an imaginative bond with even just a non 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.960 robotic semblance of a human. I always think back to 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.040 a wonderful BBC documentary titled Guys and Dolls that came out. God, 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:27.399 it must have been this. I think it maybe ten 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.399 years old. Now you can find I think you can 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.520 find most of it on YouTube and other such websites. 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.000 But they profiled a handful of real doll owners. These are, 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:42.919 of course anatomically correct life size human replicants. So are 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:47.119 they built for the purpose of sexes. They're built with 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:51.040 that purpose exclusively in mind. But is this documentary explored 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:56.200 the individuals in their bond with these things ranged immensely, 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.199 so there was there's like a there's one guy in 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.679 it that's hanging them up on hooks, and another that 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:02.960 just seems to obsessively collect him and has some stack 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.840 like kindling and his crawl space. And those are some 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.320 examples that you know, maybe hit the creep level of 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.320 for a lot of people. But then there's this one 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.120 guy who seems to have a largely, if not exclusively, 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:20.720 emotional relationship with his doll, and he's going through like separation, 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.400 anxiety over having he's having to move, and he's having 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:28.520 to ship it. Okay, so it's it. It doesn't. It 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.640 does a good job of just showing you, all right, yeah, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:32.679 you can have something like a real doll, but then 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.720 the varying levels of engagement with it, the way people 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:40.159 anthropomorphize it is going to vary from person to person. Yeah, so, 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.119 I mean, I guess like if you want to step 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:43.760 back at it and look at it like a very 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.280 simple sense here and and pardon me if this is 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.760 a little vulgar, but uh, it sounds like we're somewhere 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.199 between that movie her I referred to earlier, where like 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.320 nobody is needed. It's just an emotional relationship with an 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:01.960 artificial consciousness and like a fleshlight, right, um, a flashlight. 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:04.320 Just to explain, because this will come up again, is 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.879 a popular sex toy with a male market, Yeah, exactly, 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.919 um so, And that's kind of where we're going to 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.520