The sex robot industry is one of those phenomena that proves that we are indeed in the 21st Century. The UK Sun is reporting that True Companion, a firm that will build you a customized bed mate of either gender for just shy of $10,000, is getting some unusual requests. One, to get a sex robot that looks and acts like a celebrity, is something that could have been predicted. The other option is pretty sad.
You too can have sex with Marilyn Monroe
Naturally, True Companion is getting requests for Sex Robots that look like celebrities. Who, after all, has not dreamed of a tryst with a famous actor or actress or musician?
Now, with the sex robot becoming something one can actually buy, something like that is technically possible.
The most popular celebrity sex robot request is none other than Marilyn Monroe, the busty, blond heart throb from the 1950s who was the mistress of President John F. Kennedy before she died from a drug overdose, probably the result of a suicide though conspiracy theories persist.
The problem with getting a celebrity sex robot is that one has to get permission to use anyone’s likeness for any reason, from the estate in the case of Monroe, from the actual person if the person is still living. One can just imagine the reaction of an actress or pop singer who already has to put up with stalkers and paparazzi.
“Someone wants to what?”
The sadder customization option
The sadder option that some bereaved people are asking for is sex robots in the likenesses of their dead spouses. The desire is understandable, but the results are likely to be disappointing. Sex robots are made for only rudimentary interactions. People miss their long term companions for their company and conversation for more than for sex.
Anything that True Companion can build is not likely to provide those qualities.
Sometime in the future, robots that are indistinguishable from biological human beings are going to be available. One would actually be able to buy a robot that looks and acts the same, for all intents and purposes, as a departed loved one. This kind of cybernetic resurrection causes all sorts of ethical questions.
The new cybernetic model will do and say everything that the biological model did and said, but would not be him or her. Robot replacement spouses would be an exercise in self-deception. One would be better advised to grieve and, in the fullness of time, move on to the companionship of a different human being.
