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thank fuck it flopped
Dec. 15th, 2018 04:42 pmT found this rather alarming video about an outfit trying to set up a robot brothel "with consent" for the robots. I am normally not particularly bothered by sex dolls, but in this case the "consent" aspect makes my skin crawl--I can't decide if it's because it feels like making a mockery of the consent of human women, or because the concept of a robot AI that can consent to sex having the ability to refuse individual clients but not, you know, being able to freely choose whether to work at a robot brothel induces all kinds of horrifying imagery.
Theoretically, the goal appears to be to use robots to train humans to reach for consent as a matter of habit; in practice, I heavily suspect the outcome will be to train humans to view sex (and consent for sex) rather like the sort of minigame you might need to play quickly before you can access the big jackpot in an RPG. This thing just doesn't seem subtle enough to accurately help anyone practice what consent looks like in real time. Of course, they're marketing the damn thing at autistic people, because of course they are.
Plus the idea that you can "be the doll's first" for $10,000 is weird and fucks with the concept of consent some more: how can you have informed consent if you're removing the experience accessible to a given individual whenever you want?
Fortunately, it's probably theoretical in the end: the IndieGoGo failed rather dramatically, which is maybe not the worst thing in the world given that the person running the concept seems to self-describe as a cult leader (??????). Although they're also seeking venture capital funding, so maybe not.
Because if there's something that makes this thing better, it's Silicon Valley-style disruption techbros. Awesome.
Theoretically, the goal appears to be to use robots to train humans to reach for consent as a matter of habit; in practice, I heavily suspect the outcome will be to train humans to view sex (and consent for sex) rather like the sort of minigame you might need to play quickly before you can access the big jackpot in an RPG. This thing just doesn't seem subtle enough to accurately help anyone practice what consent looks like in real time. Of course, they're marketing the damn thing at autistic people, because of course they are.
Plus the idea that you can "be the doll's first" for $10,000 is weird and fucks with the concept of consent some more: how can you have informed consent if you're removing the experience accessible to a given individual whenever you want?
Fortunately, it's probably theoretical in the end: the IndieGoGo failed rather dramatically, which is maybe not the worst thing in the world given that the person running the concept seems to self-describe as a cult leader (??????). Although they're also seeking venture capital funding, so maybe not.
Because if there's something that makes this thing better, it's Silicon Valley-style disruption techbros. Awesome.
