It was the perfect date. After ages, he/she seemed like your ‘soul mate’ and luckily the same night also turned out to be a hot and steamy encounter in bed. But then, with the first rays of morning light, you realise that the person you had been with all along was actually — a mechanical robot!
Physical and emotional intimacy with machines may seem unreasonable, but it could be a reality sooner than you know. In this tectonic age where time is scarce and life is fast, there could be a whole market for robotics waiting to deliver all kinds of pleasures to your doorstep. Japan has a multi-billion dollar robot industry including sex dolls, and Sony and Honda have already built pets like mechanical dogs and androids.
Recently, a book by robot enthusiast David Levy predicted that ordinary people will routinely fall in love with robots and have sex with them. He explores many aspects of human relationships and provides reasons for why we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots.