Are android sex workers the future of tourism or an absurd use of clean technology?
People will soon be having sex with robots as the latest in sex tourism, suggests a recent news report. This novel twist on ‘clean technology’ (the inventors point out that the androids will be made of bacteria-resistant fibers) is enough to turn us green, and not with envy. More of the puke, I’m going to be sick, let me run to the market and get some organic veggies and eat them raw kind of green. We are already living in a wired world. Do machines have to commandeer our genitals too?
That’s the con. A pro? Maybe robot hookers will offer a meaningful solution to the problem of sex slavery (a concern in the Middle East and globally). Let’s examine the wild wired world of robots for pleasure from two sides: the revolting and the revolutionary.
It’s a wild wired world
Computers and mobile phones, gadgets of all sorts and capabilities, have hijacked daily functioning. Pretty soon, our refrigerators will tell our cell phones to direct our cars to the grocery store because we are out of milk. We won’t even have to drink the stuff to know it’s gone. I loved the movie Wall-E, but I don’t want to look like that, blobbed out with machines doing all the living for me.
Technology has already sucked out part of our brains. I used to remember friends’ phone numbers. Not anymore. It took me months to get my own new home phone number firmly imprinted in my brain, that part of my cerebrum completely dulled by years of cell phone address book dependency.
Social networking now means my computer and I chat away with great friends, people I’ve never met, all over the globe. We could pass each other on the streets and never know one another for real. We’re having complete relationships with strangers sans touch, feel, sight and sound.
Sure, sex with machines promises to give us mind-blowing orgasms, but I’m not convinced that is in our best interest. Call me an evolutionist worrywart, but what about good old-fashioned procreation? Oh, I understand it now. We won’t need to reproduce anymore. The robots will replicate themselves. By the time they look like people, somewhere in 2050, we won’t notice when our Sexbots pull the plugs on us.
Clean Tech?
According to reports, this revolutionary tourist attraction (gives new meaning to that word) won’t be cheating because the machines are machines, not human. Plus the robots will be cleaned between each ‘use.’ Not exactly what I have in mind when I think of clean technology. Sanitized sex all the way…somehow I’m feeling dirty just thinking about it.
Ending Human Rights Abuses?
That’s the revolting view of robotic prostitution. Up next: what are the implications of android prostitutes, and would their use help eradicate coersive sex work from a human rights perspective?
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Photo sexy robot by Shutterstock
Tinamarie Bernard is the author of People Planet Pleasure Purpose: Five Meaningful Ways to Embody Eco-Conscious Intimacy.
Author: Tinamarie Bernard
Tinamarie combines her interests in two of her favorite topics – relationships and the environment – for Greenprophet.com. As our eco-sexpert, she explores ways to make our personal lives more sustainable, whether it’s between a couple, the sheets or our ears. While eco-sexuality is a new term and still unfamiliar to many, being conscious about what we use in moments of intimacy is connected to better stewardship of the planet. The idea that green is sexy and sex can be green is one she is thoroughly enjoying discovering. This married mom of two also believes we owe it to our children to teach them to love themselves, each other, and the environment for futures to come. Intimacy isn’t something we are born knowing. Neither is good stewardship of the earth. In her spare time, she muses about sacred sexuality, conscious love, intimacy, feminism and parenting as the top-rated Modern Love column for Examiner.com and several other media outlets. She composes poetry (mostly in her heart), mediates (when time allows), rides horses in the Galilee, and searches for delicious parve dessert recipes. She considers chocolate a righteous sin, and won’t give up a single pair of red shoes. You can find...
I have not seen that movie. Thanks for the suggestion.
Have you read Marge Piercy’s “Body of Glass?” The plot revolves around robot-human relationships, including a woman who loves a robot.