Some 82 years ago in Dinner at Eight, when blonde bombshell Jean Harlow told Marie Dressler about a book she’d been reading, “He said technology will take over every occupation,” Dressler responded, “Well, my dear, THAT’s something you’ll never have to worry about!” Well, if Jean Harlow’s character were young and alive now, she might have something to worry about.

Recent articles, books, movies, and, more importantly, inventions predict a challenge to Harlow’s character’s “occupation” in the near future. The combination of robotics and computers are making mechanical beings more and more like human beings—fully functional, lifelike beings. Of particular interest to writers and readers alike are the female models. Some Japanese men have already replaced real-life girlfriends with computer application girlfriends, even though they cannot consummate these virtual relationships.

However, the time is coming—perhaps quickly—that this is changing. Fully anatomically functional robots will likely be available in both male and female varieties. With commitment-free sex being much more available to men since the 1960s sexual revolution than it was before, one might expect little demand for an expensive mechanical sex partner but that is not what we read. Dr. Helen Driscoll, a leading expert on the psychology of sex and relationships, predicts that, in 50 years, sex with robots will be the norm and sex with another human will seem primitive: “As virtual reality becomes more realistic and immersive and is able to mimic and even improve on the experience of sex with a human partner; it is conceivable that some will choose this in preference to sex with a less than perfect human being.”

She doesn’t mention how people will procreate in those days. Will married women have their husbands “seed” their male robots? One thing that’s likely is that shotgun weddings will be even more of an anachronism than they have become since the 1960s.

Driscoll’s piece: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sex-robots-the-norm-50-6190575