[ExI] The Age of Sex Robots

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
BillK via extropy-chat
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2020 1:59 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] The Age of Sex Robots

On Sun, 15 Nov 2020 at 17:47, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Sex and reproduction are already nearly delinked in Western society.  The
advent of more ways to have sex that do not lead to reproduction does not
seem like it will have a significant further impact on birth rates.
> _______________________________________________


Both you and Spike think that sex robots will have little effect on the
birth rate. But even without robots the western birth rate is steadily
reducing. There are still many abortions at present and the estimate is that
around half of unplanned pregnancies are aborted, so that is a lot of
unplanned pregnancies. Apparently quite a lot of women using contraceptives
still manage to get pregnant.
I agree that there is probably a minimum birth rate level where there will
always be some people who want to have children, but that level might be
below the level required to maintain the population level.
Another thought is that as sex robots become more capable and have AI added
(Siri?) they will become companion robots, not just sex dolls.
And it would be a good idea to supply these advanced sex robots (and
contraception) free of charge to countries that still have high birth rates
otherwise their population will outnunber western societies in a generation
or two.


BillK
_______________________________________________



Hi BillK.  

>... Apparently quite a lot of women using contraceptives still manage to
get pregnant...

Hmmm, well I will leave it at this: there are those who get abortions as a
form of contraception.  They don't worry about taking pills: those cost
money.  Abortions are free.

Regarding sex robots: it isn't just sex really.  I see the whole companion
robot business as huge.  It could be an entire industry to figure out how to
create conversational robots that are interesting, fun, will pay attention
to those who want that.  

Consider how popular dogs are.  For all their other shortcomings, dogs love
their people.  If we can figure out how to do a fraction of that and write
software to do that, we are looking at the salvation of humankind: we can
end overpopulation, stop world hunger, make a buttload of money, everything.