Companionship In The Time Of Automation: Pleasure Robots May Replace Men By 2025

We are living in a time of transition from the industrial age to an age of full automation. As scientists predict, our robot counterparts will soon take over many jobs, from retail services and accounting to driving and surgery. In addition to jobs, robots may radically reshape our idea of companionship.

You read that right; they won’t only be taking over the more menial jobs that pollute human existence but will also become our companions.

Futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson opened up about the role that robots will take in our lives as early as 2025.

He believes that humans sleeping with robots in place of humans will be commonplace by 2025. His report on the future of intimate relations between humans and robots was published in partnership with Bondara.

Bondara is one of the United Kingdom's leading adult toy stores, and they have a vested interest in robots that will become our intimate partners.

By 2030, relations between humans and robots will be as common as viewing adult films on the internet is now. By 2035, most of us will have toys (robots) that will interact with virtual reality. Dr. Pearson also believes that intimate robot relations will overtake relations between humans.

The upper class will be the first to have these robots that will be used for intimate relations. Dr. Pearson believes that they will overtake intimate human ties by 2050.

As a society, Dr. Pearson believes it will take a while for people to accept these relations between man and machine, just like it took ages to accept the adult film industry.

He believes that as the robots improve in their look and feel, more and more people will be drawn to this idea, and opinions will change.

Dr. Pearson said, ‘A lot of people will still have reservations about  intimate relations with robots at first but gradually as they get used to them, as the AI and mechanical behavior and their feel improves.’ Dr. Pearson also pointed to the fact that robots have actually been used for human pleasure for decades now in the form of vibrators.

In the report, Dr. Pearson also predicts that the pleasure market will grow by three times in twenty years and seven times bigger by 2050.

People are always looking for ways to spice up their intimate relations, and he backs this up with the fact that the pleasure toy market grows by 6% every year.

And right on cue, there is already a campaign led by Dr. Kathleen Richardson called ‘Campaign Against Pleasure Robots.’ They believe they are dangerous and will create unrealistic and unhealthy attitudes and expectations toward intimate relations.

‘As they start to become friends with strong emotional bonds, that squeamishness will gradually evaporate. Some people will enthusiastically embrace relationship-free robot relations as soon as they can afford one as early as 2025. It won’t have much chance of overtaking relations with humans overall until 2050.’

Can Robots Have Feelings?

Robots and their relationship to humankind is one of the topics on which the human imagination goes wild. Just think about movies like Wall-E or Ex Machina, and you can envision a world where robots can develop consciousness and feelings for people. The scenarios of these movies seem more and more possible as advanced technology changes the world, but can robots really feel things in the near future? 

Considering the rapid development of modern technology, especially in the sphere of artificial intelligence, it is no longer that hard to imagine robots gaining unexpected abilities. In order to understand this topic better, we must grasp the way artificial intelligence actually functions. These days, AI software is capable of learning different words, putting them together in sentences, and generating smooth answers aligned with the user’s preferences. 

However, developing human-like emotions is a different story. Pleasure robots and other machines can respond to certain commands by perceiving the world around them, but feelings are related to specific processes occurring within the human body. While robots and other forms of AI can express happiness or sadness, they do not experience these feelings in the way humans do. 

Top 3 Human-Looking Robots

Only a few years ago, humanoid robots were a spectacular, far-fetched sight to behold in science fiction blockbusters. Now, machines with realistic facial expressions and human speech skills are becoming a part of the real world. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the three most advanced human-looking robots. 

• Ameca - Designed by Engineered Arts in 2021, Ameca is considered the most advanced and realistic humanoid robot. Since the release of its first video on December 1, 2021, Ameca received a lot of attention on social media, including Twitter and TikTok. Ameca’s primary purpose is to enable the further development of robotic technology that involves human-robot interaction. Its design includes binocular eye-mounted cameras, embedded microphones, a chest camera, and a facial recognition system for public interactions.
• Sophia - Developed by Hanson Robotics in 2016, Sophia became the first robot to obtain citizenship and the first robot Innovation Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. The Hong Kong-based robotics company modeled Sophia after the famous Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn and its CEO’s wife. Sophia initially served as an elderly companion and crowd manager. With her embedded AI and neural networks, she can recognize human faces and understand facial expressions. This sophisticated robot delivered speeches at hundreds of conferences worldwide, as well as appearances on Good Morning Britain and Tonight Show.
• Nadine - Created by the Japanese company Kokoro in 2013, Nadine is an emotionally intelligent robot capable of making eye contact, responding to greetings, and remembering previous conversations with humans. She was designed with cutting-edge technology that simulates human behavior, mood, and emotions. This empathetic robot has a microphone, 3D depth cameras, and a webcam, allowing it to accumulate visual and audio inputs. Nadine can process these inputs through various perception layers. This way, she can recognize and respond accordingly to different emotions, gestures, and behaviors.