Would YOU have sex with a robot? Experts claim it will be a norm in the next 50 years.
Pictured above is android Anita from Channel 4 drama Humans, who at one point in the drama is used as a sex bot by a married man, causing problems in the marriage. The sex scene between the man and her shocked audiences.
According to academic Dr Helen Driscoll, a sex psychologist, in a blog post for the Huffington Post, humans spend more time in virtual realities - including online gaming and social media. And our physical relationships will come to be seen as primitive in the near future as humanity embraces machines as partners.
Sex mannequins that you can order online already exist, and rapid advances in technology will enable them to 'come to life'. Robophilia - the word for a sexual attraction to robots - seems like an alien concept to us now, but could become the norm as our attitudes catch up to the technology.
'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,' said Dr Driscoll.
This was explored in the 2013 film Her, which saw Joaquin Phoenix's character fall in love with a Siri-like operating system.
'This may seem shocking and unusual now, but we should not automatically assume that virtual relationships have less value than real relationships,' wrote Dr Driscoll.Dr Driscoll points to people who have lost their partner or who live alone as people who might benefit psychologically from a virtual sexual relationship.
'After all a virtual partner is surely better than no partner at all.'Virtual affairs could also present a problem in the future, with some partners seeing sex with a machine as similar to sex with another person, according to Dr Driscoll.
The amount of time we spend online - communicating via emails and social media - is already a problem for some people, but our relationships with other humans could soon be conducted entirely online.The lack of human contact is currently harmful, as humans are social animals and isolation is linked with mental health problems, she said.
As we spend more time in virtual reality and living alone, this will lead to increased mental health problems, according to Dr Driscoll.
Recent studies have shown that young Japanese people are already avoiding sex and intimate relationships, with half of Japanese adults saying they no longer have sex.
And earlier in August, a Chinese 'girlfriend app' called Xiaoice was reported to be keeping thousands of heartbroken people company. People can add her as a friend on several major Chinese social networking services including Weibo, a Twitter like microblogging service used by 700 million people, and Touchpal.
This trend may seem like a problematic trend now, but as the technology improves the isolation issues will disappear as it becomes harder to tell the difference between artificial intelligence and machines, according to Dr Driscoll.
'When eventually there are intelligent robots indistinguishable from humans - apart from their lack of bad habits, imperfections and need for investment - not only are we likely to choose them over 'real' humans but psychologically we will not suffer if we are not able to tell the difference.'
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