The Ethical Concerns about Robosexuality
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While researching the subject I got caught in a very confusing and problematic web, the concerns are not only of a larger scale than anticipated but they're all so much deeper. I'm not going to be able to cover all of the concerns regarding the subject, instead I'm going to focus on the main ones that, to me, are the most relevant.
One of the big Concerns that made headlines and AR frequently mentioned in conferences is the possibility that someone could hack into robosexual companion, that company usually being some sort of advanced sex doll, or a more “typical” robot resulting and something like assassination of the human entity.
While that is a possible problem, my personal concerns are more associated to the robotic companion and not so much with the human user.
One of the first things we thought about wild faced with a subject was the simple, naive, thought of “there could be someone out there with a sex doll designed to look exactly like you” and even though this sounded like a joke at the time I very soon realize it is in fact a reality, a scary one. the truth is that, there could be a doppelganger sex doll version of you, out there, end due to the lack of laws in the subject, as of right now, there's nothing you can do about it. Even with the, very likely, hypothesis , the laws will be created regarding the subject, many have speculated the that it will only protect celebrities, as they will be able to patent their face, and body, in order to profit off of people that choose to purchase a sex doll at their image. On the other hand “regular people” most likely won't be able to do much regarding a non-consensual replica of them. While researching and browsing through the website ” realdol.com”, one of the most popular sex doll manufacturers Karma we came across a catalogue of “pornstars”.As of right now, you are able to purchase a realistic Stormy Daniels, as well as seven other actresses, and even shape them to your liking. You can choose from 17 different body types, change their skin tone, their makeup, their hair, eye colour, breasts, and vagina.
Taking into account the customizability of these dolls and the fact that more than 90% of the ones sold are female this obviously raises questions and concerns regarding the social impact that the industry might cause. Some, Like Kathleen Richardson, advocate that it will amplify a distorted view of women, the men will expect real women to be constantly available for sex, that airbrushed and largely hairless features of sexbots might promote unrealistic expectations of beauty, or that sexbots might actually increase the urge to inflict sexual violence on real people. These concerns are most certainly valid and based on proper research, but there's still another demographic, that may suffer terribly, from the existence of these developed sex dolls, children.
- Beatriz Teles
The concern regarding children was, to me, first mentioned during the “ robosexual: the future of human-robot relationships” Web Summit debate When the question” if we give a paedophile a child sex robot is that going to lessen the chances that he (...) would not assault a child or would that amp up his desire? “, was brought up and immediately answered with “I don't know”, and the reality is, we truly don't, and there's no way we can, because there is no proper research on the subject. Even the manufacturer is don't fully agree on the matter. On one hand people like Katie Metaverse, former founder of BodAI, said they would never create such product and appealed to the existence of regulations regarding sex robots, on the other hand, there are people like Shin Takagi, a self-proclaimed non-offending paedophile, who has supposedly been manufacturing realistic anatomically correct child dolls for more than 14 years. Trottla, Takagi´s company was founded with the intention to help MAPs, (person attracted to minors) while also protecting children. “I'm helping people express their desire, legally and ethically. It's not worth living if you're have to live with repressed desire”. Takagi mentions, in his interview with “The Attic”, he often receives letters, from buyers, thanking him and saying that “thanks to your dolls, I can keep from committing a crime” and these statements most certainly add to the argument that they are in fact useful to protect children. However, many people, like Peter Fagan, believe that the dolls would most likely have a “reinforcing effect” and “in many instances cause it to be active upon with greater urgency”.
Something that, this article in particular, mentions is that the opinion, previously stated, is founded on research based on offending paedophiles and something you might have noticed, perhaps in this text, is the term “non-offending paedophile”. After all my research, and the rabbit hole I inevitably fell into, regarding paedophilia, I came to the conclusion that, there's a very broad community of these paedophiles, that choose not to act on their desires, and instead try to protect children. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is the website virtuespedophiles.com, the goal of this organization is to “reduce the stigma attached to paedophiles by letting people know that a substantial number of paedophiles don't molest children.”, and so far “more than 3.900 have created accounts”.
Taking all of this into consideration, as well as the lack of research on the subject, I believe our, current best option, is to create speculations, based on previous research and Specialists, but most importantly, to take the opinions of the members of the community itself. Research proves, the existence of a clear neurological differences between offending and Non-offending paedophiles, and I, generally believe, the answer to the question lies in that division.
Something that supports this opinion is the article” we have to protect children - even the ones you hate” by Bly Rede, amongst other media, like the “I'm not a monster” blog by Todd Nickerson. Even though, none of these media are based on a particular subject in question, they shed light on the through faith behind what it means to be a MAP and the struggles associated.
Having paedophilic inclinations is not a choice, what you can choose is whether you act on these inclinations and desires or not, and I, truly believe, the ones that choose not to act on them, shouldn't be punished by the actions of the ones who do. In the words of Bly Rede “I believe that, with the right support, all paedophiles can be helped to live non-offending lives. They can help protect children.”, and the dolls in question might be part of that” right support”
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- Beatriz Teles
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https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/706/181435.html http://ilp.mit.edu/media/news_articles/smr/2019/60224.pdf
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https://www.kirbasinstitute.com/2011/12/roxxxy-the-robosexual-has-arrived/
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https://money.cnn.com/mostly-human/i-love-you-bot/
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https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan_Bewley/publication/325558553_I_Sex_Robot_The_health_implications_of_the_sex_robot_industry/links/5c0d46afa6fdcc494fe87a3d/I-Sex-Robot-The-health-implications-of-the-sex-robot-industry.pdf https://www.newsweek.com/sex-robots-health-pedophila-sex-crime-958489
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