Sex robots could make for stronger relationships, scientist claims

A CANADIAN scientist has claimed sex robots may soon become as vital to modern homes as a microwave oven, serving as “marriage aids” in and out of the bedroom.

INTRODUCING a sex robot into your bedroom could significantly improve your marriage or relationship, a Canadian tech scientist claims.

Dr Marina Adshade, an expert on how technology and economics “influences sex and love”, from the University of British Columbia says sex-bots could become as important to married life as the conventional microwave oven.

In an article on Slate, based on her chapter in the book Robot Sex: Social and Ethical, Implications, Dr Adshade said “sex-bot induced social change is on the horizon”.

“The reality is that marriage has always evolved alongside changes in technology,” she wrote.

Dr Adshade describes how “electrification in the home” made women’s work less time-consuming, improving the quality of married life.

“By the early 1970s, the arrival of microwave ovens and frozen foods meant that a family could easily be fed at the end of a long workday, even when the mother worked outside of the home,” Dr Adshade writes.

The rise of sex robots has left some onlookers concerned about the future of human relationships. Picture: Lukas Schulze/Bongarts/Getty Images

She said the rise of sex robots — silicone love dolls powered by artificial intelligence that can speak and fornicate — could make households more productive.

Dr Adshade describes a “reversal” of societal change, moving away from marriages being tied to sexual intimacy, and instead to relationships where each person can provide in other non-sexual ways.

Some sex doll brothels have even sprung up around the world, like ‘Bordoll’ in Germany. Picture: Lukas Schulze/Bongarts/Getty Images

Some experts fear that the growing popularity of these droids will lead to a slump in marriage rates — as lonely men turn to sex robots instead of attempting to find a real partner.

But Dr Adshade says sex-bot technology will “actually increase the rate of lifetime marriage”.

She explains how marriages will no longer suffer under the pressure of sex, and can then be improved in other ways.

“If sexual access through sexbot technology is a complement to household production, then we could observe an increase in the quality of marriages and, as a result, a reduction in rates of divorce,” she writes.

Using sex robots could even lead to people finding better partners to marry, too.

According to Dr Adshade, finding someone who you are sexually compatible with adds a “constraint” to your choice of long-term lover.

She said that removing that constraint “could very well make marriages that are of a higher quality”.

So, rather than fearing sex robots, Dr Adshade says we should embrace them as marriage aids

She claims that “access to sex-bot technology” won’t stop people wanting to get married.

Introducing a sex doll could remove the pressure from partners to perform in the bedroom and pave the way for improved relationships, Dr Adshade says. Picture: Behrouz Mehri/AFP

The technology could also lead to more non-conventional marriages springing up.

“It is not hard to imagine two heterosexual women seeing the value in forming a household and raising children together as a married couple, but with their needs for sexual companionship met by sexbot technology,” Dr Adshade writes.

“Nor is it hard to imagine a homosexual man seeing the value in forming a household and raising children with a woman, since that arrangement could significantly reduce expenses associated with reproductive technologies.

“By disentangling the association between sexual intimacy and marriage, marriage may not end up as what we imagine it to be today.”

But Dr Adshade warns: “For those who believe in the concept of traditional marriage, access to sexbot technology could help usher in some very trying times.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun and has been republished with permission.