Ride the Lightning

Robot Brothels, Robot Love – and Linus' Blanket

March 13, 2019

'Tis a strange world we live in. While doing some research on smartphone addiction, up popped a reference to Linus' blanket (likening our smartphone addiction to the blanket) in an article involving robot brothels (where have I been? I had no idea) and robot love (which I guess is probably coming, especially with artificial intelligence reaching new heights).

ZDNet's article on the subject was certainly riveting.  Apparently, robot brothels have popped up in Toronto and Paris, and another was barred from doing business in Houston. Though the robots are female, "male" robots are reportedly on their way. The sex tech industry is worth $30B, and sex has long been a driver of technological innovation, from King Edward VII's kinky sex chair (I will confess that I read up on that and was indeed fascinated) and network connected sex toys with serious security flaws to new forms of participatory VR porn (I stopped with reading the chair story, which at least had some cool history associated with it).

For my friends/readers who practice family law, a body of literature on whether humans can love robots is emerging from the fields of behavioral science and human-robot interaction. A book by David Levy called Love and Sex with Robots deeply and convincingly explores the subject.

Here is where Linus and the smartphone came in:

"There are certain times in life when attachment to people moves to attachment to items. These so-called security attachments will be familiar to parents; my kid has two (!) blankets he takes everywhere. But security attachments go beyond the Linus syndrome and extend into adulthood. Computers in particular are excellent at serving as attachment figures. They're portable, accessible, aid our exploration of the world, and offer comfort in the form of connections. These coincide with reasons people fall in love with other people.

Don't buy it? Consider your smartphone. Now consider a day without your smartphone after it's been lost. Many people would feel naked, vulnerable, oddly isolated. In a word, lonely."

Robots are becoming increasingly convincing as they pass for human. Their AI is much better and they are just beginning to display emotional intelligence. Home assistants are able to respond to us with quirks of simulated personality and even make us chuckle with unexpected jokes or insights. More sophisticated machines like Sophia have caused a stir for giving lifelike live performances that exhibit improvisation and personality.

So robot love is probably on its way. What this will do to family law boggles the mind. What do the words "adultery" and "alienation of affection" mean in this new world? Can a robot cause alienation of affection – or is that what the manufacturer does?  And from a digital forensics point of view, I can only imagine the electronic evidence that will be available from the machines.

In the meantime, I prefer the very human company of my husband and will forego the expected rise of the "male" robots.

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