MovieChat Forums > Humans (2015) Discussion > "Awakened" robots get to have sex?!

"Awakened" robots get to have sex?!

posted 8 years ago by Glathannus
9 replies | jump to latest

It seems economically implausible for most robots to have sex organs, except for the subset of robots who were manufactured as sexbots. Or supposing they were built for that purpose, their sex organs wouldn't be designed to pleasure themselves - only their partners. Thus it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that a robot sex organ provides no sensory feedback to the robot brain whatsoever.

The only "awakened" robots who could have sex lives, are former sexbots who 'love' somebody enough, that the robot gets some kind of satisfaction out of knowing they are pleasuring the partner. Non-sexbots could have similar desires, but not also have the equipment to succeed.

The David Elster prototypes would be the only fully equipped robots (until Qualia is able to get into the market), physically capable of experiencing sexual pleasure, because Elster would have wanted them (especially the females) to have all the human options he could possibly grant them. The only thing we can't be certain about is how long a male prototype could go before they would "feel like" stopping, and that's if Elster equipped them.

I'm not a huge pervert. I'm actually the kind of person who occasionally opts out of sex dreams with beautiful partners, for the scenario not making enough sense. I just couldn't help but wonder WHY Hester would have a vagina (or any kind of hole down there). The only explanation which makes any sense, is that sexbots are physically no different from the majority of other robots. Most robots are built for general-purpose, and it's up to their owners to decide how to use them. Hester was merely *assigned* to be a factory worker. She wasn't *built* specifically to be one.

I want to believe in the theory of general-purposeness, but my suspicions lean more toward, robots are like cars, and there are plenty of feature-related reasons for why some cars cost more than others. So if a company needs a fleet of cars for internal use, you would expect the company to only pay for features which offer business value for whatever kind of industry the company is in. Sex organs seem like they would be more sophisticated, costly, and optional, than all modern cars coming with some kind of CD player at minimum. So, in realistic economics, a factory worker doesn't need a sex organ, therefore a factory buys a cheaper robot without one. Come to think of it, I don't know why factory workers would need skin, either. Maybe that's the "CD player of synths". It's something that's so mass-produced, that you can't really save any money by trying to purchase a synth without it.

Sorry, just thinking out loud, here.

[–] superharrybird 8 years ago

yeah it does make sense to have less sophiscated/realistic syths for industrial purpose , they should be more like the skeletor version in the T2 movie.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

Well, I don't smoke but my car came with a cigarette lighter. They probably make them all the same for resale value.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] GeneralMeow 8 years ago

That is why the Hester development makes no sense. Curiosity, sure, but true sensory pleasure? Even to Mia, who is eons more sophisticated in physiology because she was designed to be conscious, it's still just about liking the "proximity." Because she had feelings for her partner. Hester? Nope.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

Well, as a brain scientist, the issues of pleasure and pain are extremely recent and limited evolutions that make use of other systems which have evolved for different purposes. Our bodies are composed of many peripheral nerve fibers which communicate different types of information, either singly, or in combination. For example, the same skin receptors and nerve fibers are activated with either very high or very low temperature stimuli which can result in tissue damage, but our brain only interprets whether it is hot or cold by the concurrent activation of receptors which are activated by innocuous cooling stimuli. If we selectively remove the innocuous cooling receptors from the equation, nearly all test subjects will report an ice cube as being hot.

In order to be a functional synth, Hestor would need a combination of rapidly (flutter) and slowly (pressure) adapting receptors in her synthetic skin. They are necessary for the feedback loops to control motor movements and to perform tasks. So basically 99% the hardware for sex is in place in even the most basic synth, one only needs to add the cigarette lighter, so to speak, and do some upper level programming as to what response is evoked by a particular set of impulses.

For me, Maddie has just activated that other level of programming. But the real question is what is the nature of the programming. Is it just a new set of "duties" that the synth can perform. The synths are normally programmed to do certain tasks at certain times under certain circumstances, and the parameters of sex can certainly fall within these programming basics. Humans like to think that they are in control of everything, but deep down we respond to basic environmental and seasonal cues just like most other animals, and in that sense we are programmed for certain behavioral patterns to increase the probability of survival, which includes sex. Maddie essentially took a synth and added the equivalent of sex hormones.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] fatal510 8 years ago

You guys need to learn a basic economics principle. Economies of scale. When mass producing something it becomes far cheaper to just make one type of thing. It could actually be more costly to not put the sex organs in or any others of your ideas.

[–] gb901 8 years ago

Indeed - why would a factory bot have a minge?
This craps run its course.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

It has a minge because it is cheaper to make them all with a minge vs some with a minge and some without, whatever a minge is.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] rahayu-sma6 8 years ago

If that's the case, then why there are so many synth with different facial features and body types?
Isn't it expensive to make, probably hundreds of synth with different face and body?

[–] jonnithomas 8 years ago

you are assuming that you know how the synths made. their very name suggests that they are synthetic and not robotic constructs.

if they have an endoskeleton combined with subsequent organic growths up to skin level then the varying body types would be feasible. the process shown in the credits could be the first iteration before they became the current design.

however, I think perhaps people are being to literal in their discussion of this program. attempting to put current world design and construction constraints onto a fictional parallel earth with different technology is rather foolish.

the program has a basic premise and then discusses the moral/ ethical/ economical and social impact of that premise. otherwise you will end up on another program with wombles and dragons discussing the ethical and moral outlook of both fictional ' species.