I don’t think it’s clear whether this would make the world a better place.
Psychologically: There are relatively few publications on the possible social impacts of sexbots, and those that do exist are primarily surveys of sentiments about sexbots rather than observing correlations in behavior or performing interventions.
There are those who argue that sexbots could divert harmful behavior, but there are also those who argue that sexbots could instead train harmful behavior. And obviously one of those two groups stands to be able to make a profit if they are correct, so the evidence may require scrutiny even once there is some.
Philosophically: There are models of morality that say you shouldn’t mistreat anything that appears to be conscious, whether or not it is indeed conscious. (Obviously, we’re not talking about full-blown indistinguishable facsimiles anytime soon… but as a VR enthusiast, I can tell you that it is unsettling how convincing immersion can be even if realism is obviously lacking. If you replace your senses at a low enough level, your brain quickly adapts to just about anything.)
You can draw a parallel to Kant’s view on harming animals, where he says it’s not simply wrong because the animal is harmed, but because you disfigure yourself in the process.
cruelty to animals is contrary to man’s duty to himself, because it deadens in him the feeling of sympathy for their sufferings, and thus a natural tendency that is very useful to morality in relation to other human beings is weakened.
Technically: It opens a vast array of terrible possibilities where, if someone is staring at me while wearing AR glasses… are they just incidentally looking in my direction because that’s where their AR widgets happen to be positioned? Or are they deliberately capturing my likeness so that they can fuck it later?
We can debate how much any of us should care about someone fucking our likeness without our knowledge, but it remains a fact that this is a new thing to potentially care about.
I don’t think it’s clear whether this would make the world a better place.
Psychologically: There are relatively few publications on the possible social impacts of sexbots, and those that do exist are primarily surveys of sentiments about sexbots rather than observing correlations in behavior or performing interventions.
There are those who argue that sexbots could divert harmful behavior, but there are also those who argue that sexbots could instead train harmful behavior. And obviously one of those two groups stands to be able to make a profit if they are correct, so the evidence may require scrutiny even once there is some.
Philosophically: There are models of morality that say you shouldn’t mistreat anything that appears to be conscious, whether or not it is indeed conscious. (Obviously, we’re not talking about full-blown indistinguishable facsimiles anytime soon… but as a VR enthusiast, I can tell you that it is unsettling how convincing immersion can be even if realism is obviously lacking. If you replace your senses at a low enough level, your brain quickly adapts to just about anything.)
You can draw a parallel to Kant’s view on harming animals, where he says it’s not simply wrong because the animal is harmed, but because you disfigure yourself in the process.
Technically: It opens a vast array of terrible possibilities where, if someone is staring at me while wearing AR glasses… are they just incidentally looking in my direction because that’s where their AR widgets happen to be positioned? Or are they deliberately capturing my likeness so that they can fuck it later?
We can debate how much any of us should care about someone fucking our likeness without our knowledge, but it remains a fact that this is a new thing to potentially care about.