Robot brothels coming to a town near you
The is blog post 3, robot brothels…
Yup, they exist and they are here in the state of Texas. let's talk about the city of Houston 1st and how the whole robot brothel became a main issue of contention there.
Looks like a company found a loophole in the zoning laws of Houston. And decided to operate their sex robot brothel. This was then brought to the attention of Houston’s city council through Elijah Rising (which is an activist group against sex trafficking); they received 15,000 signatures on a petition that said - we do not want this here because we believe it condones sex trafficking. The City Council responded by allowing the company to stay, but that the main portion, which is the part in contention – where the customer would go in and “test” the product (the robot) before buying it - was banned.
If you're curious, in my research, it looks like if you want to be a proud owner of one of these robots, it will put you out around 15 grand. Side note: every time I think about this story, I can’t help think about ‘Blade Runner’ “More human than human”. This brings up the next issue I want to discuss on this taboo subject. The pros and cons… Yes, I did say, the pros and cons of these alleged sex brothels or sex robots. Like it or not, I believe they are here to stay and by 2030, it's going to be crazy – you won’t know the difference between a robot and a human brothel or otherwise. Also note, I’m not advocating one way or the other, I just want to keep the discussion about artificial intelligence and the criminal justice system alive… That said, let’s dig into the alleged pros:
One that’s been presented is that the robots would replace prostitution, another saying that it could be therapeutic for those that have lascivious intentions above the social norm (I'll just leave that to your imagination), another said it would mitigate human trafficking, sex trafficking - which again, I’m not saying that it wouldn't, I don't know enough about it. some of the sociologists that have been consulted explained that it would not promote it - but I didn't see anything that said it would stop it from happening or at least reduce it from happening either. I would love to have some comments questions - any research regarding the above. Let’s get a debate going. More on the pros… some ‘experts’ say it can alleviate loneliness and give companionship and for the elderly. Lastly, some of the articles I’ve read said that nothing will ever replace the real thing, therefore this is just another passing fancy.
What about the cons? When I researched it, I didn't find the one con that I thought was extremely important (in addition to the below cited) I’ll get into the troubling issue I uncovered in the next paragraph. But first, there’s the con of bias. It’s, according to my research, these brothels will be biased against women – potentially. Another is that using these robots would cause isolation. All experts agree long term isolation is never a good thing for humans. Third, birth rates. Fourth, destroy marriages. Fifth, no laws affecting robot rights… And so on – you could probably come up with a number of social negative impacts of this brave new world – if it ever manifests to the level I think it will, or experts say it will… I’m short on time here so I have to make my final points. I look forward to the follow-up discussions.
Now let’s get back to the one factor that I’ve not read about, but that I think is crucial in this discussion. The surrogate factor. I don't know if you've ever heard of that movie - science fiction, with Bruce Willis, where none of the people ever got out because they were substituting life with the robot surrogates. If isolation isn’t bad enough, let’s say person x buys one of these robots or visits one of these robot brothels. Did this person read the fine print? and what I mean by that is, does person x realize that the robot’s eyes aren't human eyes, rather, those are recorders; also the robot’s voice is synthetic and is being constantly updated, uploading and downloading information like a PS4; and then when you speak to it, everything you say, or it says to you is being recorded, uploaded, analyzed to improve those particular models of robot for next years line. You have no idea where that information is being uploaded to, who owns it, or what they are doing with it. Maybe even, someone hacks their server, and then you get an email for blackmail. Where does it end?
That collection of cybersex metadata – alone - could be worth billions. I’ll give you a quick example of metadata just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about - so when you're on your phone and let's say you're looking up shoes… and then in an hour, a day, 2 days later you get nothing but inundated with commercials, news articles, emails about… shoes. Well, it's not some kind of weird psychic connection, it's these companies seeing the data that you're inputting into your phone. They collect it, organize it and then they reach out to shoe companies. It then sells that data to the highest bidder. In turn, that shoe company places advertising directly toward you, the person searching for shoes – the data/information used and collected is called metadata.
In closing, I hope the above was an eye-opener and just the beginning of this debate. The future is now, and it is a brave new world, indeed. Let me end with my quote of the day, “Don’t let the fears in your mind push you around.” –Roy T Bennett.
The next blog will be about facial recognition. The pros and cons – I don't see a whole lot of pros, btw. Lastly, if you like this blog, please spread the word, spread the debate. Thank you. If Skynet does not take over by next blog, talk to you then…