J. Clarke
2019-11-19 23:47:52 UTC
Saw a news article that mentioned, among a discussion of robot
brothels, that sexbots can cost up to $30,000. So I got to wondering
what a $30,000 sexbot was like. Turns out it's kind of like a $3000
sexbot except it tries to converse, has some animatronics to try to
sell that it is conversing (note, the app it uses is available for $30
a year--I might actually check that out and see if it is as boring as
I expect), and to get the price up to 30K it has some appearance
customization (by "customization" I mean various features adjusted to
match a photo or drawing, not just select from a menu). The most I
could run it up to without that kind of customization was around $12K.
Anway, it occurs to me that if we ever have functioning android
robots, they may come out of the sex industry, which struck me as a
rather unexpected direction.
There's enough market there to support several companies (at least
several seem to exist), at least one of which is doing over a million
a year in sales (numbers and prices were mentioned in the article--300
sexbots at 3000+ each) and they seem to be competing on
features--right now there's one that talks with lip-synch and eye
movement, responds verbally to various kinds of touch, and has a 98.6
degree body temperature. There's one coming whose makers promise that
it will kiss back when you kiss it. Next feature, they're talking
about hip-thrusting and the like. So how long before it can get up
and romp around the apartment with you? And once it can do that, then
getting it to do things other than play is just a matter of continued
development.
I understand that right now an obstacle is weight--adding powered
features adds weight, which can cause problems--right now their weight
is in the ballpark for real people of their approximate size, so they
may have to get high-tech with materials which would run the price up,
possibly higher than a mass-market would pay.
Strange days
brothels, that sexbots can cost up to $30,000. So I got to wondering
what a $30,000 sexbot was like. Turns out it's kind of like a $3000
sexbot except it tries to converse, has some animatronics to try to
sell that it is conversing (note, the app it uses is available for $30
a year--I might actually check that out and see if it is as boring as
I expect), and to get the price up to 30K it has some appearance
customization (by "customization" I mean various features adjusted to
match a photo or drawing, not just select from a menu). The most I
could run it up to without that kind of customization was around $12K.
Anway, it occurs to me that if we ever have functioning android
robots, they may come out of the sex industry, which struck me as a
rather unexpected direction.
There's enough market there to support several companies (at least
several seem to exist), at least one of which is doing over a million
a year in sales (numbers and prices were mentioned in the article--300
sexbots at 3000+ each) and they seem to be competing on
features--right now there's one that talks with lip-synch and eye
movement, responds verbally to various kinds of touch, and has a 98.6
degree body temperature. There's one coming whose makers promise that
it will kiss back when you kiss it. Next feature, they're talking
about hip-thrusting and the like. So how long before it can get up
and romp around the apartment with you? And once it can do that, then
getting it to do things other than play is just a matter of continued
development.
I understand that right now an obstacle is weight--adding powered
features adds weight, which can cause problems--right now their weight
is in the ballpark for real people of their approximate size, so they
may have to get high-tech with materials which would run the price up,
possibly higher than a mass-market would pay.
Strange days