Catholics, Are You Ready?: Cyberpunk, Transhumanism, and the Challenge of the Future

[Fran65]

Aside from the question of whether an AI system (including one that looks human) has a soul; there are also ethical questions regarding their ‘use’ in sexual relationships.

As procreation would not be possible with an AI system that would be one of several reasons why Catholics would not condone the development of these type of relationships.

In addition, as the systems would be presumably programmed and developed for those relationships, they - however seemingly intelligent - would be incapable of giving consent. That would be another reason why marriage would not be possible and therefore any sexual activity would be regarded as sinful; being both outside marriage and invovling the use of ‘an object’ in many respects.

The human looking robots give me ‘the creeps’ anyway. It is the fact they look human, but are not. It is a basic emotional reaction that many people have (in my experience as a psychologist).

As for implanted devices; I have an implant to maintain and regulate my heart function as well as defibrillate my heart if I go into cardiac arrest. In some ways I have an advantage over others - a greater than 90% survival chance in cardiac arrest outside hospital compared to @10% for those who do not an ICD; however I regard it as ‘alien’ to me and would prefer to live without it. The fact of frequent replacement surgeries and prospective device failures (I’ve already had one) does not help this. Some joke about being ‘bionic’, I’d far rather not be; but that is probably a wish not to have a life threatening heart condition, rather than a real aversion to the idea of implants per se.

 

[TheAtheist]

In addition, as the systems would be presumably programmed and developed for those relationships, they - however seemingly intelligent - would be incapable of giving consent. That would be another reason why marriage would not be possible and therefore any sexual activity would be regarded as sinful; being both outside marriage and invovling the use of ‘an object’ in many respects.

I think that’s the point strangely enough. Excluding the advances in robotics that are done for purely industrial purposes, a heavy investment is being made in “Track 2” - which is making robots and quasi-AI more “human like.”

I find it rather interesting that so much effort should be expended in trying to give these things natural movement in terms of mannerisms, hand gestures, and even blinking.

Disturbingly enough, i’m sure there will be a market for a walking talking “sexbot” eventually. Hopefully not in my lifetime.

 

[Fran65]

The idea seems to be that if robots are more human then people will accept them more easily.

However, the opposite is true for me. The very human robots that I’ve seen on documentaries (albeit with very limited programming) I found very disturbing. However, robots like Asimo are more acceptable to me being childlike, but clearly mechanical.

As for the use of sexbots it would not be a surprise given the proliferation of prostitution, porn and sex dolls. We have a secular culture of satisfying needs at any cost, so there will be a very lucrative market.