Here's a topic less likely to generate as much heat as the last one I started... sex-bots. There are some entrepreneurs working furiously to develop very lifelike android women with sophisticated AI that they hope eventually will make them nearly indistinguishable from humans. The materials science around making android bodies that feel a lot like human flesh is also developing fast. Most here have heard of the RealDoll which is billed as the most lifelike sex doll on the market. If it sells for $6000 and keeps selling as it does, it must at least be one damn good sex doll.
Male sex dolls and sex-bots are also envisioned but most entrepreneurs if not all think the biggest market is in female models. Suppose that's not a big surprise but you know, the market can surprise you. So we'll see.
Self-driving cars, it used to be said, were way off, possibly not until 2050. In retrospect, that seems like a ludicrous estimate, given how fast we're approaching the day that these kinds of cars will be sold en masse. Maybe 2025, 2030 latest.
So my question for you all is this: how far are we away from an AI-enabled sex-bot that is good enough that it can actually compete with the experience of having sex with an actual person? If so, how does it affect hobbying and providers? The cost of such an android would be very high for the foreseeable future, maybe $1 million a copy. In time the prices will drop but probably not before most of us are dead. Do you see a market for android prostitutes? How low would the fee have to be before a man would choose to bang an android vs. an actual woman? As market competition increases and human prostitutes have to start lowering their prices to compete, at what point are humans essentially competed out of the fee-for-sex market?
Just wondering.