Picked up this article on sexbots off a blog. Have to say that I disagree with the authors conclusions about sexbots replacing woman or even WG's, but then I've never been an early adopter.
The attached video of the latest prototype did kind of freak me out though.
Sexbots
Forget flying cars and interstellar travel, the next big thing to radically transform society will be sexbots. Japanese girlfriend substitutes, lifelike dolls, porn saturation… all signs are pointing toward a technological coalescence of immense implications for relations between the sexes. It’s a horny new world on the horizon of men having sex with the artificial women of their dreams. Mein Gott.
Much has been written about the sexbot phenomenon, with the skeptics focusing on the technical limitations (men make this argument) and the insistence that sexbots would not satisfy male sexual desire like real women would (women make this argument). It’s possible the technical hurdles to creating a sexually pleasing mechanical woman that could compete with real women might be too high, but assuming those hurdles are jumped, I offer the following future scenario.
A robot that is an exact replica of your favourite supermodel and that has feedback to sound and touch (for example, she’ll move her limbs and gyrate during sex as well as talk dirty and respond to commands) would supplant all other masturbation tools as the preferred method of getting off for men who can afford it. Once sexbots become affordable, internet porn consolidates to one or two websites for spank snobs who insist on “authenticity” and proles who must suffer the humiliation of not only being too poor to afford real women but fake ones as well. But, outside of self-pleasure and procreation, would sexbots replace real women?
For some men, yes. The replacement would be total, at least until the dating market adjusted to the new reality. For other men, sexbots would be a part-time replacement. The result will be a shift in the mating landscape that will put selection pressures on humanity equivalent to a massive plague or a catastrophic famine.
Sexbots are a very real threat to the established order because men’s sexuality is so visually driven. Compared to women, it is a rather simple affair to create an alternative sexual outlet for men. Think about romance novels which are the porn equivalent for women. It’s a mentally-taxing affair to write a book, even a trashy, plot-by-numbers one. But displaying photos of naked women for the consumption of men takes a few mindless seconds. Now imagine a Natalia Vodianova sexbot in every bachelor pad. The raw visual and tactile appeal of that will keep men holed up in their bedrooms for weeks straight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFVlzUAZkHY