jonasvanwymeersch-blog

[jonasvanwymeersch-blog]

I find this blog very interesting and confusing at the same time. When reading this blog I had a hard time understanding what the view of the writer was about these robots. I would have loved a more expressed opinion from the author.

On the other hand, the debate is open. And I think this subject is very present.  Technology has indeed made great progress when it comes to AI (artificial intelligence). And of course, these things bring some ethical issues in general, so let alone on a sexual level. Although rape is, of course, a criminal issue, I believe the robots may have a positive influence on the contemporary rape numbers. In my opinion, these robots shouldn’t be “sexual educated” with a behavioral repertoire, let them be “robots”. This has several advantages in my opinion. First of all, people will not get confused that it’s a robot and fall in love with the machine, it would be pure out of lust. Thereby, the majority of people will not prefer a relationship with robots over a human relationship. Secondly, I think these robots can become some sort of subterfuge for people who struggle with sexual desires that are not acceptable by society. A robot isn’t a living creature, it only acts like one. So you can’t give these “things” the same rights as a human being. And therefore, you can’t rape them. I even believe that real rape will in fact decrease since raping a robot would be acceptable and less valuable than a human. So I don’t believe that it would facilitate rape. But it certainly will facilitate the rape fantasy.

Even if engineers could manage to create a robot that you couldn’t separate from “the real deal”. I believe they won’t be able to create the connection “on a higher level” that two people have when having intercourse. So you will always feel that it is a robot.

The Rape of Robots

When a robot tells you he loves you, should you believe it? In recent years, technology has made great progress. Some scientists claim that there is nothing about human love and sex that could not be engineered in the relatively near future. Some go even further and argue that the bots would not only be psychologically pleasing, but that humans would prefer them to human relationships.

Nowadays we’re able to build the kind of machine that is extremely similar to a human-being, so it’s rather difficult to tell them apart. Nevertheless, it’s not a big deal to create a bot that engages the user in an emotional and irresistible way. The famous Tamagotchi, a virtual pet in a mini portable Gameboy, is a good illustration. Although Tamagotchi and a sexbot have little in common, it shows that people can get emotionally affected to an unhuman object. Lots of people have spent many hours on feeding and taking care of the artificial pet.

Latex “Sex Dolls” have existed for many years. Recent advances can design a humanoid robot with behavioral responses and fulfill sexual fantasies. With this progression of robots, publications about ethical and physical issues increase. For example, should sexbots be equipped with a behavioral repertoire, can they refuse sex as a result of an explicitly programmed script containing a series of stimuli and should it be possible for sexbots to refuse sex when sexual actions proceed beyond a certain point? Are we talking here about rape? Sexual acts without mutual consent are defined as rape. That may also include sexual actions with robots in which the bot fails to refuse. But where is the limit of a robot? It brings up some ethical questions about human interaction and a virtual world.

“Is it wrong to rape a robot?”, is an ethical question that arises when we talk about sexbots. On the one hand, when a robot explicitly refuses sex, it would be unethical because it is a simulation of having sex with a real woman or man who refuses intercourse and it would facilitate rape fantasy. As a result, it could increase real rape. On the other hand, bots that lack the capacity of refusing can give an unrealistic representation of sexual activity. Both situations cause discussions and create divisions in the ethical debate about having sex with robots.

References

Sparrow, Robert. “Robots, Rape, and Representation”. International Journal of Social Robotics 9, nr. 4 (1 september 2017): 465–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-017-0413-z.

Sullins, John P. “Robots, Love, and Sex: The Ethics of Building a Love Machine”. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing 3, nr. 4 (Fourth 2012): 398–409. https://doi.org/10.1109/T-AFFC.2012.31.

[jonasvanwymeersch-blog]

When will electric cars finally be more affordable?

You may have heard about companies like Tesla and Audi selling electric cars. You also may have heard about the huge amount of money they are asking for their electric cars. If you haven’t, I will give you some examples. The Tesla Model X starts at around 93600 euro. Audi has a similar car in its model range, the Audi E-Tron. You can already buy the E-Tron for only 71000 euros, what a bargain! I must admit that similar cars as the model X and E-Tron, with a regular diesel or petrol engine, aren’t the cheapest cars around either. The problem is that most electric car manufacturers don’t make an electric car that most people can buy without selling a kidney first. But hold on, don’t sell your kidney just yet because cheaper electric cars might just be lurking around the corner.

There are 2 major reasons for an upcoming generation of cheaper electric vehicles. One, the price of batteries is getting lower. According to recent studies, the price of batteries in 2022 will be 60 percent less than the price of batteries in 2016. The cost of the battery accounts for around 25 percent of the total cost of a BEV (battery electric vehicle). So, if the batteries become cheaper, the whole car will become cheaper. Another important factor is the rise in demand for electric vehicles. If manufacturers can start producing BEV on a larger scale, they can spread the cost of R&D, specialized equipment, etc. over a larger number of cars which means that the final cost price will lower.

A good example of this is the new Peugeot e-208. The price of this electric variant of the popular small hatchback will be less than 30 000 euros. This is the same amount that you would pay for the same car but with a petrol engine and automatic transition. When Peugeot announced this, they sold over 800 electric 208’s in the first couple of days. This is 75% of the total 208’s which were ordered during that period.

So, if you only have one kidney left, or you would just like to keep them both, maybe don’t buy that Tesla just yet and have a bit of patience. The Peugeot will be available in March 2020.