“Sex-robots will be the next – and the potentially the most sought-after – product to hit the market.” (Kleeman, 2017)
It baffles me to grasp the desire for sex and the blunt appreciation of pornography in the Western cultures. To see how blatant people are when conversing about sex. Discussing it as a commercial consumption. The idea of ‘consuming’ sex sounds preposterous to me.
In the East, sex is deemed as a tabboo and a sin. One of virtue and greatness should not be concerned of such mortal needs. Self-indulgence does not enrich one’s life, self-constraint does and therefore is favored. The Eastern cultures (reflected in Confucian and Buddha’s teachings) endorse a life of serenity, tranquility, mindfulness and tenacity. Sex and self-indulgence give vision to riots, rebellions and chaos. While the West favors the edginess, the tipping point, feelings of being on the brink, the excess, the extreme; the East traverses to the balance, the harmony, the moderate, the stable, self-composition.
Of the least interest as sex can be in the Eastern world, I believe it is also a sacred thing. Serious and discrete enough not to be taken down to be advertised and consumed. Sex is what comes with love and mutual affection. It is the most inevitable and natural interaction of the bodies when two souls have merged into one. With such beliefs in mind, I am deeply disturbed by the excuses for the human-robot relationship which in the first place is only forged to blindfold the guilty desire of having sex. One advocate for the sex robots is AI engineer David Levy thinks they have therapeutic benefits: “Many who would otherwise have become social misfits, social outcases, or even worse, will instead be better-balanced human beings”.
More discerningly, the commercialization of sex would bring about a social degradation in our fundamental social values – spousal relationships. Rather expressing great concern on this, the tone in the newspaper journal went on to conclude “men in fulfilling relationships were no less likely than single or lonely men to express an interest in owning a sex robot” (Kleeman, 2017).
I might sound like a prude, but my proposition on sex remains to be of self-constraint, sacredness and integrity. Something not to be taken lightly, easily and invariably.
Kleeman, J. (2017) Nobody loves you like I do. The Guardian, 27 April.