Sex with Robots

This post will have some spoilers for a few shows and movies. Be warned.

I recently watched a series on Amazon called Humans. (It is originally from AMC and Channel 4.) From the site, the show description is: “In a parallel present, the latest must-have gadget is a Synth: a highly-developed robotic servant. In an attempt to keep his family together, Joe Hawkins purchases a Synth, only to discover that sharing life with a machine has far-reaching and chilling consequences.”

One of the repeating themes of the show is how some people began to anthropomorphize their in-home Synths. One went so far as to try to sue a theater for throwing her and her Synth out of a play because the Synth wasn’t supposed to be there. She tried to say it was a violation of its/his “human” rights because she believed he emotionally understood the play.

As would be expected, one of the uses for such Synths is sex. There are Synth brothels and the units available for in home use have “adult options” where they can give the appearance of passion.

One of the focuses of the series is a family of Joe and Laura Hawkins and their three kids. Joe buys a Synth they call Anita to help out around the house. Laura at first doesn’t want Anita around until the Synth saves Laura’s son’s life. Later, when Laura is out unexpectedly to do something for work, Joe becomes jealous and decides to turn on Anita’s adult options “just to see.” He regrets it almost before they are done and orders Anita to delete the records of what happened from her memory. Of course it comes to light and Laura calls him a cheater while he tries to justify his actions by comparing it to using a sex toy.

I suppose it makes some sense that Laura would feel betrayed like that. Anita had been living in their house for a while at that point, taking care of the children. Their youngest had already emotionally bonded with Anita like with a nanny or something.

This isn’t the only example of sex with robots in TV or movies, of course. I watched Blade Runner earlier, and had an odd feeling at the scene were Deckard and Rachael get together in his apartment. Deckard makes Rachael (a Nexus 6 Replicant) say “Kiss me.” and “I want you.” I’m still trying to decide if he wanted her to realize she felt it or if he just wanted to think she felt it.

So, this raises a few questions. Does having sex with a robot count in terms of relationships? Is it in effect any different from using a hand-held sex toy while fantasizing about someone? Does it matter if the AI actually feels an emotional connection or just the human?

Maybe it’s not cheating if the subject of the act doesn’t have agency. An inanimate sex toy can’t decide on its own. A fantasy can’t decide on its own. But what if the subject of the fantasy is someone you know?

And then, what if the robot has some agency but also has an imperative to obey whatever a human says? Would it then be coercion? Sexual harassment? If (or when) we have sex robots, can you rape a machine?

What used to be thought were solid lines of what it meant to be human in every part of our lives are becoming increasingly blurred. If (or when) we create robots with a level of real AI that provides any agency at all, those lines will become even less clear.

My Own User Manual

I listen to a lot of different podcasts. (Perhaps I’ll do a post about them all in the future.) One of them, and the one pertinent to this post, is Polyamory Weekly.

The host of this podcast, a woman who goes by the name Cunning Minx, repeatedly suggests people create a user manual for themselves. This is details about who you are, what you want in a relationship, and how to have a successful relationship with you. It reminds me of the two questions asked over and over by the Vorlons and the Shadows in Babylon 5: “Who are you?” and “What do you want?” Two questions that are so deceptively simple yet so difficult to answer.

I’m starting to write my own. I’m not sure yet when to show this to a future partner when we start or after a while. Maybe I’ll do a condensed version as a Starter Guide for the beginning. With all my quirks, especially the autism, it might be helpful for someone not familiar with how to interact with someone who almost never fits in to the normal interactions of society.

So far, my planned sections include: my personal history; religious standings; Asperger’s and how that affects my interactions; my food restrictions and limitations; what I want emotionally and physically from a relationship. Of course, each of these will be broken down. It will be tough finding a balance between too little and excessive context and explanation. I need to leave something for conversation and discovery, yes?

My main reservation is, couldn’t I be handing this person a how-to guide on how to manipulate me? As straightforward as I am, this hasn’t seemed to have been a problem in the past with people figuring out how to do it, though. And maybe I’m being too cynical.

All told, I’m excited about this project. I think such things, taken seriously, could help people move forward faster and get to where and what they want to be in a more efficient manner.

“Sanctuary”

This week I’ve been watching season 1 of a great Sci-Fi show called “Sanctuary”. This was another show about the hidden creatures, called Abnormals, that live among humans, and the Sanctuary network is a private research group tasked with studying and protecting these abnormals from humans and from themselves if necessary.

The Sanctuary was created by Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), a brilliant biologist who runs the location featured in the show. She is helped by her gun-hand daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), tech-savvy Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), and a Bigfoot (Christopher Heyerdahl). In the first episodes, they add in Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), a profiler who tends to see more than most people are comfortable with.

Some things that I really like about “Sanctuary” is that abnormals are just as diverse in temperament and regular humans. Some are benign and just want to live their lives, and some are malevolent and just want to eat your face. They also weave some interesting season-long mystery among a character-driven story.

Technically, the show is interesting because most of the sets and locations seen on the screen don’t really exist. The actors were on green-screen stages and the only things that existed were objects they had to touch like a door or a bookshelf.

It’s a great show that I obviously highly recommend if you can find where to watch it. If I had thought enough in advance, I would have made this my first episode review posts. Maybe I still will.

Filler

There are a lot of things I’ve learned this past week. Most of which are lessons I have to learn again and again.

Two of these involved communicating with people. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. One of the people accepted my apology; the other didn’t. This is, of course, a known issue for me. I often don’t realize how things I say will be interpreted until too late.

I probably need to start editing my every communication, or at least triple think it. Maybe I could create a character in my mind to review these things when I don’t have a friend handy.

Another involves time management. I’ve run out of so much time by procrastinating too much. It’s hard to keep a grip on my attention sometimes. There’s things that need to get to done for my second job. And I really need to get back to writing my novels and this blog. The fact I’m posting something Monday evening instead of over the weekend like planned is a great indication. Of course I did have to go to Dallas Saturday night for a job, which also threw off my days and sleeping.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something here to keep in the habit of writing sort of regularly.

New Star Trek Coming

I’m excited about the new Star Trek series coming next year. For those who don’t know, CBS announced a new Star Trek series to start in January 2017. It will be on their All Access streaming service. (http://www.startrek.com/article/new-star-trek-series-premieres-january-2017)

I have mixed feelings being excitement and apprehension. I’m excited that Star Trek is coming back to television, really where it does best. And I’m hopeful that it will be great. The fact they have Bryan Fuller as showrunner is reason for hope. In addition to Hannibal and Pushing Daises, he was responsible for many of the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. They also have announced that Nicholas Meyer is a writer on the show. He was responsible for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, partially responsible for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and responsible for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. With talent like this, CBS is certainly not messing around.

I’m also excited about the rumours that it will be set in the prime timeline instead of the JJ-verse timeline. Though, given the fact that Paramount owns the Star Trek movie rights and CBS owns the TV rights, it makes sense. The rumours also say that it will be set immediately after Undiscovered Country. Or at least the first season will be. There are talks that the new series might be anthology-based, with each season in a different area and time. This could be interesting.

Amidst the excitement, there is also apprehension. Enterprise had such promise, and they dropped the ball. (At least until the last season.) But these people at the helm give me a lot of hope for it.

There are some things I’d like to see. One, I would really like it if it wasn’t the Enterprise again. Except maybe if they want to do stories with the Enterprise-B or -C. What would be even better is if they had a female or, even better, and alien captain. That Klingon in Undiscovered Country (I forget her name) was right. With all the talk about multi-culturalism, the Federation is still a very humans-only club. It would be nice to see some more diversity. That’s one of the things that was really good about DS9.

So, we’ll just have to see. I’ll give the first season a chance. I’m too much a fan of Babylon 5 to stop after only a few episodes, and too much a fan of Star Trek to not give it a chance to fly.

An Odd Hero

I had a friend over yesterday, and I got to tell a cool story again. This got me thinking about autistic characters in fiction and how well they are portrayed, but that’s getting a little ahead of myself.

This friend asked about some of the framed pictures I have on my wall that are signed prints of different actors and a writer. The one in question is of Mary Lynn Rajskub.

Why is this comedian and actor so important? Because of her character Chloe O’Brian on 24.

(A side note: I intend to include 24 in my planned feature of per-episode review and commentary on a rewatch. I just don’t know if I want to start with that one or not.)

Why then would a fictional character be important to me? Because Chloe is one of the few characters I could really identify with. Even though it was never official that Chloe was on the autism spectrum, she had many of the same problems relating to people that I have, a similar intelligence, a similar sense of humor, and a similar fierce loyalty to those she considers friends. I could never be Jack Bauer, but I could be Chloe. The character also gave me hope for myself to see someone with Asperger-like personality traits to be portrayed positively instead of for laughs like on a certain popular sit-com. Chloe was successful in her professional life, becoming a valued coworker and an even more valued friend to a select few. She also became successful in her personal life. After a couple of tries, she finds someone who can understand and accept her as she is. In my personal life, I’m still waiting on the second part of that.

A few months ago, I took a special trip down to Austin to go see Mary Lynn in person on her comedy tour. While there, I got to meet her briefly and tell her what Chloe means to me and thank her for creating that character. She seemed to appreciate it. She said that she had heard from many people about if Chloe was autistic, or more specifically Asperger’s; but she had never heard that from someone on the spectrum himself.

It’s a memory I hope doesn’t soon fade.

This is when I met Mary Lynn Rajskub in Austin.
This is when I met Mary Lynn Rajskub in Austin.

Autism Acceptance

What could I make my first post about? How about one of the most important things to me this month: my autism.

AAMwordcloud

For April, groups like the Autism Self Advocacy Network are sponsoring Autism Acceptance Month. This is important to help people understand that autism is more than just a childhood thing; adults have autism, too. We don’t grow out of it.

What does an autistic adult look like? Pretty much like everyone else. We just think a little differently and have trouble in social situations. But we can still be productive members of society, as long as people make small allowances for some odd quirks from time to time.

I had a little trouble with this when I went to my current job over a year ago. However, after some of this trouble, I decided I had to let my supervisor and the HR manager know about the diagnosis. Since then, we’ve worked together to help me fit more in. And now, a year in, they are both quite impressed with my progress.

Now, why then Autism Acceptance Month and not Autism Awareness Month? Aren’t all the autism things supposed to be blue? Well, that’s only if you want to support Autism Speaks. (I’m not even going to link to them like I normally will do with any organization I mention.) This is an organization that believes that autism is a terrible disease that is horror for families and needs to be prevented and cured. Frak you! I don’t want to be cured, and I don’t need to be cured. Some of the more extreme cases of people almost totally withdrawn into themselves need some therapy help, but mostly we need to be understood and accepted as people like everyone else.

 

Obligatory First Post

As I’ve been listening to more podcasts lately, I’ve decided to try and start a blog about things that interest me. Why the title “JAR of Geek”? Simple: JAR are my initials.

I might discuss recent news; reviews of TV, movies, or books; commentary on other issues. Topics will include (but are not limited to):

  • science
  • science fiction
  • autism
  • atheism
  • religious studies
  • cats
  • games (board and card)