What if human beings just stopped having sex?
This question isn’t as outlandish as it seems. There’s something about modern life that has already, as Kara Kennedy writes today, led us to have a lot less sex. Dr. Debra Soh has spent years trying to understand why—and published the results of her work this week, in a terrifying and highly readable book called Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy.
As technology advances, many people are swapping the turmoil of human relationships for the instant gratification of Instagram, OnlyFans, and YouTube. But in the following excerpt, Dr. Soh says that technology is replacing sex in much more disturbing ways. Highly realistic robotic sex dolls—equipped with sensors and artificial intelligence—are quickly moving from novelty to mainstream availability, especially among men.
Dr. Soh has seen the factories where these robots are made. She’s spoken to the men who’ve used them. And today, she asks: Will robots start replacing sex? And, more importantly: Could they begin to replace women? What happens when people turn not just to virtual substitutes, but physical ones? —The Editors
I first encountered an early prototype of a sex robot when I was completing my PhD in neuroscience in 2017, and a friend sent me a viral video of a silicone head wearing a wig attached to a broomstick. A sheet had been draped over the head’s broomstick body so the viewer couldn’t see the mechanics behind the head’s steady motion. All that was visible was the robot’s face as it ate a banana (reader, it was not actually a banana). Even though the entire thing looked hysterically bad, bordering on horrific, there was clearly a market for such a product. Many people had watched the video and felt enchanted enough to buy it.
