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Robots, AI, and how we treat them
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That said, you still need to establish that a robot can possibly become indistinguishable from a human to the degree where an experience with a robot can affect how you treat humans. I'm not sure that's the case since rape porn has existed forever and doesn't seem to encourage real-life rape. Raping a CG schoolgirl on your computer or collecting faux-rape DVDs doesn't, as far as I know, make you more inclined to rape yourself.
Furthermore, people are capable of engaging in rape fantasies with each other without becoming rapists themselves. The fact that it's known to be a role-playing thing provides a necessary distance from the real-life act, which is what makes it possible to stomach the fantasy act in the first place. In order to remove this distance through robot sex, you'd have to actually make the robot a non-consenting partner, and if you're doing that then you're already psychologically a rapist before you've even used the robot for sex.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
OT, but...
My point exactly regardless of robot involvement or not this is essentially a form of role play and thus detached from reality.
He lives on as cheezburger grease in our hearts.
I'm wondering, does a serial rapist feel disgusted when he sees evidence of what another serial rapist has done? When serial rapists meet, are they giving each other high fives or angry looks?
well, of course; why else would you role play?
the point is that role play is something people already do, and replacing a consensual partner with a robot probably isn't that big a jump
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
Yeah, that's where one of the primary differences is. With consensual roleplaying with another human being, you are still interacting with a person you are empathizing with and you care how they feel and think.
With a robot, it's an object. Objectification and detachment from the other party being an equal or other being worthy of respect is how humans justify all sorts of atrocities. I don't think that engaging and honing that mindset has a healthy effect on your interactions with other people.
It's not going to default to making you a rapist or murderer, but when you are making a regular practice of dulling your instinctive emotional responses to the simulation, it will have an effect on your response to the real thing. The more accurate the simulation, the more the mindset bleeds through.
Unless you decide to draw a line somewhere in how accurate a simulation you are willing to engage in, there will come a point where emotionally the difference doesn't matter.
I think physical simulation via human facsimile robots is where we should draw that line.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
When people tend to argue from their feelings instead of facts, it does not end well for them around here sir.
But again you haven't addressed my point that a significant emotional investment in the idea would probably be necessary to buy a rapebot in the first place.
He lives on as cheezburger grease in our hearts.
I really just can't comprehend this idea that being able to divorce fantasy from fiction makes you some sort of psychopath, as you seem to be suggesting with some of your responses to J, Pony. Everyone does it, everyone is capable of it; the ones that don't generally are unable to function in society.
You seem to be saying there is some intangible difference between pretending to do something one way and pretending to do it another, and I really can't see any reason that would be true, much less actual evidence of it. People know hurting other people is wrong, as a general rule; no amount of fantasy is going to change that fact in anyone but the severely mentally ill.
I feel compelled to point out that, despite predictions of increased acceptance and availability of porn leading to increased sexual assaults, at least in the United States the number of forcible rapes has decreased rather dramatically since the early '90s.
When the only basis you have is some vague imaginings about what you think people might be feeling in some hypothetical situation, you have nothing to base a discussion on, or a moral or even practical judgment. It's pure fear mongering.
I think people are sufficiently rational to separate fantasy from reality. You apparently don't. Good discussion.
Understanding that the tactile difference presents a different experience I would still think that it is more in the realm of simulation (VR, games etc.) than reality. Basically I do not believe that robots will ever be an effective substitute for a human, not matter the level of simulated realism. I understand that it may appear we're going in that direction but going in the direction and arriving are two very different things (see space colonization, jetpacks)
I feel compelled to point out that the table can be used to support the exact opposite of what you think it says. Violent crime in general has gone down, but forcible rape rates haven't decreased as much as the overall violent crime rate; forcible rape now represents a bigger portion of all violent crime than it did in the 90s.
Except that the total number of and per-capita instances of forcible rape are now much lower than they were in the early '90s. Since the availability and prevalence of pornography has skyrocketed since then, predicting that said increase in availability and prevalence of pornography will lead to "a wave of increased sexual assaults" doesn't in any way jibe with reality.
Unless you're claiming that without the rise of internet porn that somehow instances of forcible rape would have decreased even further, but there's absolutely no way to prove or disprove that claim.
So yeah, the "all that porno on the internet is going to brainwash dudes into going on a raping spree" bullshit is purely fearmongering hyperbole.
So, it was cool, and I enjoyed it, but I don't really have a reason to continue.