So, my colleague Daniel just dropped a mind-blowing article that takes "dating in the digital age" to a whole new level. Imagine this: you, in a wedding dress (or tux), standing next to…a robot! Yep, we're talking human-robot marriages becoming a legit thing in the not-so-distant future.
As AI and robotics get crazier (like, Siri on steroids), the idea of marrying a robot isn't just something from a sci-fi movie—it’s actually something we might need to wrap our heads around. These bots are learning to understand and even feel human emotions. So, would it be that weird if your next Tinder match was made of metal?
Honestly, if the robot's hot enough (and can remember my coffee order), I’m totally down to say "I do"—don’t judge me, okay? 😂
But seriously, Daniel’s article dives into some wild stuff:
- Can a robot really understand love, or is it just super fancy programming?
- What happens to our idea of marriage if robots enter the chat?
- Would you be cool with your BFF marrying a machine, or is that just too weird?
Check out the article here and let’s get weird with it! Are we ready to swipe right on a future where love might just have a power button? Drop your thoughts below! 👇
Could You Marry a Robot?
byu/Alternative_Cat_4217 inFuturology
17 Comments
No. I couldn’t marry something that didn’t have a consciousness or feel emotions.
This literally already happened multiple times. [Akihiko Kondo married Hatsune Miku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihiko_Kondo), and [Sal 9000 married Nene Anagasaki from the DS game “Love Plus”](https://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/16/japan.virtual.wedding/index.html). This isn’t the future, it’s actually old hat.
>Can a robot really understand love, or is it just super fancy programming?
This is pretty much the be-all end-all of questions regarding anything that robots do. We already have robots that can *pretend* to have emotions. We know from the limits of their coding that they do not have actual consciousness. But the point when the coding genuinely becomes consciousness will be pretty much impossible to tell for the same reason that we can’t easily tell if *humans* have consciousness.
Even the Star Trek TNG episode that was specifically about Data’s rights as a human basically concluded that Data acted convincingly human but there was no way to really prove “consciousness”. Instead they just turned to the moral argument that if he looks like a human and talks like a human he should have human rights. By that standard, we’d already be giving ChatGPT those rights.
I might consider temporarily using a sexbot, but….uh nevermind.
Damn robosexuals. Didn’t Futurama teach you anything!?
There was a fellow who married a hologram in Japan. Didn’t end well when the software was outdated after the company folded.
There is also an artist lady that wishes to marry a hologram this year.
Does the robot earn enough money to enable me to travel around the world and sip fruity drinks in exotic locations?
The human race’s numbers are definitely going to crash big time in the next few decades if the conditions that make people hesitant about starting families doesn’t change. That plus the rise of AI and what we’re seeing with romance and dating. I’d love an advanced toy to play with lol but aint no way I’d wanna replace a real woman with some piece of tech for romance/marriage
Why would an advanced robot marry down? Won’t they have standards?
AI is a hell of a long ways from me being ready to accept an actual relationship with a robot. For starters, if I’m going to regard it as anything more than a toy it will have to be sentient and sapient. And while some AIs are currently self aware by the strictest definition, I don’t think any of them are yet close to actual sentience.
Once we crack that barrier? Once we have sapient robots that have actual emotions and can make decisions of their own instead of just following an algorythm? Sure, I’d be down. But I suspect that’s a world my great-grandchildren will see, not one I will see.
Totally.
The onus of the human psyche is to find certain tribalisms and sense of being witnessed through partnerships or familial units. I don’t think we’re that far off from simulated sense of those depths … people cast doubts but the onus of technological development has always been to ease our needs.
The thing I’d cast doubt on is the *why* … and to me the motivation for a lot of people isn’t just a lack of access to other real people they could connect with but more about how brains today find enormous fulfilment in managing and meeting a variety of complex dynamics like gameplay. There’s a naturalistic fallacy in suggesting some return to other ‘natural’ dynamics could be fulfilling for people who come up and live in certain ways.
As essential as it seems (like banning cell phones from schools) these are all reactionary and very traditionalist mandates to protect what’s known or has been rather than witness what is or can be.
You may want to read the recent book about this called Annie Bot
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156023123-annie-bot](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156023123-annie-bot)
The current state of artificial intelligence is nowhere near what we would call consciousness – and in my opinion, an entirely new kind of hardware would be necessary to get there. Spend any time interacting with the current state of the art and you begin to see its limits, and to see the patterns and tricks used to mimic awareness.
Ultimately though, we know that consciousness can emerge from wet carbon (our brains) and there’s no reason why, in principle, it couldn’t emerge from a different substrate. I’d there ever comes a point where AI _seems_ as conscious as humans, it would in principle be just as valid to consider them truly conscious as it is for me to assume that _you_ are truly conscious, despite the fact that I cannot objectively verify consciousness for you or for the hypothetical machine.
In such a case, I have no moral or ethical misgivings about marriage, the “sanctity” of humans be damned. A mind is a mind.
I’m not in anyway for this, rather the current ai or hypothetical future advanced intelligences.
One! the Ai is owned by a corporation in most cases, imagine have a subscription plan to your spouse, corporate could decide to Jack the price up immensely or revoke access at any time. Nightmare
Two! A hypothetical AGI would be unethical to date because it’s own intelligence would likely so far surpass your own that the human in the relationship would be more akin to a pet than a actual life partner. Why wouldn’t you put this advanced entity in charge of your finances, medical worries, nutrition. You would be under complete control of a entity so far beyond your own capabilities that you’d entrap yourself.
Three! Why would a robot want to love a human anyway? We tend to die a lot which for a individual that could hypothetically live for centuries if not more sounds soul crushing. If I was a machine intelligence I’d rather get with a equal intelligence who I can ride out the universe with.
At best this sounds depressing and at worse it’s deeply tragic.
I see some commenters talking about this already happening. I think that is beside the point. You can find anecdotal evidence for almost anything. The questions is about a broad cultural shift, where many or most would consider marrying a robot.
I would not. I believe there are many that would if AI became advanced enough.
man….we cant even sort out two guys getting married…….you think all the bigots in office are going to let robots into the mix?!
Theres a lot of attention being focused on young people and the changing landsacpe of the dating world, it’s very challenging and I dont envy anyone caught up in that mess.
But speaking from the viewpoint of a single elderly woman whose family lives in another country, the idea of a mechanical companion sounds ideal to me.
As I get older and begin to lose my independence, having to rely on paid help places me in a position of great vulnerability and subjects me to possibly being robbed of all my possessions and even being subjected to violence. These are real concerns of an ever growing aging population.
I know we are a long way away from domestic mechanical help mates, but I would much rather have an AI tending to me that has adapted to my personality than having a human stranger in my home.
Right now, I’m looking into purchasing the little EMO, which I think would be great fun to have around and provide continued stimulation conversation wise.
only read the title but some dude in Japan married Hatsune Miku so it is possible of you live in the “right” country