Can Androids be hot?

We have all seen the weird people who live with life sized dolls and proclaim their love for their rather rubbery companion, but what is the next step in this world of bizarre fantasy. The answer to that is androids. In a world increasingly alone, recent records show more UK residents live alone than live in family units, it is not too far fetched to assume that some clever capitalist will create a robot that looks and acts exactly how you want.

Anyone who watched the Terminator TV series will have thought, I wish I had a cute and friendly terminator to protect and fall in love with me. Androids have come far since the days of Marvin the Paranoid Android and are now seen as something that will be used to fill a hole in our lives. From the Borg beauty 7 of 9 from Star Trek to the Sexy Cylon lovelies of battlestar gallactica there are many references to how robots will become more beautiful and realistic as technology advances.

Ok sure robots will have to be advanced to do menial tasks like cooking and cleaning first, but you can be sure once they perfect the skin to look more life like there will be a huge boom in sales of Robot Companions. Someone to be by your side through it all and never question. 

This raises a number of questions in my mind. Firstly if you live with a robot can you ever really be happy? I know people who enjoy their own company but this is beyond that, this is like playing Fifa and thinking your the next Pele. Its an unsustainable way of life, to put all your emotions into a machine. Of course the irony of saying this whilst blogging is not lost on me, who would we be if we couldnt type furiously our deepest and darkest thoughts into a Facebook status or a nicely compact tweet.

Society needs to engage with each other more, to find ways and means to get real communication working again. I was teaching at a kids camp not long ago and was showing a little kid how to play rounders (you know the easy form of baseball) and he actually said to me "You mean its just like on Wii sports?" I was pretty flabbergasted. I mean yea it is but the point was that he learned games through video games he played by himself first. This is surely the problem of many societies ills, with a more distanced society we are in danger of losing empathy and turning to a right wing nation.

So before we reach for our chargers for companion 3000 perhaps you should go for a walk and try to say hello to a complete stranger, it will be better for your soul and a lot more rewarding. Part of the delights of being part of the human race is the different personalities you come across, the element of surprise on meeting new people. If I could simply choose from an app market which personality i wanted my android to have sure it would keep me amused for a while but the simple process of you having to choose takes all the fun out it. The element of surprise and the constant search for that perfect person to become friends with is all part of the journey of life, perhaps my android will simply be used for carrying my bags.



No doubt this fantasy will have a huge market amongst men, because lets face it women just aren't stupid enough to fall in love with a robot are they? They would never seek pleasure from a mechanised machine? Rampant Rabbit anyone?