Filed under: Art, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Brave New World, Connections, Expert systems, General Musings, Humor, Marketing, movies, NYT, Predictions, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech | Tags: art, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blogging, Communion of Dreams, Drea Cooper, DVD, Emma Cott, Expert, Grindr, humor, jim downey, Matt McMullen, New York Times, predictions, Robotica, robotics, science, Science Fiction, Seth, sex, technology, Tinder, Topless Robot, VHS, video, Zackary Canepari
Via Topless Robot, this article/video from the New York Times:
Matt McMullen has proved that some people are willing to spend thousands on sex dolls.
* * *
Mr. McMullen’s new project, which he is calling Realbotix, is an attempt to animate the doll. He has assembled a small team that includes engineers who have worked for Hanson Robotics, a robotics lab that produces shockingly lifelike humanoid robots.Mr. McMullen is first focusing on developing convincing artificial intelligence, and a robotic head that can blink and open and close its mouth. He’s also working to integrate other emerging technologies, like a mobile app that acts like a virtual assistant and companion, and virtual reality headsets that can be used separately or in tandem with the physical doll.
It’s accepted wisdom that many new technologies come into their own and are quickly disseminated through the public when a way can be found to use them for sex and/or the depictions of same. Printing. VHS tapes. DVDs. The internet. Smartphone Apps like Tinder or Grindr.
So why not artificial intelligence?
Which isn’t the way I saw the technology for an expert system/assistant like Seth developing, but hey, I suppose whatever works …
Jim Downey
Filed under: Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Brave New World, Connections, Expert systems, Humor, MetaFilter, New Horizons, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, tech | Tags: augmented reality, blogging, book conservation, gizmag, humor, jim downey, Loz Blain, NSFW, predictions, RealTouch, reviews, science, Science Fiction, sex, technology
I should be working in the bindery. Really.
But I came in here to send an email, then paused to check MetaFilter, and saw something which scared me. Something not exactly safe for work.
So of course, I had to share.
Welcome to the future:
That’s the business end of a, um, male sex toy.
Yeah.
And if that isn’t scary enough, here’s this bit from the actual tech article:
It also occurs to me that as amazing an experience as it is, it might be even better, in a purely physical sense, if I was given full control over it – maybe even just a series of different patterns like most girls’ vibrators have. I bring the idea up with RealTouch Director of Sales, Scott Rinaldo, and he tells me that a plan to open-source the development of third party apps is already up and running.
What could possibly go wrong?
Jim Downey
Filed under: Brave New World, Connections, General Musings, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff | Tags: blogging, direct publishing, golf, jim downey, literature, play, Science Fiction, sex, world-building, writing
I live across the street from a golf course. No, I don’t play golf. And we didn’t move here because of the golf course, or have the house built because of it. Heck, the course didn’t even exist when our house was built — it came along some 40 years later.
Anyway, I live across the street from a golf course. And after years of wrangling, the course is now undergoing some fairly major revisions and redesign. Most of the changes are taking place on the far side of the course from us, but even the area across from our home is seeing a lot of construction. It’s been interesting on our morning walks to see the changes, try and figure out what the guys running the big equipment are doing.
And that’s had me thinking about playgrounds. Because even though I don’t play golf, I can see how changing the course — making it more modern — would be something which would be exciting to those who do play. New challenges in approaching the course, new problems to overcome.
Play is important to us. Particularly, variety in our play is important to us. We like novel things, whether it is in video games, television shows, sex partners, or, well, novels. Each one can be understood as a kind of playground.
This is hardly a new or particularly interesting observation. Except that as I am in the early stages of thinking through St. Cybi’s Well — of creating a new playground — I feel an unexpected kinship with the guys operating the heavy earth-moving equipment across the street.
World-building, indeed.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 