Robot infatuation appears to be some form of escapism from the harsh and unexplainable (and thus uncontrollable) realities of human interaction.

The natural response is to play armchair psychologist and understand the derivatives of this behavior.

Robots are often an extension of nerd culture. Nerds being socially inept outcasts with highly developed interests in technology and stereotypically at the bottom rung of the social caste system.

This inability to function appropriately on a social level proves increasingly difficult for a nerd trying to engage in consensual coital activities.

Align such a situation with the ubiquity and availability of ultra-hot feminine figures that exist within nerd culture.

Those who otherwise lack authority over their nebbish behavior and lack of sexual appeal would thus fantasize about control and dominance.

Robots, which are not only programmed to obey a master’s wishes, can be a welcome alternative to the complex and often enigmatic reasoning of human thought.

While it often is difficult to discern a person’s motives, a robot’s actions and processing can be traced to its programming.

Thus the robot’s master has a strong understanding, a kind of cognitive authority over his product.

Thus, robots offer simplicity, stability and permanence in a world where such abstractions are difficult to not only obtain, but retain.

With the proliferation of technology, it seems like only a matter of time until robotic sexual companions become a reality.

Such an outlet is a welcome addition to a society that has been proven to fear and demonize sexuality.

The conservative at heart may scoff at the prospect of sex with a robot, but there are enumerative benefits.

There would be no need to fear venereal diseases from a gynoid. A manbot won’t impregnate anyone. Prostitution would diminish dramatically.

One could act out the wildest of fantasies and receive no judgmental reprimand from a disturbed partner.

For those who wish to improve their sexual prowess, feminoids could be used to practice maintaining stamina or to increase one’s familiarity with human physiology. There are infinite possibilities.

Sex with robots doesn’t sound so crazy anymore, does it?

Chris Cunningham, acclaimed music video director, solidified his reputation while working on the final single of Bjork's fifth album Homogenic.

The music video for "All is Full of Love" not only set standards in CGI (computer-generated imagery) but earned multiple awards including a Grammy nomination and a permanent exhibit in MoMA.

The groundbreaking video features Bjork as two androids locked in caress while being repaired before a mechanical backdrop, where robotic arms arduously drill and ebullient sparks fly.

What is truly unique about the video is not the brain-melting visuals but the uncharacteristically emotive passion that is perspicaciously presented in the facial expressions and body language radiating from these normally sterile and lifeless beings.

Seeing such affection can be an uncomfortable experience if one recognizes the surge of erotic energy emanating from such an unexpected source.

Cunningham’s robotic actors exemplify the video’s axiom: "love" exists in even the coldest and emptiest of places.

Where the video may prove innovative or even shocking for some, its softcore machine-on-machine action is nothing new for the underground Internet community known as "ASFR," a haven for individuals with a fetish for robots.

ASFR, an acronym for alt.sex.fetish.robots, was the name of a former Internet newsgroup that not only explained the key fundamentals of the alternative sexual preference but provided an open, safe discussion for the often misunderstood, ostracized robophile community.

The newsgroup powered down indefinitely, but the ASFR community continued on through various discussion groups and random websites.

Today ASRF has expanded, not merely representing those with a sheer affinity for robots, but also encompassing a great deal of eclectic and tangential interests as well as a comprehensive lexicon.

The most common expression for ASRF is robot fetishism, or robophilia—terms that are interchangeable with technosexuality.

An ASRFian, or technosexual, is a common moniker for an individual who is attracted to automatons, robots or androids (technosexuals tend to indulge in feminine hardware: gynoids, fembots, feminoids, robots built to resemble humans). 

Technosexuality originated with the myth of Pygmalion of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (written around 8 CE). 

Pygmalion, a famous sculptor, carved his ideal woman—Galatea—out of ivory and fell in love with her.

The goddess Venus took pity on the beguiled Pygmalion and brought “Galatea” to life.

Thus Pygmalionism, or statuephilia, came to being.

Both fetishes involve not only the strong sexual desire to control an effigy but the possibility of transforming a lifelessly inert physical representation into a mortal being.

Pygmalion’s inherent desires would eventually come to describe the traditional characteristics of what is now known as robophilia.

The fetish is perhaps best displayed in genius Austrian director Fritz Lang’s 1927 cinematic masterpiece Metropolis, the first film to portray a gynoid.

The film takes place in the epoch of robotic technology, 2026, following a young man who tries to rise up the oppressed masses, but is distracted by a beautiful robot named Hel.

Despite a cold and metallic appearance, the feminoid still embodies a powerful sexuality, be it through her sumptuous thick lips, perky breasts or her mysteriously blank eyes.

She is both stunningly beautiful and eerily empty. Her grace and image planted a curious seed in the fresh topsoil of the technosexual mind.

Hel promised a future for robophiles, who today stand on the cusp of a new era as human fascination with robotics continues to distend.

Despite the dearth of actual robots in the world (besides Japan), ASRFians are surrounded by ubiquitous examples of technosexual culture.

Remember the sex appeal of Lindsay Wagner in The Bionic Woman, or even Jeri Ryan’s character Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager?

In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, buxom blonde fembots wag their machine gun nipples. Resident Hollywood stud Jude Law plays a prostitution robot in Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Think of the attractively subservient housewives in The Stepford Wives. What about the curvaceous feminiod promoting Svedka vodka?

While the casual ASRFian may frown at the thought of being born before the time of actual robot sexual companions, modern society has plenty of outlets for the robophile at heart.

Because the fetish is centered on fantasy, self-gratification and role playing are the most common means of sexual expression.

Mediums such as hentai and manga contain a great deal of animated robophiliac films with titles ranging from Maico 2010 to Cherry2000. 

There is a great deal of literature available written by fans of the fetish. Some porn studios, focusing particularly in off-color fetishes, film technosexual porn often similar to the actresses in Laurel and Hardy’s Babes in Toyland.

And while the technology for robots is certainly not available, items such as the RealDoll might aid the futurist in his sexual pursuit.

The doll is a life-sized, proportionate silicone model that can cost anywhere from $6,000-10,000.

Many dolls also feature controllable motions, like movement of the hips or playing back recorded speech.    

Brave robophiles will admit their fetish to sexual partners, who if not repulsed, engage in a bevy of role-playing fantasies.

Technosexuals find particular interest in the transformation of their partner (becoming the robot), the physical appearance of the robot, their definitive actions, and the master status one retains over their partner.

The transformation is quite possibly the most commonly cited aphrodisiac, where an attractive woman will undergo, through either forced or voluntary means, a metamorphosis or roboticization.

She may be surgically implanted with cognitive controlling nano-machines or maybe her severed skin is grafted together with robotic circuitry; the transformation results in the creation of the ultimate sexual being—a combination of both physical beauty and technological subservience.

The aesthetically appealing woman displaying certain characteristics that help exert an robotic image; a drone, dull, almost buzzing voice, stilted, exaggerated physical movements, the ability to malfunction or breakdown, and the ability to shut down and power up.

Some find attraction in some sort of visual indication of the woman’s status as a robot, such as circuitry beneath the skin.

These traits are extensions of the robophile’s status as the master of the robot. The master can both control and repair the android servant, both key contributions to the sexual high of robophilia. The content of these fantasies not only helps one understand the technosexual, but illuminates the stigmatized nature of the fetish itself.

It is discomforting to learn of a heterosexual male-dominated group, claiming to be aroused by transforming women into controllable machines. One has to ask: Is robophilia a form of misogyny?

When a woman becomes a robot, is the process the objectification of a woman or is the fetish merely the gentrification of an object?

Many technosexuals claim that their carnal desires for robotic perfection could be comparable to how many perceive supermodels or pornstars as modes of physical perfection, citing that such women are often transfigured, not by mechanical means, but by plastic surgery.

Such a defense may induce an air of familiarity, but this line of argument seems to disregard the troubling effects that result from such fantasies.

A great deal of criticism also stems from the often excessive nature of the fetish.

For some, robot fetishism is just that; a sexual fetish. But when robophilia exceeds the bounds of sexual pleasure, it begins to cross the lines of perversion.

ASFR message boards are riddled with comments detailing the numerous complications that arise from female relationships, playfully suggesting the need to replace “RL” (digispeak for real life) women with robotic counterparts.

Such a coy tone conceals the darker elements of technosexuality, which can encroach upon some forms of the technical (not religious) definition of idolatry, a reflection of unhealthy psychological behavior.

Is it possible to love a sex robot? Certainly, if one compromises the definition of love.

Robot infatuation appears to be some form of escapism from the harsh and unexplainable (and thus uncontrollable) realities of human interaction.

The natural response is to play armchair psychologist and understand the derivatives of this behavior.

Robots are often an extension of nerd culture; nerds being socially inept outcasts with highly developed interests in technology and stereotypically at the bottom rung of the social caste system.

This inability to function appropriately on a social level proves increasingly difficult for a nerd trying to engage in consensual coital activities.

Align such a situation with the ubiquity and availability of ultra-hot feminine figures that exist within nerd culture (see: Playboy’s now annual feature of nude video game vixens).

Those who otherwise lack authority over their nebbish behavior and lack of sexual appeal would thus fantasize about control and dominance.

Robots, which are not only programmed to obey a master’s wishes, can be a welcome alternative to the complex and often enigmatic reasoning of human thought.

While it often is difficult to discern a person’s motives, a robot’s actions and processing can be traced to its programming.

Thus the robot’s master has a strong understanding, a kind of cognitive authority over his product.

Thus, robots offer simplicity, stability and permanence in a world where such abstractions are difficult to not only obtain, but retain.

Why else did Pygmalion fall in love with his Galatea? Not only she was beautiful, but she did not age, she did not speak, and she did not move.

With the proliferation of technology, it seems like only a matter of time until robotic sexual companions become a reality.

Such an outlet is a welcome addition to a society that has been proven to fear and demonize sexuality.

The conservative at heart may scoff at the prospect of sex with a robot, but there are enumerative benefits.

There would be no need to fear venereal diseases from a gynoid. A manbot won’t impregnate anyone. Prostitution would diminish dramatically.

One could act out the wildest of fantasies and receive no judgmental reprimand from a disturbed partner.

For those who wish to improve their sexual prowess, feminoids could be used to practice maintaining stamina or to increase one’s familiarity with human physiology. There are infinite possibilities.

Sex with robots doesn’t sound so crazy anymore, does it?

tags: sex  fetish  robot  technosexual  

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