{"id":627,"date":"2015-08-12T03:43:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T03:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=259385"},"modified":"2015-08-12T03:53:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T03:53:15","slug":"should-humans-be-able-to-marry-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2015\/08\/12\/should-humans-be-able-to-marry-robots\/","title":{"rendered":"Should humans be able to marry robots?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_259424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 378px;  border: 1px solid #dddddd; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin: 10px; text-align:center; display: block; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;\"><img class=\" wp-image-259424\" title=\"persona synth\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/images\/persona-synth.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"368\" height=\"208\" \/><p style=' padding: 0 4px 5px; margin: 0;'  class=\"wp-caption-text\">(credit: AMC)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Supreme Court\u2019s recent 5\u20134 decision in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/14pdf\/14-556_3204.pdf\" ><em>Obergefell v. Hodges<\/em><\/a>\u00a0legalizing same-sex marriage raises the interesting question: what&#8217;s next on the &#8220;slippery slope&#8221;? Robot-human marriages? Robot-robot marriages?<\/p>\n<p>Why yes,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/technology\/future_tense\/2015\/08\/humans_should_be_able_to_marry_robots.single.html\" >predicts<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/authors.gary_marchant.html\" rel=\"author\">Gary Marchant<\/a> on <em>Slate<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has recently been a burst of cogent accounts of human-robot sex and love in popular culture:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B00IA3NGB4\/?tag=slatmaga-20\" ><em>Her<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B011KKCQH8\/?tag=slatmaga-20\" ><em>Ex Machina<\/em><\/a>, the AMC drama series\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B010O43Z8U\/?tag=slatmaga-20\" ><em>Humans<\/em><\/a>, and the novel\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/125003602X\/?tag=slatmaga-20\" ><em>Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; he points out, along with David Levy\u2019s 2007 book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0061359807\/?tag=slatmaga-20\" ><em>Love and Sex With Robots<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But will the supremes&#8217; decision open the door to robot-human marriage? Marchant explains that the decision was based on an analysis of four \u201cprinciples and traditions\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Individual autonomy, the right of each of us to decide our own private choices. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Between \u201ctwo persons.\u201d \u201cMarriage responds to the universal fear that a lonely person might call out only to find no one there,&#8221; the court said. &#8220;It offers the hope of companionship and understanding and assurance that while both still live there will be someone to care for the other.\u201d Existing care robots would exceed some people in meeting that criterion. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Marriage safeguards children and families. Could a future robot be an effective parent? Why not? Check.<\/li>\n<li>Marriage is &#8220;central to many practical and legal realities of modern life, such as taxation, inheritance, property rights, hospital access and insurance coverage.&#8221; Hmm &#8230; sounds like a legal\/accounting robot would excel in those areas. Double check.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;While few people would understand or support robot-human intimacy today, as robots get more sophisticated and humanlike, more and more people will find love, happiness, and intimacy in the arms of a machine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amc.com\/shows\/humans\" ><em>HUMANS<\/em><\/a> viewers know, at least in fiction, &#8220;Robot sex and love is coming, and robot-human marriage will likely not be far behind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court&rsquo;s recent 5&ndash;4 decision in&nbsp;Obergefell v. Hodges&nbsp;legalizing same-sex marriage raises the interesting question: what&rsquo;s next on the &ldquo;slippery slope&rdquo;? Robot-human marriages? Robot-robot marriages? Why yes,&nbsp;predicts Gary Marchant on Slate. &ldquo;There has recently been a burst of cogent accounts of human-robot sex and love in popular culture:&nbsp;Her&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ex Machina, the AMC drama series&nbsp;Humans, and the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,43,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airobotics","category-news","category-socialethicallegal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}