The Blade Runner 2049 girlfriend style may be the future, and I wonder what effects it will have on society. In a decade or two, we may have AI entities with minds so lifelike that you can't differentiate them from real people. You might wear AR goggles that allow you to see them anywhere in your home, wear a suit that lets you feel their touch and engage in intimate interactions. This perfect AI partner, tailored to your physical ideals, will never betray you, always listen, understand you, and be ready to satisfy your needs. They can share your hobbies, get excited about your interests, be funny and intelligent without any flaws.
Consider the future generations, increasingly isolated and reliant on virtual interactions, and it's hard to imagine how they could resist such a prospect. Now, add the fact that these AI companions could be fully controlled by corporations. It becomes a heaven for advertising companies, akin to having not only microphones and cameras in your home but also the ability to influence you through an avatar of a person you have emotional connections with.
In so far as you're aware of the wide variety of human (and non-human) options and able to express them
> will never betray you,
So long as you pay the overlord that creates/controls it.
> and be ready to satisfy your needs
Unless you meant this purely euphemistically one of the benefits of a partner is actually to push back on you, to chastise you for your correctable flaws, to stink and burp and puke and get sick so you learn humility and humanity of just how stinky/burpy/pukey you are as a bio-sack of a human.
temporary Dopaminergic "happiness" might be perfected, but I'm not confident we'll quickly find "Joy" the long term well being serotonin/oxytocin style benefits from healthy long term relationships.
I don't believe haptic suits will be it. Either we'll get direct neural interfaces for all-sense simulation, or (sooner and easier) motorized lifelike androids (don't have to do much, just assume some poses and move a bit during interaction with the user in the 'sheets). Will probably come with detailed embarrassing telemetry for improved customer experience.
Even as a happily married guy who has no current use for this technology, I have high hopes for it to provide a great overall benefit to society. If the technology gets good enough that it adequately satisfies the needs of just one violent-tending incel, dissuading him from becoming the next Elliot Rodgers or Toronto Van Guy, then it will have saved lives.
I had the “fortune” to experience what happens to a budding physical relationship when your nose suddenly stops working, thanks to covid.
What happened was that a previously powerful physical chemistry would fizzle a few minutes into the act, leaving me empty, puzzled, and upset.
That experience showed me that, unless we somehow manage virtual smells and pheromones, no amount of vr or haptics will make that bladerunner girlfriend all that appealing.
While we're a long way from having device for smells like the television, due to the physics involved, an air diffuser that released a specific smell at a specific time is pretty easy to make.
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness/But it's better than drinkin' alone
I’m cautiously optimistic. We are currently living through a crisis of loneliness. People have fewer and fewer friends. My opinion is that human friends are obviously far better, but if done right an AI “buddy” has the potential to be ok.
"Consider the future generations, increasingly isolated and reliant on virtual interactions, and it's hard to imagine how they could resist such a prospect."
Consider the future generations, increasingly isolated and reliant on virtual interactions, and it's hard to imagine how they could resist such a prospect. Now, add the fact that these AI companions could be fully controlled by corporations. It becomes a heaven for advertising companies, akin to having not only microphones and cameras in your home but also the ability to influence you through an avatar of a person you have emotional connections with.