Love Begins at Home: How Open Source Technology Could Give Us Build-It-Yourself Sexbots

Why buy when you can make your own artificial companion?

Picture a time when, instead of purchasing a ready-made, pre-assembled pleasure device, you’d have the option to design, print, and assemble a fully customized one, and not only that but at a fraction of the cost.

Originally used to describe free-to-use software back in the 1990s, open source has expanded to include schematics, recipes, medicine, and even fictional creations given freely by their creator(s) for anyone to use and modify free of charge.

Thanks to projects like the Robot Studio’s Humanoid Open Robot, the possibility of build-at-home sexbots may soon become a reality—and in doing so, could open up endless sexual and relationship possibilities.

A little bit of this

For the mechanically inclined, Robot Studio offered the chance to test out, what they described as an alternative to today’s highly publicized and highly expensive commercial versions, “If you’ve always dreamt of having your humanoid robot, that dream is within reach.”

Those selected received a comprehensive guide on assembling their current prototype, complete with downloadable software and links to any necessary hardware.  

Since it’s all open-source, it’s entirely—and easily—modifiable from minor adjustments to a thorough redesign. In addition, as its plans will be free not only to use but limitlessly share, others can offer ideas, solve potential problems, or pool resources.

The Robot Studio is just one example of what’s rapidly becoming an open-source robotics movement. The University of Melbourne’s Robotics Lab has its free-to-use software, as does the aptly named Open Robotics site.  

RECOMMENDED READING: Open Source Sex Tech: the DIY Edition

Users of social networking platforms like Reddit are also providing blueprints and software packages for anyone to use.

The developer of the controversial Scarlett Johansson-themed sexbot has even compiled a DIY guide, as are others working on make-your-own sextoys. 

But there’s a somewhat small problem with open-source robotics, as we’ll soon see but even money will probably not stand much in the way of a future where we’ll be able to make the lover of our dreams—without having to leave home.

A little bit of that

When describing their open-source project, The Robot Studio said that while its software and blueprints are free, the mechanical elements “Uses only 20k USD of components.”

Describing that much money as “only” may set many aback, but it’s also worth considering that these are off-the-shelf components, so it may be possible that as open-source robotics gains popularity, those prices may sharply decline.

When discussing customized synthetic companions, it’s possible we’d also see mass-produced elements, like a robot’s internal mechanisms, skeleton, and computer systems, that users would be able to customize however they want.

To do that, we’d need to bring another fascinating new technology into the mix: 3D printing. 

Once prohibitively expensive, additive manufacturing, as it’s also called, has gotten to where mid-range printers cost just  $300.  

Like most technologies, including robotics components, the technology will continue to not only reduce in price but become increasingly more sophisticated.

Making a friend

It’s time to put these pieces together to show how open-source robotics combined with 3D printing might make having an erotically playful, emotionally supportive companion as easy as inserting part A into slot B.

It all begins with buying the suitable components. For simplicity’s sake, let’s start by ordering its fully mobile, autonomous framework or—for those who are good-with-tools—everything separately.

Even our companion’s inner workings don’t have to be mass-produced; just as there are already small, independent manufacturers, there might be small, independent manufacturers who, for a reasonable fee, would put it all together for us.

Next is downloading and modifying the open-source files necessary to fabricate on a home 3D printer.

A bonus to an open-source, customizable artificial companion is, should something go wrong, there’ll probably be an online community to lend a hand.

A community that may also create a limitless number of bodies, faces, personalities, genitalia, and secondary sexual characteristics to try—made all the easier by our effortless-to-change standardized frame.

Making a lover

A study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that 55% of those polled considered “Politics/Turf wars/no alignment” to be the largest impediment to business innovation. 

Not the case with open-sourcing, where most involved are there to make things better, to push the outside of the proverbial envelope not because they’re getting paid to do it but because they want to.

Imagine tens of thousands of armchair innovators having fun making sexbots the best they can be—their myriad sexual and emotional needs fueling a monumental wave of innovative breakthroughs.

If all goes well, open-sourced sexbot technology could change the ending of John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try”—to “everyone, working together, should.”

Image Sources: Depositphotos