Today, we might be able to tell the real from the synthetic apart—but tomorrow is another story

It seems like it was only a few very short years ago when the best you could hope for in a—to quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy—”plastic pal who’s fun to be with” was one that wouldn’t unexpectedly, and disappointingly, deflate.

These days, we’ve come to expect innovation after innovation, from fully animatronic heads driven by state-of-the-art artificial intelligences to hyper-realistic faces and bodies.  

But despite all these impressive breakthroughs, there remains something noticeably absent about today’s state-of-the-art artificial companions: they simply don’t smell right.  

What’s in a name?

There’s an inarguable connection between sexual desire and our olfactory organs.  

Even a cursory search of the subject pulls up numerous research papers on the subject, like Dresden University’s Johanna Bendas, Thomas Hummel, and Ilona Croy, which states, “The olfactory system contributes significantly to human social behavior and especially to mate choice and empathic functioning.”

Their study goes on to note our human sense of smell is so intrinsically linked to arousal that failure to breathe effectively or smell properly can interfere with it. 

Conversely, “Odor sensitivity correlated positively with sexual experience: Participants with high olfactory sensitivity reported higher pleasantness of sexual activities.”

With this in mind, it’s no wonder so much of human history has been dedicated to ensuring we smell, if not alluring, then at least not noticeably unpleasant.  

With the advent of more comprehensive research, we’ve also come to understand the importance of pheromones in the human sexual response cycle.  

Though their effectiveness remains a matter for debate, a team of Belgian researchers put it well, saying in their 2012 paper that pheromones “Exist in animals, but their role in humans remains uncertain since adults have no functioning vomeronasal organ, which processes pheromone signals in animals. 

Yet pheromones can be detected by the olfactory system, although humans underdeveloped and underrated their smelling sense.”

Just as their potential to aid in eliciting sexual desire is uncertain, so too have the attempts to synthesize pheromones artificially have been hit-or-miss. As the previous study pointed out, we’re not sure if they play a significant role in what does or doesn’t turn us on.

That aside, what is known is the aroma of plastics like silicone, of which a majority of high-end sexbots are made, isn’t something people generally find alluring—especially for those seeking a realistic-as-possible artificial partner.

That which we call a rose

Several companies have tried to fill this fragrant—or, more accurately, lack of fragrance—niche. Vulva, for instance, advertises a “vaginal scent which was definitely the most erotic for the overwhelming majority of the test subjects (men and women).”

The problem is for those with environmental sensitivity, life-threatening or illness-inducing allergies, as well as emotional triggers, a high percentage of synthetic scents, as well as a good percentage of naturally occurring ones, can elicit anything but arousal.  

Add to this that responses to smells can be personal and subjective; what’s sweet to one person may turn the stomach of another, so equipping tomorrow’s high-end sexbots with realistic scents may not make economic sense.

A possible answer may lie in not attempting to mirror human biochemistry but rather bypassing it completely.

By any other name

Several years ago, we reported how the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia had developed a unique approach to replicating a range of different scents.

Employing a small probe fitted with an array of miniature transducers placed near the subject’s olfactory bulb, the team was then able to transmit an array of electronic signals the subject’s brains interpreted, as a press release explained, as sensations including floral, fruity … and woody.”

Though having to stick a tube up your nose in order to have a realistic-smelling artificial companion may not be the answer you or anyone else was looking for, the idea of employing electrical impulses instead of potentially toxic chemicals still has merit.

In another article, we covered a Meiji University project that used a similar technology to create artificially flavored, lickable computer screens.

So why not integrate something akin to it, combined with something akin to the Malaysian researcher team’s olfactory system, into an artificial companion’s synthetic skin?  

With something like this in place, you’d not only be able to fully replicate human smells and tastes but, with the flip of a switch, savor a smorgasbord of other flavors and aromas as well.  

Would smell as sweet

While a sensory-replicating, fully integrated system like the above is probably at least a decade or more away, what’s exciting about the concept is that it may aid in proving how the best approach to solving a problem like building artificial companions with lifelike smells may not be in trying to copy human biology but thinking—and dreaming—beyond it.

Going from Shakespeare’s rose to Helen Keller to Helen Keller might help us remember how “Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.”

Image Sources: Depositphotos

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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

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How total-body interactivity might lead to limitless erotic possibilities

When? Sooner than you think.  

What? A sensor-lined bodysuit, a hi-rez video headset, or maybe a circuitry-lined patch affixed to the back of your neck to link your mind to a sexually-customized artificial body–  

Where? –which could be anywhere from a few feet to thousands of miles away from your real body.

How? Flip a switch or tap a virtual icon, and no matter where your physical self is, you’ll instantly and completely feel like you and your artificial body are one and the same.

Explaining telepresence

While Marvin Minsky first coiled the word “telepresence” in a 1980 paper, he makes a point of citing Robert A. Heinlein’s 1948 science fiction short story, “Waldo,” for the idea of remotely operated technology so advanced the person using it would lose all sense of distance. 

What was once a speculative concept is now an everyday reality, with telepresence devices currently used for everything from handling radioactive waste to performing delicate microsurgery.

But, as the old saying goes, the best is yet to come, specifically how, in only a few short years, telepresence might completely transform human sexuality like nothing before or since.

Putting the pieces together

What’s especially exciting about fully immersive telepresence is how much of it is pretty much already here, with the rest perhaps right around the corner.

To be clear, I’m not talking about merely seeing or manipulating distant objects feeling you’re inhabiting, not your biological body but an artificial one which may or may not be specifically constructed for sexual pleasure: enhanced senses, modifiable genitalia, greater flexibility, you name it.

Scoff all you want, but the first part of the advanced telepresence equation — as in projecting your sense of awareness beyond your immediate location — is practically here, as in virtual reality, particularly when coupled with haptic, taste, and aromatic simulators like those we’ve covered previously,  

Surprisingly, even fabricating an artificial, sexually-customizable humanoid body for your consciousness to inhabit may not be that far off. 

For instance, tomorrow’s autonomous artificial companions would make perfect surrogate bodies, and systems like Apple’s Vision Pro’s multi-spectrum cameras and lidar scanners could be ideally suited for giving them, and the wearer, a sense of being there — wherever there might be.

Surrogates, the 2009, at best, mediocre science fiction thriller starring Bruce Willis, shows what total-body telepresence could be like. Just don’t pay too much attention to its doomsaying, anti-technology message.

Recent telepresence breakthrough

October of last year, South Korean researchers at Duksung Women’s University and Hanyang University broke new ground by developing a new approach to immersive telepresence.

Employing a motion capture rig and a virtual reality headset linked to a stereoscopic camera mounted to the head of a small, semi-ambulatory robot, the researchers discovered the person operating it felt as though they and the robot weren’t man and machine but a single being.

Scale that up a bit, and you can see why teleprescent sexuality could be one of those rare not if but when world-changing technological innovations. 

What happens once we put all these different pieces together? Well, starters, take a moment to consider who you are.  

Your synthetic body, your actual self

No, not the body you may have been born into, but your real self. Using telepresence, you could occupy any number of synthetic bodies as easily as you change your clothes — and, in the process, perhaps discover and live as the person you always knew you were.

Or maybe you’re merely curious to see, feel, and live as someone else? Fire up your telepresence rig, whether it’s a bodysuit, a pair of VR goggles, or by plugging in your cortical jack, and you’ll be able to try out an infinite number of different body types, sizes or genders as well as mix, match, or create brand new ones.

Some of those new bodies could even make you feel — no, be more than human. 

Want to dive into an active volcano, drop to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, or skydive from orbit? You could do it all while not burning, getting crushed, or smashing into the earth — all while your physical body is safe at home. 

There’s also no reason we couldn’t construct animalistic or wildly abstract new physical forms to inhabit, bodies allowing us to experience life not as someone but as something new.

Being anyone and everyone 

Though it might be easy, or at least tempting, to think of sexual telepresence as another sign of a looming technological apocalypse, there’s an equally good chance it’ll end up being less what humanity’s always wanted and more what we’ve always needed. Now more than ever.

Imagine being able to walk in someone else’s shoes but taken to an entirely new level: by granting everyone the opportunity to experience life, love, and sex as another person, telepresence could be our ticket to understanding those around us and, in the process, ourselves like never before.Image

Sources: Depositphotos

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