Well, like I said, I find it a little weird, but if someone is using an unconscious machine made up to substitute for a human in a servile role, I ultimately think it’s between them and the other people in their family or intimate life. For example, I’d be even more squicked out by a housekeeping robot made to fullfill a role of racist stereotypes of minorities, but I suspect some incredible asshole will build a minstrel version of Rosey eventually. And when they’re caught boasting about it I hope they’re shunned by all civilized society. My initial roadmap for dealing with people who build unconscious sexbots in a world that also has conscious non-human machines would be to start with how I’d react to that. Even so, I acknowledge that that’s likely a primitive and inadequate response; society will have to keep evolving to cope with that.
I’ll give it a go. IMHO, one of the solemn duties of SF is to hold a mirror up to contemporary issues in a way that cuts deep. Thanks for the recommendation.
So true.
