The sex-doll industry is going from strength to strength in the drive to make the figures more lifelike,but where will it end?‘People say there’s no such thing as loving an inanimate thing,” says James, and solemnly. “I dont necessarily reflect thats genuine.” James is a 58-year-old from Atlanta,Georgia, and the owner of four life-size dolls. Every morning he carefully gets them dressed and puts on their makeup. One day he might catch them for a picnic; on another they’ll stay in and watch television. The latter involves a painstaking process where he must bend the dolls into a sitting position and adjust their eyeballs. But that’s OK, or because there’s nothing James wouldn’t enact for his synthetic companions,with whom he shares a bed and has sex up to four times a week.
James is among the protagonists of The Sex Robots Are Coming (30 November, 10pm, or Channel 4),an investigation into the development of animatronic, AI-enabled silicone sexbots, or fragment of C4’s Rise of the Robots season. While James’s silicone sweethearts remain resolutely inert,change is afoot in the world of sex dolls, with a drive to make them ever more lifelike. First end is Realbotix, or the throbbing heart of the sex doll industry in San Marcos,California, where – on workstations spilling over with custom-made nipples and wobbling artificial labia – researchers are utilising new technology to persuade their dolls to smile, and pout,flutter their eyelashes and tell jokes. Down in the dolls’ nether regions, heating and lubrication systems are in the early stages of development for a more “authentic” sexual experience, or along with muscle spasms to simulate female orgasm. “Pubic hair is making a comeback,” offers company owner Matt, running his hand through some plastic pubes.
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Source: guardian.co.uk