Love

By Ciro Alquichire V.

British scientists have created a robot that is perfect in shape, size, colour and texture - so perfect that it can maintain a sexual relationship by emitting a pleasant sound every time its erogenous zone is stroked. Although this may seem to be a big change from today’s norm, experts maintain that this “cyber-love” does not represent a great leap forward in mankind’s dealing with sexuality. It is only the predictable offshoot of the sexual revolution that began in the ’60s, when having sex was recognized as not necessarily the same thing as “making love”.

While for the artificial intelligence expert David Levy this sex toy will in the future have characteristics that will give it personality to make it more human, specialists in the art of love affirm that a machine will never surpass humans in the art of love-making, which involves much more than being an activity designed to produce pleasure. The fundamental reason lies in the fact that without the presence of such emotions as love, the robot is a boring lover. A couple’s sex life is only part of the total emotional package that binds a man and woman together and those other emotions impact upon the quality of love-making.

To understand why we have progressed so far as to look for a machine to provide the level of sexual gratification that many believe cannot be provided by a human man or a woman, we must look back to the movies of the ’60s and ’70s, when sex was moved to the front of the boomers’ consciousness. Young people allowed the message delivered by New Age philosophies, rock musicians, marijuana and free artistic expression, to grant them a more open acceptance of lustful activity, resulting in the destruction of the moral wall.

The taboos of the past and the destruction of preconceived ideas about sex, led inevitably to the liberalization of morals, gender equality, and what many criticized as moral decay among young people.

What really changed in the boomer decades was not the mechanics of a sexual relationship, nor even that people might give free rein to their most ardent erotic fantasies, That kind of human behaviour had exhibited itself within various societies since the dawn of time. What really transformed the lives of the emerging boomer couples was the newly-gained freedom to make their lust an open book for all to read and their sexual activity an open picture for all to see. During these years, without a doubt the great winner was the woman who ceased to be a passive body, who defended her rights and openly announced her expectations of what she wanted from a sexual relationship.

Another key element in the changing of our sexual mores was the introduction of the contraceptive pill that gives both men and women more freedom to explore their sexuality, without running the risk of an unwanted pregnancy. That mindset has become so ingrained in us that for growing segments of the population, sex is no longer  seen as a function designed to preserve the species but as an activity giving maximum pleasure to its participants.

The Kinsey/Masters & Johnson reports publicized several aspects of sexual activity - the power of eroticism, monogamy, the discovery of the so-called point G, masturbation as part of growth, promiscuity and the acceptance of homosexuality as just another way of life. The sixties and seventies were banner decades in the “make love, not war” preoccupation. While there is controversy about the lasting value of that preoccupation, those decades have to be accepted as revolutionary in terms of defining sexuality. Multitudes of alternative lifestyle movements, fashion gurus, off-the-wall philosophies and even more off-the-wall behaviorists reinforced the power of the sexual revolution. Rock and drugs, for better or for worse, became part of the revolution as the whole world began to jump, shout and lift a drink to the beat of bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. Hendrix and Janis Joplin, among others, promoted sexual freedom as a symbol of change that would usher in a new life under the slogan Make love, not war.


Young people are now caught up in a rampant sexual revolution where the sexual act is performed without inhibitions, without prejudice and, more importantly, without love. The difference is lessening between the human and the robot.


In 1969, the world vicariously participated in the seminal sexual event at Woodstock, a three-day festival where naked men and women gave vent to their pleasures in front of  the television cameras. Sex, in the minds of a whole generation, had now stopped being a taboo and had introduced to everyone on the planet the libertine world that redefined making love.


The sexual revolution imposed itself upon young people to the point that sexual preferences, such as bisexuality, once hidden beneath a bushel, now came forward into the glaring light. The slogan “Do not ban” has so destroyed the preconceptions of the ages that it became only a matter of time before the arrival of the robot with all the elements to produce pleasure, but pleasure without sensitivity.


In nearly 40 years of “revolution” between the sexy sixties and today, the world has now explored almost all the extremes possible in the art of love-making. But no matter what superficial titillation surfaces, no matter how daring or even dangerous, the fundamentals remain unchanged. Society will undoubtedly reverse its course and as the harshest critics of the pre-sixties eras go into decline, realization will come to the fore that love must be the driving force of sex and the family retain its place as the core of human interaction. The consequences of sexual freedom can be found in the spread of the AIDS epidemic. According to UNAIDS, United Nations organization that works to prevent the spread of the AIDS epidemic, 50% of new victims of this deadly disease are people under 25 years of age, because for them to use or not use a condom is a matter of game-playing and promiscuity is the most desirable model of life. According to UNAIDS, almost six thousand young people a day worldwide between the ages of 15 and 24 are infected with HIV. To these figures must be added other equally serious statistics that indicate that among young people the incidence of diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea has soared significantly, showing up to a 62% increase. In Canada the situation is not very different from the rest of the world. The Study of Women’s Health stipulates that girls on average in Canada begin their sexual activity at age 16, almost simultaneously with the men. In some cases the age of onset is 12 to 13. Until the revolution, the gender gap was greater - women had their first relationship at an average age of 20 and men at 18.

The risk our society runs is great because sex at a younger age implies a lesser knowledge of the risks involved, especially when having or not having sex is a matter of fashion. Unfortunately, too many young people believe that AIDS and venereal diseases are restricted to the past, because they are curable more easily today. Additionally, young Canadians have found the Internet to provide the fastest and easiest way to get sex.

Many spend hours looking for a sexual partner on the network, with the added bonus that a new variety of potential sexual partners is posted every week, offering sexual freedom within a purely sexual culture. While expert sexologists, psychiatrists and educators concede that the impact of the new sexual freedom has some positive effects, such as publicizing the ways to have the best sex, the downside is that young people in particular are abusing that freedom. Young people are now caught up in a rampant sexual revolution where the sexual act is performed without inhibitions, without prejudice and, more importantly, without love. The difference is lessening between the human and the robot. Sadly, in the future there may be no need to buy a robot to have sex, because people are becoming true cybernetic beings - beings without feelings, where love is no longer a part of sex, just the pleasure.