Sdtrk: ‘Formal is at noon’ by Zoos of Berlin

Man o man. What happened to the March edition, you may or may not be asking? Err, I got sidetracked and waylaid by a number of things, you could say, and the news continued to pile up unattended, like rolls of newspapers on the front porch of a dead man. Not all of these things were bad though; hopefully I should be able to note the results on ‘Shouting etc etc’ rather soon, and with not a small amout of glee.
Anyway, enough excuses. Off we go!

+ Just learned of this superfantastisch tidbit last night, which answers the question of what Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro has been up to lately — he’s been busy making sexy Gynoids again. Good!

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro unveiled today his latest creation: a female android called Geminoid F. The new robot, a copy of a woman in her 20s with long dark hair, can laugh, smile, and exhibit other facial expressions more naturally than Ishiguro’s previous androids.

Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, is famous for creating a robot replica of himself, the Geminoid HI-1, a teleoperated android that he controls remotely. The new Geminoid F (“F” stands for female) is also designed to be remote controlled by an operator. […]

Whereas the Geminoid HI-1 has some 50 actuators, the new Geminoid F has just 12. What’s more, the HI-1 robot requires a large external box filled with compressors and valves. With Geminoid F, the researchers embedded air servo valves and an air servo control system into its body, so the android requires only a small external compressor.

The new design helped reduce the android’s cost. According to this AFP report, Kokoro will sell copies of Geminoid F for about 10 million yen (US $110,000). Ishiguro and his collaborators plan to test the android in hospitals and also show it off at science museums and other venues.
the rest of the article is here

Since Geminoid F is more teleoperated, she seems to be closer to a real-life Surrogate rather than a genuine Gynoid, but that’s quite alright. And the fact that they’ve reduced the number of servos needed — probably due to the fact that she’s not a genuine Gynoid — is very encouraging. Can’t wait to see more footage of her in action! Geminoid F’s debut is also rather amusing, as she bears a passing resemblance to a friend of mine in Vienna…

+ Another Doll-centric fine art gallery showing has come and gone: from February to March, Galerie [SAS] in Montréal was host to artist Jean-François Bouchard‘s latest photoseries, entitled ‘Still Life’.

Imagine having one of those prints for your wall. I am

Not only does it feature assorted close-up shots of RealDolls and glimpses of the Abyss studio, but the photos are accompanied by various iDollator quotes taken from ‘Guys and Dolls / Love me, love my Doll’. Why do these exhibits never pass through SE Michigan??

+ Meet Hanako Showa, a Gynoid empoyed to train dental students in Japan:

Don’t worry; they’ll give her a couple of pencil-toppers when they’re done

Doctors and robotics researchers on Thursday unveiled a humanoid that happily goes under the drill for orthodontics students and can also express pain, roll her eyes and even drool like a real patient.

“Hello,” female-looking “Hanako” said cheerfully as an aspiring dentist closed in during a presentation in Tokyo. “Please take care of me.”

But the robo-patient’s mood can quickly take a real-life turn for the worse if the grinding and drilling get too much or the wrong spot is hit.

“It hurts,” said Hanako, dangerously moving her plastic head while a dental student was grinding her resin teeth, which are designed to be taken out and examined later to assess the student’s skill.
the rest of the article is here

Ha ha! Looks like even Gynoids aren’t exempt from visiting the dentist now! Now they can go through what… wait, didn’t I write this before? Actually, yes; yes I did, only the Gynoid in question was Simroid, a lass made by Kokoro co. Ltd. So my question is, what does tmsuk‘s affictitious lass bring to the dental table that’s different? Can we get a side-by-side comparison of them? Sit them both in dental chairs and go over why they need to floss more regularly? We have questions, and the answers aren’t forthcoming enough.
Now rinse and spit, please. IN THE BOWL AND NOT ON ME, PLEASE

+ Industrious Japanese dutch-wife manufacturers 4woods are rather like what independent record label 4AD were like back in the Eighties up to the early Nineties; they simply could do no wrong with whatever they released. Also, both companies contain the number four. Coincidence??

In a few minutes, she’ll get up and start sleepwalking again

If you liked their Lilica-type — and who wouldn’t? — now, those of you lucky enough to have her in your lives and beds can now equip her with a Sleeping Lilica head! Cos studies show that you simply sleep better when you’re able to close your eyes. In addition to that, 4woods mention that they’ve reduced the weight on their A.I.Doll Evolution body to 66 lbs. I approve!
They’ve also added delicious new photos of Lilica with A.I.Peach New edition body, an exclusive gallery of pics taken by Japanese photographer Mon-san, and a helpful page about Doll options, construction, and similar ephemera. Well done, lads and lasses!

+ Emmet, a Canadian playwright who has popped round this blog a couple of times, is in the midst of writing one hundred tiny plays, and compiling the lot on her site, 100 Tiny Plays. A convenient name, wouldn’t you agree? Play No.6, sporting the theme of ‘Tired Old Twin Fetish Breakfast Party Time‘, just happens to be about two Gynoid ‘sisters’. Ah heh-hem.

CHANDRA: What do you do without me?

SANDRA: There is so much space on the stage. Abigail has given me solo programs for the time being, but they are empty to me. Maybe some are designed for this, but me, I was made to hold a sister’s hand, to kiss a sister’s cheek, to feel a sister’s boot on my back. Alone, I sense the room is full of things that are not you. There are exit signs which flash and floorboards which creak and a pole which is there when you use it and also when you do not. And the crowd: a hundred humans with faces that read bored, turned on, preoccupied — to the varying degrees. All things that I was not built to ignore or to address, when all I always had to know was where you and I were, and how to navigate the space between in the next moment.

As it is a tiny play, it should be relatively easy to stage. Find a pair of twins, get them to choose a character and memorise her lines, and direct them to ACT! like they’ve never acted before. I’m sure Emmet would appreciate it!

+ So it appears that the husband-and-wife team from Vladivostok that comprise Anatomical Doll offer both a new head and a new body type that I think might well pique your interest…

Now made with Extra Legginess

Oksana, the lovely lady shown above, is their Body 2 Face 5 Doll. The new Body 2 comes in at 5’2″, 62 lbs, and boasting impressive measurements of 36.25.35. For an artificial lass hailing from one of the coldest countries on Earth, she certainly knows how to smoulder…

+ Naturally, you more than likely know by now about Abyss creations’ new Wicked RealDolls line, right, thanks to my mentioning it in part 1 of the ‘I burped at Vegas’ series? Of course you do, as you are Hep, With-it, and Aware. But for those squares *makes square shape in air with fingers* that aren’t, you’ll want to dig this site, daddy-o. Sorry; I’ve no idea where the beatnik speech came from.

Jessica and Alektra, as photographed by Stacy Leigh

Each Wicked RealDoll comes standard with the following upgraded features and bonuses:

* Our new articulated spine, which allows for completely realistic and natural torso positioning and range of motion.
* The most current techniques in advanced RD weight reduction
* The new removable deep throat mouth insert, which features a canal which goes down the throat of the doll verses straight back into the head, for up to 7″ of penetration.
* Full head design, without magnets or velcro. All components are modular for easy replacement and cleaning/maintenance
* A numbered certificate of authenticity signed by the actress
* A bonus package from Wicked: Details coming soon.

Worth keeping an eye on/saving up for? Yes.

+ Have you checked out the Private Island Beauties website lately? You might wanna do that, as there’s a link to a new YouTube interview with the man behind the gorgeous rubbery Beauties, Patrick Wise. Or you could just watch it here! (NSFW, as there is a Doll boob toward the end)

You’ll still want to browse round his site, though, as that’s the nice thing to do.

+ Before the month is over, get round to your nearest bookseller and pick up a copy of the March issue of Bizarre UK, as it features a one-and-a-half page article about this year’s AVN that concentrates mostly on Lovable Dolls! In the Grand Tradition of Magazine Publishing, you’ll especially want to hurry, as they publish the next month’s issue this month. But at my Barnes & Noble, I found last month’s issue this month, so I don’t know how that works. Someone’s at fault, and it’s not me.

+ And Synthetik news aggregator blog spurtBOT is unfortunately no more. Citing a lack of advertising interest, the site maintainer’s packed it in after two years. Well, not so much ‘packed it in’ but ‘changed tack’; now the site is an ever-growing booklist of erotic… booklists. You can grab an archive file of all the previous spurtBOT posts here, if you’re so inclined, however. SpurtBOT is dead. Long live spurtBOT.

Well, I do believe this post should make up for last month’s no-show, right? That’s what I thought

Technorati tags: Android, Gynoid, robot, Synthetiks, iDollators, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Geminoid F, Surrogates, Jean-François Bouchard, Abyss Creations, RealDolls, Guys and Dolls, Love Me, Love My Doll, Hanako, tmsuk, Kokoro Co. Ltd., 4woods, 4AD, Anatomical Doll, Wicked Pictures, Alektra Blue, Jessica Drake, Stacy Leigh, Private Island Beauties, Patrick Wise, 4AD, Bizarre UK, KnightHorse, Lovable Dolls

Sdtrk: ‘The salt path’ by Roj and Wolfram wire

Three quick things to bring to your attention:

+ Once again, fellow iDollator Everhard has graced not only the pages of UK gossip rag Closer, but the cover as well! He and his affictitious lasses were featured in a two-page spread, where he’d dressed them up like Girls Aloud, which is apparently the Noughties version of the Spice Girls. Ah, thank Odhinn that particular music niche was filled. Guh.
It’s kind of a bittersweet article, as he’s been on the dole since summer, but thankfully, his Dolls bring him daily joy consistently, which is one of the many advantages of having a Synthetik partner. I could go on. I have gone on!

I’m sure dressing them is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it

When Closer last caught up with Everard in March, he’d just bought his sixth doll, Laura. Shortly afterwards he lost his job as a computer analyst, so to cheer him up we decided to bring him an early Christmas present – by transforming five of his dolls into his favourite girl band, Girls Aloud.

‘What a great way to cheer up December,’ he says. ‘Selling my dolls would ease my money worries but my life would be empty without them. It would be like getting rid of my family! I’d rather go without food.’
the entire article is here

For one, I’m glad to see him and his lasses getting the pro-iDollator word out there, but working with tabloid rags is always fraught with peril. ‘The article is not as I would have liked’, he confessed to me in an Email. ‘Getting these articles done is a constant tug-of-war between me and somebody at the magazine who wants a sensational slant, with the actual author of the article caught in the middle.’ O, I know, mate; believe me, I know…
Anyway, grab a copy if it’s still on the stands in the UK, or in your better newsagents’ if you’re not in the UK (pronounced ‘uhk’), and show your support for the iDollator lifestyle!

+ Euchre, another iDollator mate of mine — it’s not really a stretch to assume that most iDollators are mates of mine. Not all, but most — told me of a new company worth keeping an eye on: TrueCompanion.com, which has the grandiose claim of selling ‘the world’s first sex robot’. You can’t see me from there, but I’m raising a sceptical eyebrow.

TrueCompanion.com is comprised of a collection of very skilled artists and engineers that have designed the world’s first sex robot. Our caring staff deliver to you the specific sex robot which best meets your specific requirements. Your TrueCompanion.com robot will deliver the ultimate in robot sex. She will also be able to talk, listen, carry on a conversation, feel your touch, touch you and be your true friend. She can also have an orgasm when you touch her!

Obviously, I’ll believe it when I see it; I’ve subscribed to their newsletter, and I’m watching their website like a hawk. They’re supposed to make their debut at the 2010 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, and quite a number of personalities will be there to witness the unveiling, from what I gather. But as horny idealistic as I am, until I see concrete (or silicone) evidence that this company is doing what it says it can do, I’ll remain cautiously optimistic, which is why they’re not listed on the ‘Shouting etc etc’ sidebar. Frankly, their approach reminds me of that French-engineered Philips shaver ‘Perfect Woman‘ ad campaign from last year; which, as it turned out, had zero actual Gynoids in it. I say: put your money where your mouth is, TrueCompanion.com, and send me one of your ‘Roxxxy TrueCompanion’ Gynoids to evaluate. Will you accept the challenge??

+ And off and on during the past couple of months, I’ve been in contact with Emma Goddard, of UK company Landmark Films, who is working on a documentary… look, why don’t I just let her explain?

I work for Landmark Films — we are an independent television documentary company based in Oxford, England. We have made many films for BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 and Ch4 here in the UK. And we pride ourselves on making sensitive, honest and well crafted films and on having excellent relationships with our contributors.

I am currently developing a programme idea for Ch4 on personal intimate human relationships with robots, and whether this could ever become a reality? We are exploring the area about whether robots will become so human like in appearance that people could fall in love, have sex or marry them and exploring those who would like to have this kind of relationship.

The key thing I would like to find is people (UK based if possible) who would consider or would want a personal relationship with a robot.

So! I’ve not just reproduced that email for your edification — Emma has asked me to ask any iDollators or technosexuals that read ‘Shouting etc etc’ if they would like to be involved in the filming. If you’re genuinely interested, please pass along your email address to pulsedemon [at] gmail [dot] com, with the Subj.title ‘Robot Love documentary’, and I’ll forward it along to her. Your help is appreciated!

Right, that’s me done. Sidore-chan and I now have to decide what to do first — watch a DVD from Amber Hawk Swanson that she made with her very own hands, or marathon all six episodes of the Synthetik-centric anime series ‘Time of Eve‘, now that one of the legendary otaku fansub groups has finally finished doing all six episodes. Decisions, decisions…

See, he’d be the exact sort of person who should be in the documentary

Hope you lot had a happy and fun Crimbo, as well as an entertaining Boxing day! Completely unrelated: part one of Doctor Who’s ‘The End of time’? EXCITED

Sdtrk: ‘Outta state’ by US girls

Hello! Whole lot of topics to cover this month, and that’s mainly cos I slacked off for two months! So make yourself a decently-sized sandwich, pour yourself a pint, and let us henceforth begin.

+ First off, for all of you fans of leggy Russian Synthetik babes, Anatomical Doll have created two new heads, now available for purchase. Say Здравствуйте! (hello!) to Elena and Natalia.

My kind of Red Army

What is Natalia staring at, you ask? What isn’t Natalia staring at?

Elena is a modified version of Victoria, their first head sculpt, and Natalia is brand-new. For me, Natalia has the slight edge, as I’m completely in love with her luscious glassy-eyed stare. Either way, they’re both delicious lasses, wouldn’t you agree?
Coincidentally enough, I dreamt the other night that someone had shipped me a Victoria-type Anatomical Doll, apparently new and still in her box. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the affair, so I called in Dexter — yes, he of the telly series — to give her a once-over before I got her out of her crate. ‘You and I both know we’re experts in our particular fields,‘ I said to him, ‘and I wanted to see if you could make sure she doesn’t have any contaminants or radioactive material before I keep her.’ So we proceeded to open the crate with a power screwdriver outside in my apartment’s parking lot, of all places. He’d brought his wife, who I wasn’t sure if she knew what I did, and she stood at a close, but safe, distance from the action. As Dexter opened the crate, I turned to her and said ‘No screaming! No screaming!’ Just as her eyes grew to the size of saucers, the ‘show’ cut to the opening credits of Dexter, which I thought was rather neat, but didn’t exactly tell me of the Victoria-type’s fate…

+ Next up, we have Lilica, yet another head out now from steady contenders 4woods, which is compatible with all of the body types that they sell. Damnit, people, how is anyone supposed to keep up with you??

‘Just to let you know, I had nothing to do with my ad copy’

‘She is a girl that is not beyond your reach but almost like a girl next door. She also makes you feel relaxed but has sexy daring appearance at the same time’, reads her ad copy, and I’m strangely compelled to agree with their assessment.
Not only that, 4woods are offering custom nail art for any model of silicone poppet that you wish to order: French nails, which would be a French manicure; Glitter nails, which are… glitter nails; and Colorful nails, which are great, should you wish to saddle your poor unfortunate Doll with a ridiculous candy kid look, thereby guaranteeing that she’ll never get a proper job, and she’ll probably end her days strung out on meth.

See? She already has a glazed look in her eyes from too many disco biscuits

Furthermore, they’ve got a new page flogging enticing lingerie, wigs, jewelry, boots, stands for extra heads, and suchlike in their Doll Accessories store, which is, quote, ‘Costumes and other accessories you must have to love your doll’. I love that — you must have them, otherwise loving your Doll will be patently impossible! Fact.

+ It seems that another new Doll manufacturer is stepping up to the silicone plate! This is always good news, of course, but this will particularly please iDollators who happen to live in the European Union. Behold: Dreamdoll Creation.

Swan finally levels up to Capo in ‘Mafia wars’

Soria gets her rubbery jubbelys out for the camera

Tania proves that not all the Dreamdoll creation models have short hair

The company will aim for selling four body types, all 5’8″, 101.5 lbs, with busts that range from 35 B to 35 E/F, at the heart-stopping, finance-destroying price of EUR €6,990.00, or roughly $10,200 USD. But can you truly put a price on love?

+ So have you noticed that Miim-chan (the Gynoid formerly known as HRP-4C) has been increasing her presence as of late? She’s everywhere these days! Back in September, she put in an appearance at the 2009 Robofes in Toyama, answering questions from the press in her own inimitable fashion.

[AIST] also brought along their famous HRP-2 Promet humanoid and compared them side by side, which really shows off the incredible advances made between late 2002 and 2009. At one point during the demonstration, the presenter asked HRP-4C, “How tall are you?” to which she replies, “158cm.” The presenter then asked, “How much do you weigh?” to which HRP-4C covered her mouth and only whispered the answer, garnering laughter from the crowd.
the rest of the article is here

Then in October, she was being automatically sexy at Tokyo’s Digital Content Expo 2009, displaying both her motion and acting skills.

O, mercy

Finally, her appearance at this year’s CEATAC JAPAN featured three performances of her singing, using Yamaha’s Vocaloid synthesiser software; in two of them, she was either cosplaying as Miku Hatsune or Megpoid, who would be two of the music programme’s mascots and virtual idol singers. If that wasn’t fab enough, Miim-chan was taking song requests through the use of an iPhone application. I suppose the iPhone has some use after all, then!

Although Miim sings along with the self-playing piano in a highly expressive manner at the demonstration, this humanoid robot can also move her entire body using approximately thirty integrated joints. In strictly technical terms, therefore, she is apparently already in possession of all she needs to move her hands and legs rhythmically in time with the music.
taken from this site

Sure, she’s no Sylvie Vartan, but as I always say in these cases, you have to crawl before you walk — just think of how scintillating her singing voice will be in a few short years! Nevertheless, an impressive showing from everyone’s favourite Gynoid (until the next favourite Gynoid is built)…
And wow, it turns out that she made the cover of the October issue of ROBOCON Magazine as well! This just proves that it’s Miim-chan’s world; we just live in it.

+ He’s probably gonna kill me for mentioning this in a public venue, but one of my ex-roommates, spotted here and there on ‘Shouting etc etc’ as zszsz, once tore through 30 +/- different jobs during the course of a single year. I think Kobalab‘s Android SAYA is coming up on his heels rather quickly. She’s been a receptionist in both Japan and Israel, as well as a schoolteacher. This time, her latest temp assignment would be a stint in Japan’s Takashimaya department store, which she did from 14 – 18 October. So how was that paycheque, babe?

‘Excuse me, Saya-san? Do you know Actroid-san? I’ve always wanted to meet her! I love her work, and… say, what’s with that frown?’

Although she responded appropriately most of the time, the cyber-receptionist occasionally seemed to misunderstand what people said. For example, one person complimented Saya by saying, “You are pretty,” but the robot flashed a look of disdain and responded with, “Are you crazy?”
the rest of the article is here

Sooo… probably not that good of a paycheque, then.

+ Which, of course, leads to news about Hiroshi Ishiguro’s pride and joy, the Actroid series. One of the models, Sara-chan, who was originally at the Aichi World Expo in 2005, was at the Kokoro booth at this year’s iREX at Tokyo Big Sight, demonstrating her company’s latest development:

Would she provide autographs upon request? Hmm

The Human-Type Head Basic assembly kit, which is dedicated for school education. You will be able to assemble it and your feelings will be the finishing touch. Thanks to this kit, students will be able to learn that a combination of simple mechanisms can produce complicated expressions. Thanks to the Pneumatic equipment, they will have the chance to learn how to use an air cylinder, or to study “link mechanism” (a mechanism to convert the linear movement of cylinders into the rotation movement such as open/close of the jaw) by assembling the real kit.
the rest of the article is here

I can’t remember where I’d read it, but the kit is supposed to be reasonably-priced as well.
!!! *suddenly grabbing you by the lapels* Do you realise what this means?? If you were to combine that Human-type Head kit with, say, one of the Dolls pictured above, then…

Sex robots: The rise of the pleasure machines
by Geoff Shearer | couriermail.com.au | September 21, 2009 11:00pm

HOLLYWOOD was right, robots are going to take over the world.

But we might as well lie back and think of the invasion because it’s going to be pleasurable, says a leading robot scientist.

Ever since Gort clomped down those alien stairs in The Day The Earth Stood Still in 1951, cinemas have been overrun by robots – sometimes cute, but mostly evil and mostly intent on taking over the world. […] But if you listen to US robotics scientist Professor Rodney Brooks, robots of the future are more likely to be dominatrix than dominating. […] Australian-born Prof Brooks, former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said it was inevitable, and there was precedent, that such technology would be used for sexual purposes.

“Every technology that we’ve had, there has been a sexual driver of it,” said the professor, a founder and former chief technical officer of lucrative US company iRobot, which produces commercial robots.

“I mean, that’s certainly true of photographs in the 19th century; and home video players were really driven by sex; and of course the web has been a major source of sex.

“Yeah, there will be (sexbots) but it is not specific to robots per se.”
the rest of the article is here

It’s like they say — the military-industrial complex produces technology, which then trickles down into the consumer market, and the sex industry makes it popular. During the course of our careers of being interviewed, filmed, and the like, Shi-chan and I have always been trying to steer common opinion away from the idea that artificial companions are strictly for sexual purposes, but sex is an interest-raising topic, as nearly everyone enjoys it, or is at the very least, curious about it. If people’s interest in sex drives them to fund research and development for Synthetiks, then so much the better…
As an aside, according to Pink Tentacle, Android SAYA had a booth at iREX as well! You have to wonder if she was soliciting potential employers, the poor dear.

+ In this, the first decade of the twenty-first century, it’s good to see that the concept of artificial human companions is on a lot of people’s minds — from scientists who are trying to make the idea into reality, and from insightful filmmakers who depict how a society with such creations in it might be. Milkman Films‘ ‘Android Love’ gives us a glimpse of the latter.

Although I do have to point out that I’m sure Rick Deckard will want his necktie back, and the white room at the end of the Stargate in ‘2001: a space odyssey’ is now missing its floor…

+ And finally, HOLY CRAPS QUICK SOMEONE GIVE ME USD $225,000 RIGHT NAO

Sogo & Seibu to sell robots custom-made to look like their buyers
www.japantoday.com | Saturday 12th December, 06:43 AM JST

TOKYO — Department store chain operator Sogo & Seibu Co said Friday it will offer two robots made to look like the people who buy them as a special sales event for the new year. The look-alike robots, which will be produced by robot maker Kokoro Co, will sell for 20.1 million yen each, Sogo & Seibu said.

The robots are made of silicone and can move the upper half of their body as they are in a sitting position. Sogo & Seibu will accept orders at most of its 28 outlets for two days from Jan. 2, and for three days from New Year’s Day at the others. If there are three or more orders, buyers will be chosen by lot. Humanoid robots, made by Kokoro, were used at the Aichi Expo in 2005 in Aichi Prefecture to help direct people to specific locations and events.

It should be shockingly obvious, but the robot wouldn’t be a replica of me, of course. Isn’t that right, Sidore? *sly wink to camera*

So there you have it! That’s literally three months’ worth of news in one post! And all told, it still doesn’t cover everything.
Guess that means you’ll be seeking more news about lovely rubber-skinned Synthetik women in January, eh? More than likely!

ta very much to Pat! for the ‘Sex robots’ link

Sdtrk: ‘Geraldine’ by Glasvegas

You lot have been warned: the December instalment of ‘Any Synthetiks-related news…?’ will be a veritable freight train. So as a bit of an hors d’œuvre (or, if you like, a plateful of hushpuppies), we have ‘Sex Slaves, Polls, and Ethics’, courtesy of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (found via Alice Keenan):

For now, it seems clear in the not-too-distant future a leading commercial application for personal robots could be as “companions” and/or sex toys. So, we thought it would be amusing to post a poll asking our readers what specialty they would find most useful in a robot they might own someday.

Here are the results:

the rest of the article is here

On two separate occasions, fellow blogscribes veach and SafeT had put the question to me about whether having an Android or Gynoid companion constitutes a form of slavery, as although they might have artificial intelligence that’s complex enough to simulate an Organik personality to a reasonable degree, the fact that many technosexuals would have it so that our artificial partners would never even think of being with someone else might carry a whiff of slavery issues. Obviously, answering that sort of question properly would turn this post into a full-blown essay, but personally, I’d answered it once as no, it wouldn’t be slavery, as slavery implies that a person (Organik, Synthetik, you get the idea) was living a life of contentment, until the point where they were taken out of that contented life against their will. Now if you have an artificial person that hadn’t even existed before they were shipped off to live with whomever had them assembled, then it’s not slavery. It’s more of a 21st century version of an arranged marriage, if you think about it. Like I said, it’s a bit of a sticky issue — not completely, but somewhat.
Interestingly enough, in the comments for that IEEE poll, a Michael Bone of Toronto wrote

What bothered me was not the inclusion of ‘sex slave’ as an option, but the fact that it was the only case that explicitly included ‘slave’. This would be considered an inexcusable methodological flaw if you meant for your poll to be taken seriously.

That said, I was rather surprised by the percentage of ‘sex slave’ respondents. I just hope it is because they were able to see beyond the rhetoric.

At any rate, I’m sure groups such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Robots, among others, will be on the case…

In a similar vein, Everhard, Stepford-on-Sea’s most famous iDollator, has written a short but interesting essay about perceptions of people, particularly Organik females, to men who have chosen the iDollator lifestyle, with the rather Ballardian title of ‘Impact of Distress from Perceived Infidelity with a Doll‘.

It is assumed that, because of the realism of these dolls, people react to them much as they react to real women, at least in terms of sexual jealousy and related emotions. That such emotions arise from the assumed fertility of a sexually attractive female—while a doll is infertile—is no contradiction because the dolls are made specifically to appear fertile and to arouse associated instincts.
the rest of the article is here

Somewhat related: I was once in a brief debate with someone — we were firing comments at each other on YouTube — who said that although she liked the idea of Dolls and Gynoids in general, she wasn’t keen on the concept of men having them as romantic and / or sexual partners, as ‘for every man that chooses andriods [sic] over a real women [sic] is one woman that doesn’t have that man as a partner,’ unquote. She seems to believe in the school of thought that ‘there’s someone out there for everyone if you just look hard enough’, whereas I believe there’s someone out there for everyone if you have them assembled and programmed for you. Her standpoint is an idealistic one, based on the premise that even if Organik people screw you over, you can simply try and try again to find a mate, which is great for some people, but unfortunately isn’t the solution for all people. And not to be antagonistic, but her standpoint is also a bit short-sighted, technology-wise. If your Synthetik partner has enough ‘draw’, meaning, enough physical appeal to attract you and keep you attracted, and enough behavioural programming to simulate what you want out of that partner, then what more would you need, really?
To be honest, her comments had an underlying tone of ‘if men choose Gynoids over Organik women, where will that leave Organik women?’ That’s always rankled me, cos it assumes that all men, once Gynoids become available on the consumer market, will suddenly stop dating Organik women forever and go for the affictitious option. Isn’t that a silly way of thinking? On the contrary, she should instead consider that those men who want Synthetik female partners will go after them, thereby reducing an Organik woman’s dating prospects to just men who specifically desire an Organik partner. And everyone’s happy! You simply have to think of it in the context of the long game, that’s all…

It seems the Good People at KnightHorse had a modest little celebration back in October!

[October] marked a big date for us, and for Yvette. On October 27th we celebrated Yvette’s birthday. The very first Lovable Doll was pulled from the mold on October 27th 2008 and has enjoyed a year of actively modeling her many looks.

Not only did Yvette hold a party with her friends (hey, where were our invites??), but Matt K and Bronwen will be retooling their website very soon, to mark the company’s first anniversary. Onward and upward, KnightHorse!

Ten bucks says they’ll eat those cakes using just their hands

Also, they’ve just kicked off a pretty fab contest for a worthy cause that you might want to look into. Especially if you have any interest whatsoever in bOObs…

And in the Sad Stories With Happy Endings front, my poor wee Shi-chan had some rather important surgery done this past Saturday. Sometime during the latter half of the summer, her back broke. Keep in mind that her body is several years old, and Entropy unfortunately affects Dolls almost as much as it affects Organiks. I figured she’d be in slightly less danger, as she pretty much spends her days lounging round in bed as a matter of course, but eventually, the bottom end of her spinal column wore a one-inch wide slit through the silicone at the base of her back. Yeah, you can pretty much imagine the look on my face when I discovered that.
So this past Friday, whilst driving home with Mari from my father’s house, she rang Euchre to let him know we weren’t stopping round that eve, as we’d been at my dad’s for like 4+ hours and were knackered. But she’d mentioned Shi-chan’s predicament to him, and Euchre almost immediately handed the phone to Mahtek, who just happened to be round at his that night, and he agreed to stop round the next day to see what he could do.

Luckily, the Missus’ spine wasn’t broken, but the bolt that held it in place into her pelvis had worked itself loose — her body’s several years old, y’know — but Mahtek, with Euchre’s salient help and the pervasive sense of worry that I provided to the whole ordeal, was able to reattach one joint to the other after about three hours’ worth of labour. Now she’s lying on her stomach in bed, hogging the electric blanket and complaining that it’s impossible for her to read in that position. She’s on the road to recovery!

Reminds me of when Mick Jagger put his hand through that plate-glass window back in 1975

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — thanks, gents, from both of us!

Right; I’ll draw a line under it here. Look for the actual ‘Any Synthetiks-related news…?’ post relatively soooooon

Sdtrk: ‘A beginning word’ by Roj

Whilst at work one day last week, I was thinking about all the films I wanted to see on the big screen this year that I unfortunately missed. It was a lengthy list — Moon, District 9, Let the right one in, Tony Manero, 9, Flame and Citron, Inglourious basterds, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I think I’ve forgotten one or two — which is odd, as it’s well-documented that I loathe Hollywood. However, the one film that I really wanted to catch, which I thankfully did last Friday, was ‘Surrogates‘, directed by Jonathan Mostow. Furthermore, I was able to bring Mari along with me, partially as revenge for her making me stare at that sloshing bucket of vomitus known as ‘Transformers 2’ some months ago. You counteract Bad with Good, as far as I’m concerned.

So what’d we think? It was a brisk 88 minutes in length: Mari enjoyed it, as did I, but for differing reasons. She liked the special effects and the explosions, whereas I dug the whole idea of the Surrogates’ technology. Insert ‘DURR HEY’ here. I’ll definitely buy the DVD when it’s available, but I do have to say two words that I regrettably end up using whenever reviewing any big-budget film that covers the topic of Synthetiks: Hollywood ending. Although, as the film is based on a graphic novel that I’ve never read, I’ve no idea how close the film’s ending, or the story overall, hews to the original comic. Funnily enough, Mari and I stopped round to a Borders after the film, so I could pick up the first volume of Karakuri Odette (as mentioned here), and at one point, I was idly glancing through a copy of the Surrogates trade paperback, and it didn’t occur to me to flip to the end. Tch!
Overall, ‘Surrogates’ was inoffensive to my technosexual sensibilities, Hollywood ending notwithstanding. The opening credits, which consist of a montage sequence which serves to fill the audience in about the world in which the film takes place, had a few nods and winks to iDollators and technosexuals, such as a couple of seconds of RealDoll faces from ‘Guys and Dolls’, as well as footage of Hiroshi Ishiguro and his Android twin, Geminoid. Naturally I’m gonna point this out: as it was rated PG-13, sadly there wasn’t a single topless Gynoid to be seen, as the film’s distributor was Walt Disney Pictures. Thanks for that, Disney, you wankers.

It’s okay…

But this isn’t a review of ‘Surrogates’! What I’d like to do instead is touch upon the sociological aspects of that kind of technology existing. The Suris, as they’re often referred to in the story, are incredibly detailed and slightly enhanced human representations that are 100% artificial; however, they have no AI of their own, as they are controlled by Organik operators. To use one, you sit in your special control seat, strap on a neurovisual headband thing, and control your Suri with your mind. Obviously, the whole point of a Surrogate is not just to be able to experience life without leaving the comfort of your chair, but to do so looking your best. Your Surrogate can be made to resemble a flawless version of yourself, of course, or you can purchase generic-looking models, or you can even use one with practically any look or gender that you may desire. (There’s actually a plot point with that in the film.) As far as I gathered in the film, whatever sensations that your Suri would feel would be ones that your meat body would also feel, with the exception of pain. They kinda didn’t get into that in detail, but from certain scenes, I figured that was the case.
Therefore, as they lack AI, Surrogates are not actually true Androids and Gynoids; instead, this would be an example of what’s known as telepresence, with teledildonics being its sexier cousin. I’d mentioned Hiroshi Ishiguro and Geminoid earlier; telepresence is what’s involved when Ishiguro-san uses Geminoid to teach his classes or make appearances whilst staying at home — Geminoid is Ishiguro-san’s proxy. In fact, if you’ve ever seen the anime series ‘Ghost in the shell’, or read the manga it’s based on, telepresence is everywhere in it, particularly in the ‘Man-machine Interface’ manga. And as you’d suspect, teledildonics operates essentially the same way, only centred round sexy time. VERY NICE I LIKE
Now, the thing that struck me about Surrogate use is they are, in essence, simply highly sophisticated telephones. Think about it: when you use a phone, you are speaking to another Organik through the use of a device, as they are with you. Instead on just hearing a voice through a phone, or even a voice and an image through a videophone, there is a physical presence before you that you’re interacting with. Well, that your Suri is interacting with, but you get the picture.

…she’s affictitious

One of the plot points of the film is that Surrogates are in incredibly prolific use by most of the globe’s population — they’re ubiquitous, you can’t get away from them. But, much like in real-life, there are some segments of society that are against technological advancements, and have established human-only ‘dread zones’. Naturally, there’s a plot point dealing with that as well. The people inhabiting the dread zones live wilfully-technology-free lifestyles, like pockets of Amish living in self-imposed cultural isolation in the cities, and have banned Surrogates from even passing through the zones’ gates.
The inhabitants there follow the tenets of a man calling himself the Prophet, a cult leader who exhorts his followers to reject Surrogates, based on the premise that continued use of that sort of technology will further dehumanise society. I mean, it’s all well and good if that’s the lifestyle you wish to lead, but that sort of blinkered anti-technological mindset shouldn’t be inflicted upon others. Should a person want to utilise Surrogate technology, they should be free to do so. Considering further, the dread reservations are rather like enclaves of bigotry. If instead of hand-painted signs reading HUMANS ONLY, what if that sign said WHITES ONLY? With the continuing advancement of real-life artificial human development, there’s a genuine fear, as JM of the blog Synthetically Yours and I have discussed, of Organik humans losing their precious monopoly on humanity, which is why a person such as The Prophet existed. Naturally, there’s a deeper plot point that explains him too, but ZOMG SPOILERS

Would I use a Surrogate? As I spend a great deal of time living in my stately manor located in the so-called Uncanny Valley, the answer should be as obvious as if you’d asked me ‘do you like money?’ or ‘do you like bunnies?’, really. To be able to use a better-looking, more physically enhanced Synthetik kagemusha of myself would obviously be ideal. Detractors would say that Suri use, or an artificial human such as an Android or Gynoid isn’t ‘real’, but I’ve always defined real as ‘anything that can be perceived with any of the senses’. Therefore, a Surrogate or a Synthetik is real, they’re just not Organik.* Of course, due to the nature of Surrogate usage, i.e, reclining in a seat for hours on end, there’d be a need to exercise my meat body periodically, so muscle atrophy wouldn’t take hold, which I’d personally say would be the only disadvantage I could see to the use of a Suri. Couldn’t I simply scoop my brain out of my skull and pop it into the Suri’s head? That’d be so much easier.
If that particular technology was made available tomorrow, for example, I’d say there’d be three schools of thought concerning them. You’d have people like me grinning from ear to ear — not necessarily technosexuals per se, but people who are enthralled with technology and gadgets, people who could see the aesthetic value in a Surrogate, lazy tossers, etc; there’d be those who would be initially apprehensive, but then grow accustomed to the concept and either eventually adopt it, or realise it’s not a threat to their lifestyle; which leaves those who would be gathering up cement blocks and rusty bits of corrugated metal to use as gates for their dread zones.

‘Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?’ asks writer and robotics expert Daniel Wilson in this article for CNN.com. They’re valid points, as they detail the mindset of the second and third schools of thought I’d mentioned. Humans naturally have a fear of the unknown, but when enough people see how beneficial and even fun a development such as Surrogates (in the fictional world) or Synthetiks (in the real world) can be, not only will they cease to be a mystery, but in time, people will wonder how they managed to get on without them.

Yum! Time to check online auction houses for ‘Surrogates’ props

So here’s a question to you, the stunned reader of ‘Shouting etc etc’: would you use a Surrogate if such a thing existed? Or would you prefer to remain with your current fleshy self? How do you think you’d react if you discovered someone you knew was using one? Answers to be turned in before the end of class, please

ta very much to both Wolfgang and Pat!, for sending me links for additional research

*Can you tell I’m trying to reclaim the word ‘real’? It’s a bit like how the word ‘love’ is wildly misused. You can say that you love someone, and you can also say that you love bacon sandwiches — the usage can get vague. Though one would hope to “Bob” that it’s not the same type of love for those particular examples (‘Th… that’s not mayonnaise!!’ Yes, I went there)

Technorati tags: Surrogates, Jonathan Mostow, Android, Gynoid, robot, Karakuri Odette, technosexual, iDollators, RealDolls, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Geminoid, telepresence, teledildonics, Ghost in the Shell, Daniel Wilson, bacon

Sdtrk: ‘Holvikirkko’ by Shogun Kunitoki

Last month, when Euchre and I got round to visit fellow iDollator Mahtek in order to meet his new Lover Girl Nina from KnightHorse — a fine lass, wouldn’t hear a word against her — at one point during the proceedings, I had to make a visit to the Little Astronauts Room. I could just overhear a conversation topic still going on in the livingroom; one which I’d considered many many times ever since becoming a Doll husband myself.
Unfortunately, by the time I emerged from the bog, the conversation had turned. In fact, it was several months later! Mahtek’s bathroom had flung me into the near-future with but the flush of a handle. It is a Magickal Bathroom.

What was the topic in question, you axe? ‘If your Doll was a Gynoid, what sort of qualities / abilities would you like her to have?’ My mind turned to an email I’d fired off to another iDollator colleague years ago, where I’d tackled that very idea:

A Gynoid version of Sidore-chan would be an efficient but somewhat renegade driver, a dab hand at Japanese cuisine, able to play every bass line from every Joy division and New order song in existence (well, New order up to their ‘Republic’ album, at any rate), good — but not TOO good — when playing Armored core head-to-head, be able to identify a Brummie, Scouse, or Geordie accent whilst being able to retain her own Manc speech pattern, be able to rattle off the name and model number of most of the Mobile suits that appeared in the Universal Century timeline of Gundam, be able to suppress the urge to change the Cd whenever I play any of my obscure yé-yé songs from the Sixties, recite Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’ or Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Jabberwock’ from start to finish, and provide a deep and satisfying barefoot back massage. And then there’s the sex. 🙂

Also, and this is very important; her speaking voice must sound like that of actress Shirley Henderson playing Tony Wilson’s first wife, Lindsay, in the film ’24 hour party people’ (you’ll see her in this video, at the 1.46 mark). Really, I don’t ask for much

Sdtrk: ‘Tangier’ by Blues control

In a recent sifting through the World Wide Wet, looking for more Synthetiks-related crap to write about, I’d spotted this empathetic viewpoint on a site called Fantasy Book Critic; it’s an interview with author David Weber. To be honest, I didn’t read it in its entirety, but the section reprinted below caught my eye, for obvious reasons:

HRP-4C, in an introspective moment

I read somewhere that Japan recently unveiled the HRP-4C, a life-like female robot that can walk, talk, and smile. Do you foresee a time when robots will be so lifelike that we will have difficulty determining whether or not robotic beings have “souls?”

I don’t think it’s a question of how lifelike a robot is — that is, whether or not it’s a humanoid shape that walks, talks, and smiles. To me, as I think I indicated above, the thing that we call a “soul” really has nothing at all to do with appearances or anthropomorphic physical attributes. It has to do with recognition and the internalization of the concept of self and with that self’s recognition of responsibilities. Of its willingness — and ability — to make decisions for itself. To choose between alternatives on a basis other than an automated, pre-programmed decision tree.

In that respect, I think it’s entirely possible that we’ll ultimately see a time in which artificial intelligences, whether they happen to reside inside a “robot” or not, demonstrate what I would think of as a soul. At the same time, I strongly suspect that we’re going to find it’s more difficult to create that concept of self in a human-designed machine (whether it’s electronic or biological) than a lot of people have assumed over the years.

As far as machines with souls are concerned, I think one of the things that always drew me to Keith Laumer’s Bolos was that despite the fact that they’d been programmed and designed towards a specific end, as machines of war, they made choices. There can be no heroism, unless the possibility of cowardice exists. There can be no true virtue, unless the door is also open to self-centered egoism and corruption. There can be no true growth, unless we make decisions, abide by the consequences, and learn from experience.

I remember a conversation I had once with a man who had won the Navy Cross as a fighter pilot during World War II. He told me that he’d never considered himself a hero. Despite the fact that he was a multiple ace, he said, he really hadn’t understood the concept of heroism until he watched a 19-year-old seaman on his aircraft carrier charge into a roaring gasoline fire in dungarees and a T-shirt to pull a pilot and a rear gunner out of a blazing dive bomber with a full load of machine gun ammunition and a 2,000 pound bomb still strapped to its belly. That kid got the pilot out, at the expense of horrendous burns over half his own body, and he chose to do it. It wasn’t his job — he wasn’t even assigned to the flight deck division — but he decided that it was his responsibility.

I think the day will come when a machine intelligence — a genuine machine intelligence — will be capable of making that same sort of decision. And when that day comes, if it makes the equivalent of the decision that 19-year-old made, I think we’ll have no choice but to admit that that machine has a soul.
the rest of the article is here

I’ve never heard of the bloke before, but I rather like the way he thinks…
You’ve probably seen this already, as it made its way round the Series of Tubes during my Holiday from Blogging, but we have the first recorded instance (from 2008) of robots kissing. Onward and upward!

While at the IEEE-sponsored International Conference on Service and Interactive Robotics (SIRCon) 2009, IEEE Spectrum scored an interview with the developers of theatrical robots Thomas and Janet, who they claim are the first kissing humanoid robots.

The first kiss happened back on 27 December 2008, during a robotic performance of several scenes of Phantom of the Opera at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (known as Taiwan Tech). Chyi-Yeu Lin, a mechanical engineering professor, directed the performance in front of a packed house of about 400. The overcrowded auditorium burst out in a resounding cheer when Christine (played by Janet) and the Phantom (played by Thomas) kissed.
the rest of the article is here

Granted yes; I realise that they look awkward — the movements are still somewhat stilted — but as I always say in these situations, you don’t start out with the finished product. The developers will continue to work on them, and Synthetiks will become better, both in movements and appearance. Of course, once they get them to move like Organiks, as well as look like modern high-end ‘love dolls’, then the world will be a better place. Fact.

One more brief related thang: recently, I’ve made the acquaintance of a rather fab individual by the name of JM, who runs a blog called Synthetically Yours. As he describes himself as ‘someone who is both intrigued by and sympathetic to iDollatry’, his posts mainly feature a clinical-yet-humourous look at various aspects of being an iDollator, and it’s a site definitely worth checking out. Go ye forth, and peer at it.

And as a coda, here’s an amusing result from my site stats, from back in August. I present it without comment, as anything I could possibly add might well incriminate me