Digital Intimacy: UK Scientists Discuss Sex with Robots, Why They're Better in Bed

A sexbot conference in Manchester, Britain discusses the possibility of intimate relationships in the digital age, specifically robots.

According to the Associated Press, the conference entitled "The Human Choice & Computers" on Wednesday discusses the evolution of human relationship with technology in the future.

Voice of America notes that in the near future, robots may have the ability to have sex with human beings or perform sexual acts using virtual reality devices. Because of this, the question is: will robots be better in bed?

Joel Snell, a robotics expert from Kirkwood College, thinks they will. In an interview with Daily Star, he says that sexbots will be common in the future and will be preferable as they will be designed to meet the sexual needs of their users.

Meanwhile, Charles Ess, a professor from the University of Oslo, tells Associated Press that sexbots, though meeting the demands of their users, should not be abused and human virtues should still come into play.

Ess notes that ethics will be a keyplayer "to avoid [humans] becoming identical with the machines that serve us."

Despite the tolerance shown by the scientific community on sex robots, some are speaking out regarding the ethical issues of the situation.

Dr. Kathleen Richardson, a senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at De Montfort University, has created a campaign called Campaign Against Sex Robots, which aims for the ethical development of human technology.

"I created the campaign because I want people to really think about how we develop our technologies ethically. And I do want to live in a world where we think about how we can develop robots -- robots that can help us with the hard jobs, the hard toils we have as human beings," Richardson told Sky News. "But machines, inanimate objects, can't do relations. You can't manufacture human intimate relations, and that's what we're all about."