Thread by @AriSchulman

An example of the farcical "just being Responsible," "gotta Figure the Policies Out Now" stance of today's professional tech ethicists — the eager hunt to legitimize innovations in human degradation by preemptively casting them as managerial problems. theconversation.com/sex-robots-are…

Thanks goodness some eager logician at Oxford Uehiro is at work as we speak, cooking up a new thought experiment to clarify the ethical stakes of having your Scarlett Johannson bot switch from making your kid's lunch in the day to being your sexbot at night.

Privacy! Hacking! The sexbot surveillance state! We've got it all. Let's do a white paper.

Will sexbots brothels disrupt communities and families? Assertion without evidence! Further study needed.

"informed governance requires researchers to explore these topics urgently"

"reactionary governance decisions based on supposition and fear of doomsday scenarios."

Whew, and of course we land on the preemptive implication of sexbot users as members of a newly discovered sexual orientation, the coming subjects of social uplift.

Things this article problematically didn't touch on:
- Preemptive concerns about disparate access to sexbots
- Grave concerns that bans on sexbots would interfere with potential therapeutic applications
- Rights to sexbots for the sexually underprivileged

Oh, screenshot for the "digisexuality" thing:

Here is a more serious response: "Our wants and needs and joys and sorrows run too deep to be adequately imitated. Only those blind to that depth could imagine they might be capable of producing a machine like themselves. But even they are mistaken."
thenewatlantis.com/publications/t…

An Oxford Uehiro ethicist actually dreamed up a scenario where criminals would be mind-uploaded & undergo a simulated 1,000 years of torture. Just because it's really important to raise the issue now so we can think through a proper governance regime. Just asking questions, guys!

Here is an elegant solution to the fascinating technico-ethical arcana of creating a regulatory regime for sexbots: launch them all into the sun.