---Earlier I <joe_jenkins@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed" <someone's sig
> line on this list>. Try http://www.realdolls.com/ if you have
> $5000.00 to spare.
Sorry to everyone on the list for what appeared to be spam. That url leads to a very lame porno site with no relation to realdolls. I was unable to confirm my recollection of the url from work at NASA because visiting a site like that raises major red flags in their automated big brother system. Anyway, the intended url is
These dolls were featured on HBO's Real Sex 22 and their visual appearance makes suspension of disbelief very easy. I am forwarding some comments with permission from Erik Sofge <devilmanz@yahoo.com> from the Transhuman Mailing List:
Date:
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:57:11 -0800 (PST) From:
Erik Sofge <devilmanz@yahoo.com>Add to Address Book Subject:
>H Re: transhuman-digest V1 #358
To:
transhuman@maniac.deathstar.org
Reply-To:
transhuman@logrus.org
Transhuman Mailing List
Since that Real Dolls link was nothing but a sinister porn ad, I'll try and fill y'all in on these $5000 doodads.
Note: Some of this is my research, most is the HBO Real Sex 22 episode that featured the Real Dolls.
They sure do cost $5000, and what you're paying for is an amazing sculpture job, as well as a huge amount of silicon. They seem to be female-only at the moment (though a few "chicks with you-know-whats" have been created on a special order basis), so their breasts, behinds, and various other spots are comprised of this high-grade silicon. They seem to be coated in the stuff, actually. This makes them soft to the touch, and yielding, but still pretty rubbery.
There are all sorts of dorky little details regarding their sexy features, including a weird little suction action that takes place due primarily to the properties of plastic, rubber, etc. And the hair (all the hair) is human.
The Doll itself is created like a big squishy action figure, with plastic bones and joints (gaps where the rubber takes over) in all the right places. You can position it as you want, and it will basically stay put.
Anyway, all of that is pretty uninteresting, at least as far as sexbots go. It's a high-class blow-up doll, and for what it's worth, they really are exquisitely sculpted (I'm talking facial features, dammit!)
The sexbot issue is being addressed, though, as various animatronic features have been planned (and partially built) by the couple responsible for these silicon lovelies. Here are the prospective specs, in order of complexity.
-Moving tongue and eyes
Once activated, they keep moving. A feature will be added to
start
just one (eyes or tongue) at a time
-Audio
Again, cued in with the moving parts, the dreadful thing starts moaning.
-Moisture
Figure it out
-Tactile Audio
Now this one is scary. "Nerves" implanted in various erogenous
zones
will send signals to the primitive "arousal computer", and if the
right things are done (like a dirty version of Electronic
Simon)...Machine Orgasm! At which point it acts bored until you
finally cuddle with it. Well, maybe not. But honestly, it reaches an
orgasm, or so they plan, but only minor development has been completed
(these people are about as tech-illiterate as you can get). They also
plan to give the Dolls a rudimentary learning capability, so as to
learn what you like to do to it, and thus pretend to enjoy those
actions more. You wanted decadence? You got it!
Now they didn't mention how well these dolls are doing, but suffice it to say that the couple is in the shop every day, and their stock isn't exactly sky-rocketing. However, it's fascinating to note that people will pay $5000 and up for the most primitive sexbot around (right now it has none of those special features), which leads me to believe that a more cost-effective sex doll, one with some basic moving parts, could become as popular as....blow-up dolls. Unless you made this things fashionable, they would remain the realm of pervos and fetishists.
The most interesting possibility on this list, in my opinion, is that of duel-feature domestic bot/love droid, but we all know robots aren't gonna be around until Spacely Sprockets finally gets off the ground. So, my final estimate is that mass-appeal sexbots are a foolish topic. Fetishists will always pay ridiculous sums for ridiculous stuff, but no fetishite trend has ever been mainstream enough to deserve serious attention.
But then again I have a bias against bot-talk, because anything that needs that much maintenance isn't feasible enough to really discuss. Anyway, hope that was informative.
Erik Sofge
esofge@condenast.com