As the only writer here named “Robo Panda,” it behooves me to bring this to your attention. It is my responsibility, nay, my privilege to inform you that humans have an arousal response when they touch a robot’s genital region. Heh heh. Yeah they do.
In very important research conducted at Stanford University, Jamy Li and his team tasked four women and six men with touching and pointing at different parts of a friendly little Aldebaran Robotics Nao robot’s body. Some of the parts were “easily accessible” like the hand, while other parts were “less accessible” like the buttocks. But let’s be honest, all the parts of this robot are accessible, the little minx.
Just listen to what the robot says to the test subjects. “Sometimes I’ll ask you to touch my body and sometimes I’ll ask you to point to my body.” Nice. But it only gets sexier from there. “When I ask you to touch me, please touch me with your… dominant hand.”
Awwwww, yeah.
Seriously, though, not since the Atlas robot and the Chinese sperm extractor robot have we been so thoroughly creeped out by something made for legitimate ends.
Testing the humans’ response with a skin conductance sensor, the team found that the subjects had a physiological reaction to touching the more private areas of the robot, but had no response to touching more neutral areas or simply pointing at the robot.
The leader of the study points out that “Social conventions regarding touching someone else’s private parts apply to a robot’s body parts, as well.” It seems humans “respond to robots in a primitive, social way.”
Before we start yelling out “Extra! Extra! Humans Like To Touch Robo No-No’s,” however, we should probably point out the arousal response isn’t necessarily sexual. It could also be, you know, embarrassment about touching a toy robot’s robo-crotch while a stranger is filming it. The test subjects could well be thinking, “Wait, what are you using this video for again?”
Obviously, they’re using the video to train future generations to deal with the coming scourge of sex robots:
Do you want to get down?
(Via The Guardian)