First thought was, “WTH? If all those people want is to masturbate using someone else’s body, why don’t they just pay for a prostitute?”, then I remembered that prostitution is illegal in plenty of places.
Possible reasons:
Illegality (as you mention).
Perceived (and as far as I know actual) greater risk of STDs than with their likely alternative partner.
Price. (ie. “I wish I owned a house” is a plausible wish even if only because then they would not have to rent.)
Different expected behavior from a sexbot than a prostitute. The “masturbation” experience is presumably enhanced by various behaviors and expression of the sex toy (be it human or robotic). Related to the price reasoning in as much as the price of a “Full Girlfriend Experience” encounter with a prostitute is likely to be far greater than an encounter with someone who puts less effort into acting out an engaged experience.
Pride, conquest and ego. People like to be achieve and be validated. There are few things that are more validating for humans than to have mates of a suitable level of attractiveness desire your sexual attention.
Robots are cool. Sexbots are sometimes hilarious.
Hygene is much easier to manage with sexbots. Not only can you control access to the bot and so prevent exposure to the bodily fluids of unknown strangers, a sexbot can outright detach the relevant robo-parts and wash them in the sink.
Sexbots can (presumably) be more easily customized to have specific combinations of traits and easily switch between diverse roles or fetishes.
I’m not always sure which instances of “sexbot” in your comment are supposed to be literal and which are supposed to be metaphorical. Anyway...
Pride, conquest and ego. People like to be achieve and be validated. There are few things that are more validating for humans than to have mates of a suitable level of attractiveness desire your sexual attention.
That would require your partner to be sentient, wouldn’t it?
Haha, not quite. I think you’d want it to be sentient just enough to provide a challenge but turn off its sentience whenever it becomes unpleasant or inconvenient.
I’m not always sure which instances of “sexbot” in your comment are supposed to be literal and which are supposed to be metaphorical.
Whichever works (which in some cases means both).
That would require your partner to be sentient, wouldn’t it?
Yes, quite right. My mental cache evidently used too much compression and the reconstruction thereof failed to include the necessary explanation. The ego related possible answer that I originally intended was of course that factors of pride and validation of sexual appeal may be absent in both cases and so “just pay a prostitute” would not help them.
Not necessarily. It would require your partner to be difficult to acquire, probably based on their own selectivity and probably based on traits considered high-status, which is why literally buying a sexbot might not be enough for some people—unless it requires wealth, which is usually high-status. Prostitutes are likewise undesirable, unless they are expensive/choosy high-class prostitutes. It implies that they are more likely to be sentient in that they may be choosing based on their own goals, but that’s a rather fragile implication.
Possible reasons:
Illegality (as you mention).
Perceived (and as far as I know actual) greater risk of STDs than with their likely alternative partner.
Price. (ie. “I wish I owned a house” is a plausible wish even if only because then they would not have to rent.)
Different expected behavior from a sexbot than a prostitute. The “masturbation” experience is presumably enhanced by various behaviors and expression of the sex toy (be it human or robotic). Related to the price reasoning in as much as the price of a “Full Girlfriend Experience” encounter with a prostitute is likely to be far greater than an encounter with someone who puts less effort into acting out an engaged experience.
Pride, conquest and ego. People like to be achieve and be validated. There are few things that are more validating for humans than to have mates of a suitable level of attractiveness desire your sexual attention.
Robots are cool. Sexbots are sometimes hilarious.
Hygene is much easier to manage with sexbots. Not only can you control access to the bot and so prevent exposure to the bodily fluids of unknown strangers, a sexbot can outright detach the relevant robo-parts and wash them in the sink.
Sexbots can (presumably) be more easily customized to have specific combinations of traits and easily switch between diverse roles or fetishes.
I’m not always sure which instances of “sexbot” in your comment are supposed to be literal and which are supposed to be metaphorical. Anyway...
That would require your partner to be sentient, wouldn’t it?
Haha, not quite. I think you’d want it to be sentient just enough to provide a challenge but turn off its sentience whenever it becomes unpleasant or inconvenient.
Or to have been sentient.
The squick has been doubled!
Whichever works (which in some cases means both).
Yes, quite right. My mental cache evidently used too much compression and the reconstruction thereof failed to include the necessary explanation. The ego related possible answer that I originally intended was of course that factors of pride and validation of sexual appeal may be absent in both cases and so “just pay a prostitute” would not help them.
Not necessarily. It would require your partner to be difficult to acquire, probably based on their own selectivity and probably based on traits considered high-status, which is why literally buying a sexbot might not be enough for some people—unless it requires wealth, which is usually high-status. Prostitutes are likewise undesirable, unless they are expensive/choosy high-class prostitutes. It implies that they are more likely to be sentient in that they may be choosing based on their own goals, but that’s a rather fragile implication.