Would it be okay to have sex with a robot?

Sex robots will be common by 2050, experts predict.

Experts are saying that ultra-realistic sex robots are coming soon, and some people may even fall in love with the machines. While some people see this as progress, others see this as a dark and sinister future where humans love machines more than one another.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The ultra-realistic sex bots are coming soon. Many experts are predicting such machines will be common by 2050. The Church's position on this issue is not yet well defined, but it's easy to infer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, drawing upon Biblical instruction, condemns masturbation as an "intrinsically and gravely disordered action" (CCC 2352).

It naturally follows this that adult "toys" and machines designed to facilitate masturbation are likewise inappropriate. This would include robots.

The sinful nature of man is such that we often disregard God's wisdom and substitute our own. This is reflected in the story of the Tower of Babel, where man in his pride sought to build a tower to heaven.

This time, we seek to build a virtual Eve, or Adam, to replace the man or woman that God has already created for us.

As work on artificial intelligence and robotics advances, it is plausible to imagine a robot that will look, feel and act human. Except, it will be programmable, and it will not have the foibles and flaws of a human. It will not age, complain, or grow tired. Its memory will be perfect and it will correctly respond to your preferences, and even anticipate them. The machine will adapt itself to the man until the man calls it good.

How is this not the perfect temptation? The ultimate distraction from everything good? How many times have we already skipped church for a distraction or on a whim? What happens when those distractions take the form of our intimate desires?

The experts repeat they are merely making machines. The skeptics point out the machines are too complicated and too expensive to be mass produced. The common person does not believe a machine could simulate the touch of another person.

But we would be fools to underestimate our capacity to sin. In 1901, the first airplane took flight. Within 15 years, airplanes were being used to kill people. Within 68 years, we had landed on the Moon (not an evil act, but it demonstrates the pace of invention). Today, technology advances at a pace that would be similar to the Wright brothers inventing jets before World War I.

For us to say that sex robots are improbable fantasies of the distant future is remarkably shortsighted.

Now is the time to make ourselves aware of the moral implications of our choices. These machines are coming soon, and if we do not guard against them they could disrupt families, destroy relationships, and contribute to human delinquency and unfaithfulness like nothing previously invented.

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