Curbing dark desires

摘要

Last month, at the Forbidden Research event at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a panel of roboticists posed an inflammatory question. Should paedophiles be handed prescriptions for sex robots built to resemble children? This isn't as hypothetical as you might think. Japanese company Trottla already ships child-sized sex dolls globally. Earlier this year, a Canadian man faced trial after he was arrested for ordering such a doll, which is considered child pornography under Canadian law. He could go to jail for seven years. But what if dolls like these could help rather than hurt? Ron Arkin, a robotics engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Kate Darling, who studies human-robot interaction at MIT argue that virtual reality and sex robots might function as an outlet to redirect dark desires towards machines and away from real children. If it works, it could help past offenders reintegrate harmlessly into society as well as helping prevent those who have never offended from doing so.