Prototype Fembot Career

[xodar]

In Trying Neaira Debra Hamel traces the career of an ancient Greek sex slave named Neaira. Neaira was a real person who lived in the 300s BC, but she was treated in a relatively civilized manner (aside from having been a sex slave), and her career is known from speeches given at a trial involving her when she was about age 60. Apparently the speeches were considered worthy of recording and preserving.

It seems to me Neaira's career, and those of other such women, might parallel the careers of future fembots.

Neaira was either abandoned or sold as an infant or small child and came into the posession of a madam named Nikarete. Nikarete brought her up in her brothel, training her in sex and also giving her the best education available so she could provide mental stimulation to her clients. She put Neaira to work at about age 8 or 10.
In her early 20s Neaira was deemed too old to work in a brothel so she was sold to a couple of customers named Timanoridas and Eukrates. These guys couldn't afford her individually, so they pooled their money and bought her, sharing her as sex slave for a couple of years. She was freed by them when one or both decided to get married and the wife and furture in-laws didn't want a sex slave in the house; to get their money back they asked her to buy herself and lowered the price if she promised to leave town (Corinth) to avoid their new families.
She had further adventures as a prostitute in Megara and lived with one Phrynion in Athens (from whom she stole a bunch of things when she moved back to Megara).
At about 30 she took up with a Stephanos from Athens. Stephanos treated her well but was repeatedly involved in lawsuits, especially with an enemy named Apollodoros. (To pay for the stolen property he also had to share Neaira with Phrynion for a while.) There folowed a series of legal hassles, mostly with Apollodoros that involved the question of whether three children were actually hers or, as Stephanos mantained, his by a deceased wife -- a wife had to be an Athenian citizen by birth for children to be legitimate citizens. The daughter was also involved in adultries and divorces.
Finally, when Neaira was about 60, Apollodoros brought Stephanos into court claiming he claimed to be married to her, which was illegal because she was a citizen of Corinth. The information about her career came from speeches at the trial. Neaira could be re-enslaved and Stephanos heavily fined if they lost. Unfortunately there's no record of the outcome of the trial because the person who preserved the speeches was only interested in rhetoric and legal procedure.

It seems to me that without the question of children or the biological life cycle (but perhaps not wear and tear) and perhaps with few legal questions a fembot's career would be somewhat like this -- going through several owners, even some who couldn't afford her individually, working in brothels till someone buys her, living sometimes for decades with the same man, being programmed for sex and conversation....

[A.N.N.]

Wow, that's a pretty good parallel. Once fembots become semi autonomous, this is probably very accurate. But until the AI tech is good enough to support at least some personality or abstract thought though, my guess is they'll be treated more like appliances, or maybe fancy cars.

As far as the slaves back then go, life really sucked. I'm sure there are similar institutions around to this very day, sadly. All the more reason to support robot and AI research.

[Karel]

Yes, thank you for sharing it xodar.

But there's simply no way. Anything that can be programmed or reprogrammed is never going to be treated like a human being, even a slave. And no one is going to create something/someone intelligent and autonomous for use as a sex toy, not until you can put sentience in a microprocessor and crank out thousands a day, which, if possible at all, is not gonna happen for thousands of years.

I'm confident that when real artificial intelligences actually are developed, the authorities will swoop in fairly quickly to prohibit private ownership. Until then, unfortunately, robots aren't going to be buying themselves and defending themselves in court.

[xodar]

Yes, thank you for sharing it xodar.

But there's simply no way. Anything that can be programmed or reprogrammed is never going to be treated like a human being, even a slave. And no one is going to create something/someone intelligent and autonomous for use as a sex toy, not until you can put sentience in a microprocessor and crank out thousands a day, which, if possible at all, is not gonna happen for thousands of years.

I'm confident that when real artificial intelligences actually are developed, the authorities will swoop in fairly quickly to prohibit private ownership. Until then, unfortunately, robots aren't going to be buying themselves and defending themselves in court.

You may be right about the authorities defending artificial conscious beings. I have doubts about artificial consciousness, but then it isn't possible to be sure other humans are conscious though really you can tell, and that at least mammals and birds are, too.
I'm guessing that there will be machines sufficiently developed to mimic conscious behavior, including having a device to slightly vary that behavior so they won't be any more repititious than humans (who have habits and unconscious behaviors).

I don't think a robot like that could buy itself, much less mount a defense in court. However, Neaira had to depend on Stephanos and his male friends to defend her because women weren't allowed to do more than give testimony (and slaves had to be tortured before their word was accepted, but she had been free 30+ years by her trial).