From today’s b, the paper

robot lust — error, error
This is probably bad timing, with “WALL-E” making us fall in love with robots again and such. But artificial intelligence expert David Levy thinks sex and love with robots could happen sooner than you might think — in about 50 years, according to a report published on ctv.ca.

“There is love and there is sex. Sex, I think, will happen much sooner,” said Levy, who recently wrote the book “Love and Sex with Robots,” so I guess he’s the authority.
Why the impending robot love capability? Levy said they’ll make attractive companions by 2050 because of advances in appearance, senses and personalities. Robots of the future will have realistic features like soft skin and touchable hair, he said. And he said robots don’t have to be boring.
“If you want to, you can have a robot that is completely faithful, or you can have a robot that is programmed to be completely faithful so long as you’re completely faithful, or a robot that strays every now and again,” he explained.
Not sure where the robots will “stray” though. Other robots? People? It’s all kind of creepy.

logging on to get off
How do you know when you’re addicted to the Internet? When you skip meals and sex just to go online.
Jerald Block of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland wants Internet addiction classified as an official clinical disorder. Block told the American Journal of Psychiatry, “The [addict’s] relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: e-mailing, gaming, porn.” And Scrabulous.

but try the pad thai
Norwegian doctors are stating the obvious: Sex is risky in Thailand.
As reported on scandasia.com, an increasing number of Norwegian men are traveling to Thailand and getting infected with HIV and gonorrhea. Specifically, 40 Norwegians last year were infected with HIV and 80 caught gonorrhea, all from trips to the Asian nation.
“My clear advice is not to have sex with the local population,” said Norwegian physician Gunnar Hasle. “Local women [you] meet in a bar in Thailand, and take her with you to the room, is no different than the prostitute.”
Ouch, Gunnar. Not very nice.

and condom companies dont lie
People from India have fulfilling sex lives but lag behind other nations in knowledge of how to prevent pregnancy. According to the findings of Face of Global Sex 2008, a survey conducted by, yes, Durex, Indians typically start sex education at the age of 15, later than other nations, as reported on sify.com. Consequently, they scored 70 percent on a pregnancy prevention test, lower than most nations, including South Africa (86.5 percent) and Spain (86 percent). However, Indians seem to have good sex lives — rating 72.4 percent, higher than Germany, France, Australia, Poland and Singapore.

Jordan Bartel is the assistant editor at b. E-mail him at jordan@bthesite.com

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