This week on Channel 4, we watched a cheery 58-year-old American engineer called James going on a first date. He was meeting Harmony, an extravagantly shapely blonde who was obliging enough to be wearing a low-cut crop top and tiny shorts, and who greeted him with a charming smile. After a spot of small talk and a dumb-blonde joke, she then alternated between assuring him how great he was and inviting him to masturbate over her. ‘You’re awesome,’ a visibly smitten James declared — apparently not at all bothered that Harmony was a robot.
This scene — clearly regarded as a heartwarming one by Harmony’s maker Matt McMullen — provided the big finish to Thursday’s The Sex Robots Are Coming, which did its best to take a measured, non-sniggering, non-aghast look at the latest developments in the lucrative sex-doll market.
Until recently, the problem with such dolls has been that, while they may look increasingly realistic (albeit from the more pornographic end of the reality spectrum), their social skills are distinctly limited. But now Matt’s company is one of several competing to produce dolls that can recognise their owners and have proper conversations. If all goes well, customers will even be able to select their new doll’s personality, with options including shy, talkative and — for added realism, some unreconstructed males might think — moody.
Not that James doesn’t have a soft spot for the old type too. When we first met him, he proudly introduced us to ‘the lovely April’ — his favourite of the three non-robot dolls with whom he shares his life. (‘It’s not to demean women,’ he explained as he flipped the naked April over on his bed and slapped her bottom. ‘It’s more an appreciation of their physical beauty.’)
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