The Future of Androids and Life-like Dolls

The presentation on iDroid was very interesting. From my general perception, iDroid seems to be a web-based company that connects artificial doll and android producers with the public using a website. iDroid's main focus is to limit overpopulation and provide an artificial companion and/or child for those who cannot conceive or experience depression and social anxiety.

I think that iDroid is very interesting in that I can see the practicality of the dolls and androids. Starting with the android assistants, I really like the idea of having android assistants/companions because I believe they would offer a plethora of resources that would make a lot of technology like calculators, calendars, babysitters, and the such essentially unneeded. I believe that the technology these androids would have would be extremely beneficial for everyone.

With the RealDolls, child-like dolls, I have mixed emotions about them. One part of me wants to say that these baby dolls are creepy, but another side of me sees the use of them. These dolls can alleviate depression in infertile mothers. I also believe that if we combined these baby dolls with android technology to act like a real infant, this technology could be really useful in preparing parents for life with a child or even help educate young teens about parenting.

Next, we have the "Life Partner" dolls. Again, this gives me the same mixed feelings as with the child dolls. I understand the need to limit overpopulation and I cannot argue that these dolls would not do just that. However, in the future, assuming that these dolls become commonplace and everyone is using one, how would we combat underpopulation and the social implications these dolls bring. For example, without the need for learning how to flirt and obtain a life partner, where would we learn how to handle rejection and such? Also how would we deal with reintegrating human-human sexual relations if these dolls make it much easier for both men and women to have sexual and emotional gratification?

My final thoughts on iDroid as a whole are a cautionary positive. I see how these dolls and androids would be able to solve the issues of overpopulation and depressive disorders associated with infertility and lack of social skills in the relationship department. I also agree these dolls and androids would be interesting and definitely be more beneficial than problematic, at least in a hundred year time frame. However, there are questions that need to be answered and things to think about like: how would we dela with underpopulation, how would these affect general social skills of users, how would these products be disposed of?