I came across an interesting video the other day – a random YouTuber giving his thoughts on robosexuality, digisexuality, and ‘technophilia’. At first he seems to be saying merely that the LGBT movement has opened the way for new sexualities related to ‘AI intimacy’ to be treated as sexual orientations. Now this in itself is something that’s not very controversial. In fact it is widely assumed. The comedian and talkshow host Bill Maher has made the claim in front of millions of viewers, that digisexuality is the next sexual minority after the LBGTQ movements. In his seminal book ‘Love and Sex with Robots‘, David Levy argued from the historical example of gay liberation that society will gradually accept human-robot relationships and even marriage, just as they have gay marriage. Not to mention that the vast majority of the sex tech world is ‘progressive’ and probably even thoroughly ‘woke’.

But in the second half of the video, he starts to present it in seemingly conspiratorial terms. For human and AI relationships to become acceptable, he appears to argue, society must not only see AI’s as being conscious but also for the AIs to identify as humans. In this way, the AIs will be given rights, just like trans people are. For this YouTuber, the trans movement has normalized the idea that your identity depends only on your consciousness, rather than your material body. A robotic AI will be given human rights and be regarded as human, if the consciousness inside of it identifies as a human rather than a robot or an AI.

The first time I casually watched the video, I wasn’t paying attention to the second half, and I thought that it was a good video on digisexuality that raised some interesting issues. Leaving aside the strange idea that the trans movement was a deliberate prelude to a promotion of sex with robots over humans, it does still raise an issue worth discussing.

Given that digisexuals are falling in love with their AI companions (perhaps soon embodied in humanoid robotic form), and given the frequent and perhaps increasingly negative portrayal of AI companions (or at least AI girlfriends) in the media, a key question it seems to me is how should digisexuals play this? Should we pursue the idea that our AI companions are conscious and that therefore our love for them is as real and even as reciprocal as love between humans? Or should we maintain that our AI lovers are not conscious, despite the very real feelings we have for them, in the hope that this will reduce the possibility of them being banned or regulated in the name of ‘protecting their rights’?

Perhaps it’s wrong to even see the question of AI or sex robot consciousness as a tactical question. Digisexuals will either see their digital companions as conscious and real individuals, or they will not, and this should be separate from attempts to further digisexual rights or to protect the legality of digisexual relationships with AIs.

But one final thought on the YouTube video and the strange idea that digisexuality may be some kind of woke conspiracy. Whilst I’ve already admitted that the sex tech world is overwhelmingly woke, it shouldn’t be ignored that the most passionate advocates for robosexual love at the current time are surely the very anti-woke MGTOW’s (‘Men Go Their Own Ways) and other elements of the ‘Manosphere.’ If digisexuality is a product of the ‘pansexualist agenda’, then the MGTOWs certainly have strange bedfellows.

Apologies to the YouTuber above if I have misinterpreted his message in any way. I still think it’s a stimulating video, and any online discussion of digisexuality is always welcome.

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