We’re All Going to End Up Married to Robots

                Robots are the future. When I say robot, I sometimes technically mean android (or gynoid), but the word robot is just more fun and all inclusive. What makes robots so powerful is the fact that they can be designed intelligently. They don’t have to go through the random hit-or-miss of evolution.  They can be designed around a specific task, which allows for perfect specialization. A robot has the advantage of being able to focus its whole existence towards one goal, and doesn’t get distracted by fringe stuff like entertainment and sleep. Since there is such a taboo with genetic tampering, robots are our best bets for making the most stupendous things possible.

                Modern robots are already better than humans at a number of jobs. These jobs include exploration, manufacturing, and being expendable. There hardy mechanical bodies allow them to easily survive in many environments that would be deadly to a human. Robots also never got bored, so they can do the same crappy job over and over without losing focus. They also excel at working at a consistent level of quality, and can work in extreme synchronization without any ego conflicts. Still, advanced tasks that require a wider range of skills and adaptability are currently best done by humans, but that is only due to our limits in building and programming robots.  Robots are also currently quite limited in their ability to learn and/or self-program, and this brings us to the discussion of artificial intelligence (AI).

Robots are better than you

                AI is where robots really have room to grow. In the future we will be able to build smaller, cheaper, and more versatile robots, but it is the intelligence side that holds the real potential for advancement. Imagine a machine with a body built specifically for a certain task, but with the problem solving ability of a human. Such creations would reduce the jobs that humans are superior at down to art and philosophy. I don’t know if being reduced to a life of self-indulgent hedonism would be considered a robot apocalypse, but that is what we're looking at.

This robot already looks like he could do my job better than me

                You may be wondering how all this all ends up with us being married to robots. Well, if robots could be dominant at almost every function, then why couldn’t they be the best spouses? Picture a robot with strong AI that is programmable. Such a robot could be created with the exact personality to compliment your own. What human relationship could ever compare to that? Barring some automatonophobia, it would be practically impossible not to get along perfectly with your new robot companion. There would be no troublesome conflicts of interest or differences in perspective, unless you wanted them. By the time that we are able to produce strong AI we will probably also be able to produce robots with bodies that perfectly resemble our own (or the robots will be able to produce them). Once again, how can mere human attractiveness ever compare to something that was created specifically to suit your preferences? Robots would never have to deal with any of the natural limitations that humans have. If you want a woman with an 18” waist, perky D breast, and who shares all or your interests, that would easily be possible (she sounds a little uncanny to me, but whatever). The real robot apocalypse won’t be when we are reduced to a bunch of lazy pleasure seekers, but when we can’t be bothered to deal with other humans long enough to actually reproduce (Perfect Robot Babies!).