Last night I watched the movie Robot and Frank starring, among others, Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon. It was pretty decent, definitely better than the Red Dawn reboot I watched afterwards (seriously, Josh Peck, I know you used to be a little chubbs, but THIS IS NOT A GOOD LOOK.)

ANYYYWAY, Robot and Frank is about an old man suffering from pretty extreme memory-loss whose son purchases him a “helper” robot who cooks, cleans, gardens, and helps the old man exercise. The friend who watched it with me asked if I thought that would ever happen in our lifetime, and we both agreed that considering ten years ago THIS was the top-of-the-line cell phone, that yeah, we’d probably have butler-robots by the time we start suffering from old age.

What we didn’t know was that by that time we might also be GETTING LAID by robots. Turns out a branch of mechanics called “teledildonics” is already in the works. Via Jezebel:

A less drastic (i.e., more likely to be used by humans soon) representation of this same concept is teledildonics, or sex toys that can be controlled by a computer. “Sexual devices that you can remotely control already exist, but they’ll catch on more,” Young told me. “Within the next 2-3 years, stores offering devices of that sort will open up.” Frankly, I’m surprised that the proliferation of teledildonic apps hasn’t started already. It’s something that could easily sync up to any extant model of any sex toy, and it could very easily be monetized for long-distance relationships — or, eventually, long-distance casual encounters. Which is crazy to think about! You could potentially meet some person online and have remote sex with them without ever meeting them in person. If teledildonics do catch on, as Sparks & Honey predicts they will, the technology will have serious and fascinating repercussions on our understanding of sex and intimacy.

Yeah, I know, it’s not EXACTLY like having sex with a Peter Sarsgaard-voiced full-sized mechanical man, but hey, we’re almost there. We do worry about whether people will start shying away from actual human sex if they can instead have virtual sex without showering or putting down the bag of Takkis.

What do you think? Would you use a robot sex toy? Let us know in the comments!

Image via PolyMic