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<\/a><\/p>\nRevolutions often begin with a sense of liberation and noble human values, only to end in oppression, brutality, and insanity.\u00a0 So it is with the sexual revolution.<\/p>\n
I will report on what some people in the revolutionary vanguard of that movement are thinking.\u00a0 And about a major defeat for the pornography industry.<\/p>\n
The human need and desire for money implies a right to it, according to some leftist theorists, who therefore advocate the redistribution of wealth.\u00a0 Using that same logic, some people today are advocating the redistribution of sex.\u00a0 From Aditi Murti<\/a>:<\/p>\n A theory first espoused by Robin Hanson and later championed by violent involuntary celibate (incel) fringe forums, the redistribution of sex involves the state controlling women\u2019s bodies and the men they have access to, in order to make sure everyone has access to consensual sex. If some women don\u2019t consent, sex workers and sex robots will take their place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But the use of sex robots, which some futurists are saying are the future of sex, poses problems of its own.\u00a0 According to Murti<\/a>,<\/p>\n As robots get more sophisticated AI, they will gain independent decision-making skills that will give them a\u00a0specific legal status<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0electronic persons<\/a>, according to a 2016 draft resolution put forth by the European Union Parliament. . .<\/p>\n In\u00a0Artificial Intelligence and Law<\/em><\/a>, ethicists Lily Frank and Sven Nyholm write, \u201cThe legal community should make it very clear that any member of the legal community who enjoys the status of personhood needs to give his, her, their, or its consent before any sexual acts are performed on them. It cannot be that the legal community does anything that can be construed as condoning what is sometimes called \u2018rape-culture,\u2019 i.e., a mindset by which non-consensual sex is normalized or otherwise implicitly or explicitly approved of largely as a result sexist attitudes, institutions, and patterns of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Sex robots that can give and withdraw consent already exist, but the models of consent utilized are a work-in-progress. This is mainly because, as of now, sex robots can only simulate consent, rather than actively give consent.\u00a0 It is imperative to note that meaningful consent is possible only if robots achieve independent decision-making skills \u2014 a possibility many policymakers and researchers believe is only a few decades away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Murti says that some sex robots simulate consent by shutting down if the user gets too rough.\u00a0 But, say ethicists, that very lack of \u201cconsent\u201d can cause users to rape the robots.\u00a0 This contributes to a mindset that will treat actual women that way.\u00a0 Yes, reducing human beings to sex objects will be the effect of having sex with objects.<\/p>\n Notice, though, what this discussion reveals about where we are today.\u00a0 Instead of thinking in terms of transcendent moral absolutes to direct our sexuality, the only<\/em> criterion left today that can determine whether or not sexual activity is licit or not is consent.\u00a0 This is indeed important to traditional morality, but if that is the only relevant issue, it becomes hard to apply.\u00a0 If consent is necessary for licit sex, and we have sex with machines, how can machines consent?<\/p>\n Note too the impoverished view of human beings that we have come to.\u00a0 Christians believe that individuals have immortal souls, a complex spiritual dimension that includes but is not limited to reason, will, memory, conscience, consciousness, and an eternal core.\u00a0 Today, some people reduce personhood to reason, so that they think \u201cartificial intelligence\u201d can turn a computer into a person.\u00a0 Others reduce personhood to the will, so that a machine that can respond in alternative ways must, after this ability is highly enough developed, be considered a person.\u00a0 Once again, I refer you to that post The Brain is NOT a Computer<\/a>, which cites an expert in both computers and the brain who explains that the connections people make are only metaphors, so that artificial intelligence and artificial decision-making have nothing to do with the mind or personhood.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, pornography\u2013another example of dehumanized, disembodied sex\u2013has taken a major hit<\/a>.\u00a0 Investigative reporting by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof disclosed<\/a> that the world\u2019s largest online pornography site Pornhub is rife with videos featuring sex with minors, rape, revenge porn, and other kinds of exploitive and (yes) nonconsensual sex.\u00a0 This expose has brought pressure on the Canadian company Mindgeek, which operates much of the pornography on the internet.<\/p>\n In the ensuring uproar, the major credit card companies\u2013Visa, Mastercard, and Discover\u2013have announced that they will no longer process payments to the company.<\/p>\n Also, Canadian officials are investigating the charges legal measures against Mindgeek and American senators Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) are proposing legislation making it easier for victims to sue pornographers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Mindgeek has sought to purge Pornhub of the problematic and questionable material that the article identified.\u00a0 As a result, two-thirds of its videos have been taken down<\/em>, dropping from 13.5 million videos to 4.7 million.\u00a0 (Read this article<\/a> from Christianity Today<\/em>.)<\/p>\n So there are limits after all.\u00a0 Even the one criterion of consent is enough to thwart the sexual revolutionaries.\u00a0 And perhaps inspire a counter-revolution.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Image by\u00a0Stefan Keller<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Of the redistribution of sex, robotic consent, and a hit to the pornography industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":52732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600,15,35,41,44],"tags":[6034,10363,1763,5785,2795],"class_list":["post-52598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-ethics","category-philosophy-2","category-sex","category-technology","tag-consent","tag-mindgeek-sanctions","tag-pornography","tag-sex-robots","tag-sexual-revolution"],"yoast_head":"\n