The Squishy Ethics of Sex With Robots

Sex tech is huge, and getting bigger. Patent trolls have been sitting on (sorry) a famous 2002 patent on vibrators connected to other devices and each other--the so-called teledildonics patent--using it to extract licensing fees from sex tech startups. But the patent expires in August, which means that hot tension you feel is the prelude to a pulsing, ecstatic explosion (less sorry now) of internet-connected sex devices yet to come (sorry again). Most of the world is ready to accept algorithm-enabled, internet-connected, virtual-reality-optimized sex machines with open arms (arms! The technology is evolving fast, which means two inbound waves of problems.