BBC News - Will we ever want to have sex with robots?
"However, no matter how well-programmed a robot may be, it is still a machine, and he agrees a plastic and metal humanoid is not capable of replacing the real thing - yet.
"We are getting closer and closer. The gap between what is robotic and mechanical and what's human-like will minimise, so it's a very exciting time."
Roxxxy costs up to $9,000 (£5,700) and there is also a male version called Rocky. Later this year the company plans a more advanced model which it says will be mobile and autonomous.
At the heart of our relationships with such machines, fictional or not, is the question of what it means to be human and to relate to others.
While no machine, however well-engineered, can ever feel empathy - something which defines us humans - it might be able to simulate it well enough to allow us to play along and treat it as if it were a sentient being."
"However, no matter how well-programmed a robot may be, it is still a machine, and he agrees a plastic and metal humanoid is not capable of replacing the real thing - yet.
"We are getting closer and closer. The gap between what is robotic and mechanical and what's human-like will minimise, so it's a very exciting time."
Roxxxy costs up to $9,000 (£5,700) and there is also a male version called Rocky. Later this year the company plans a more advanced model which it says will be mobile and autonomous.
At the heart of our relationships with such machines, fictional or not, is the question of what it means to be human and to relate to others.
While no machine, however well-engineered, can ever feel empathy - something which defines us humans - it might be able to simulate it well enough to allow us to play along and treat it as if it were a sentient being."
