Robots and Movies and Sex – Oh, My!

Strange news out of Japan this week: It appears that the humanoid companion robot known as Pepper — which can read emotions and converse with humans — has a curious clause in its user contract. Buyers must agree not to have sex with the merchandise.

Pepper, you see, is designed to use voice analysis and facial recognition to respond to human emotional cues. But not, evidently, like that.

Look, this is delicate. But we’re all grownups here, right? The truth is that, as a civilization, we will be dealing with robot sex sooner than later. Sociologists are already predicting it, ethicists are already debating it, and others are just dismissing it as another historical sex panic.

In any case, as a concept, it’s really nothing new. While we usually avoid specifics, we’ve been telling ourselves human-machine love stories in science fiction for decades. As with so many things in life, we can turn to Hollywood for profitable instruction. Forthwith, in no particular order, the sexiest robots in the history of sci-fi movies.

Rachael and Deckard

Blade Runner (1982)

As played by Sean Young and Harrison Ford, the replicants in Ridley Scott’s classic future noir were made for each other — quite literally. Circa 1982, Young and Ford were arguably our species’ two most attractive specimens, and the idea that they’re playing robots here seems prescient. And yes, in the film Deckard is indeed a replicant. 

Samantha

Her (2013)

Voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Samantha is a disembodied artificial intelligence who develops a romantic relationship with a depressed copywriter played by Joaquin Phoenix. Johansson’s voiceover performance is spectacular and helps to sell the film’s postmodern premise — that a man could genuinely fall in love with his personal digital assistant. Not only is there no physical sex involved, there’s no possibility of physical contact at all, which somehow just makes everything hotter. Oh, it’s a trip, man.