Now You Too Can Have Your Own

"Living Doll": Meet Roxxxy

By Tim Siggia

February 03, 2010

Some would call it a case of life imitating art. Others would put it into the You-Knew-It-Was-Going-To-Happen-Sooner-Or-Later Department. The "art" in question here is an old Sixties sitcom called "My Living Doll," which starred Robert Cummings and Julie Newmar. Cummings played the part of Dr. Bob McDonald, a psychologist to whom is entrusted the care of a robot in human form (Newmar), whose actual name is AF709, but is known to McDonald, and the viewing audience, as Rhoda. McDonald's job was to develop Rhoda into the "perfect woman" in all domestic skills with the expressed exception of sex (this was, after all, Sixties prime-time television), while keeping her identity a secret. Like most sitcoms, it was not meant to be taken seriously.

Well, as it happens, somebody not only took it seriously, but also decided to go the extra step in making sex the main focus of his creation, unlike the case with Rhoda. The someone is question here is Douglas Hines, inventor, engineer, and founder of the New Jersey-based company TrueCompanion, which manufactures his new invention: Roxxxy, the Sex Robot. Roxxxy stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, has lifelike silicone skin, and an artificial intelligence engine programmed to learn the owner's likes and dislikes. The robot was first unveiled on Jan. 9 at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AAE) in Las Vegas. Roxxxy is able to talk, not only on sexual subjects, but on any subject the owner finds interesting, the vocabulary being provided by computer programs. And yes, unlike Dr. McDonald with Rhoda, the owner can have sex with Roxxxy, even to the point of simulated orgasms by the robot.

You know, it seems just at the point where you think you've seen and heard it all, something like this comes along. The reader will note that in this particular column I departed from my usual format of an appropriate quote to begin the piece. In this case, there was no appropriate quote, as, to the best of my knowledge, this has no precedent. And, oh yes, to continue: Roxxxy will soon have a male counterpart named Rocky, who can be programmed to suit either the needs of gay men or heterosexual women. Mr. Hines, it seems, has thought of everything here, including languages. While the present Roxxxy speaks only English, other models are being developed which speak Spanish and Japanese. So, if it happens that you're the Man Who Has Everything -- except either a wife or a girlfriend -- you can now have Roxxxy, for only $7,000.

If the reader at this point is blanching over the idea of somebody actually spending such an amount for an artificial woman, one might ask the question, which is worse? To own a Roxxxy, or to, (a) hire a prostitute, (b) spend roughly the same amount on a round-trip flight to Bangkok for the purpose of exploiting girls and young women there, (c) lure young Haitians to the United States for an "education" that turns out to be radically different from the one they thought they were going to get, or (d) simply don a trench coat and lurk around schoolyards? Roughly speaking, we're talking about the same kind of people in each instance (although, to be fair, some Roxxxy customers may simply be the kind of sad sacks who've repeatedly struck out with real women, and now feel they must turn to an artificial one) -- and sadly, there's no shortage of them. Though Roxxxy is not yet on the market, TrueCompanion reports thousands of pre-orders for the robot -- and this during a time of recession!

All of this begs a question: Given the track record of legislators both past and present on such matters, one cannot help but wonder how many members of Congress will now not only buy themselves a Roxxxy (or, for that matter, a Rocky), but come up with some devious pretext upon which to bill the taxpayers for the purchase?

Perhaps there are some questions to which we are far better off never knowing the answer.

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