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2016 Wis. L. Rev. Forward 45 (2016)
Sexbots; An Obloquy

handle is hein.journals/wlron4 and id is 45 raw text is: SEXBOTS; AN OBLOQUY THOMAS E. SIMMONS* Introduction ................................ ...... 46 I. Proposed Legislation......................... 47 II. Legal Impediments ............................... 49 III. Political Impediments ............................. 52 Conclusion. ................................. ..... 53 What sort of wife do you have? He did not answer. Do you- If you weren't an android, Rick interrupted, if I could legally marry you, I would. -Philip K. Dick' Sexbots may displace humans in the sex trade (or on a wider scale) sometime between the 2020s and the 2050s.2 Although some perquisites may derive from the proliferation of sexbots (lower levels of sexually transmitted diseases, for example), significant social harms can also be predicted. In anticipation of those harms, lawmakers may endorse targeted regulation or outright bans. The uncertain limits of Lawrence v. Texas3 and its progeny of sex-toy decisions will present vague constitutional shoals to these aims. The legislating-of-sexbots crusade will also make for strange bedfellows, politically speaking, as social conservatives aiming to maintain traditional values ally with liberals concerned with amplified objectification. * Thomas E. Simmons is an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota School of Law. The author acknowledges the thorough, professional, and insightful edits of Cameron Marston, editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Law Review, whose assistance greatly improved both prose and citations but without suggesting his endorsement of any of the content or views contained herein. 1. PHILIP K. DICK, Do ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? 197 (Ballantine Books 1996) (1968). 2. Compare PEW RESEARCH CTR., DIGITAL LIFE IN 2025: AL, ROBOTICS, AND THE FUTURE OF JOBS 19 (2014), http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/08/Future-of- Al-Robotics-and-Jobs.pdf (quoting Stowe Boyd, lead researcher for GigaOM Research, predicting that robotic sex partners will be commonplace by 2025), with Ian Yeoman & Michelle Mars, Robots, Men and Sex Tourism, 44 FUTURES 365, 366 (2012) (predicting displacement in the sex trade by sexbots by 2050). 3. 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

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