Man Builds 'Scarlett Johansson' Robot From Scratch (mirror.co.uk) 158
An anonymous reader writes: 42-year-old product and graphic designer Ricky Ma has spent more than $50,000 building a replica Scarlett Johansson robot from scratch. The robot, named Mark 1, responds to a set of programmed verbal commands spoken into a microphone and has moving facial expressions. Ricky said, "When I was a child, I liked robots. Why? Because I liked watching animation. All children loved it. There were Transformers, cartoons about robots fighting each other and games about robots. After I grew up, I wanted to make one. But during this process, a lot of people would say things like, 'Are you stupid? This takes a lot of money. Do you even know how to do it? It's really hard.'" Ricky has dressed Mark 1 in a crop top and grey skirt. A 3D-printed skeleton lies beneath Mark 1's silicone skin, covering its mechanical and electronic interior.
This... (Score:1)
...is creepy as fuck.
Re:This... (Score:5, Insightful)
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While probably true, I bet the robot still has more personality than SJ.
pointy knees
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I know a few Jebbies, and they're all smarter than hell, and fun guys besides.
I don't know Pope Frank personally, but from the stories bout him, he seems he'd make a nice neighbor even with his bad English.
Re:This... (Score:5, Funny)
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That's a nice 6 digit UID you have there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it :-)
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No, we all want a Cherry 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The most creepy/bizarre part of the movie is the "Hokie Pokie" scene . . .
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So its set after Trump wins the election?
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Wait, are we talking Trump or Hillary winning here?
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Honestly, does it matter? They are both awful candidates.
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Naa, it would have to be Natalie Portman, naked and petrified covered in grits to interest your average /. patron.
Re:This... (Score:5, Funny)
I think the designer has crossed over from the Uncanny Valley to the top of Restraining Order Mountain.
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It sounds like you might also have zero social intelligence, because otherwise you wouldn't have written your comment the way that you did. I don't particularly like aspies, for various reasons (mainly because I'm a very social person, and I feel uncomfortable when other people are uncomfortable), but pretending to be, or actually being a social justice warrior is one of the most annoying things ever. You sound like the sort of person that would accuse someone else of being "racist" if they said something t
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I'm still trying to work out what grounds there might be for a restraining order. From whom against whom? Who is being harmed here? What "intellectual property" is being violated?
This is essentially a somewhat animated sculpture. So, if a restraining order were granted, then the next step would be, for an example, for the Estate of John Wayne to be sueing every kindergarten child (and their teachers and school boards,
Not all creepiness is created equal (Score:2)
You know what seems creepy to me? The preoccupation many people have with worrying about what other people find personally appealing.
Guy likes his robot. So what?
My personal concerns are what I like and what any partner of mine likes.
Here are the metrics for my concerns with others in this area: Informed consent. That's it. That's all of it. Do issues of informed consent come up with a non-conscious robot? No. Not at all. Ergo, it's only a matter of interest in the sense of here's something in the personal
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Re: This... (Score:2)
I was hoping for April Fools
The Real Question (Score:1, Insightful)
What we're all asking...
Re:The Real Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re: The Real Question (Score:1)
I want a beowulf cluster of them!
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...and petrified, while covered in hot grits.
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Wrong actress!
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Meh, that's just a head swap away.
Natalie-bot: "I love you more than the moon, the stars, the [POETIC IMAGE #36 NOT FOUND]"
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Petrified? I thought that was a Userfriendly comic meme?
Re:The Real Question (Score:4, Funny)
Does it run Linux?
The real question is does it run systemd.
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The real question is does it run systemd.
Bah... the real question is "can I get a beowulf cluster of these?"
Re:The Real Question (Score:4, Funny)
Does it run Linux?
The real question is does it run systemd.
The motion is quite jerky, it has an unexpectedly high latency, and it has bad English.
So I would tentatively say "yes".
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The motion is quite jerky, it has an unexpectedly high latency, and it has bad English.
So I would tentatively say "yes".
Windows it is then
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The real question is does it run systemd.
Fuck systemd. Literally.
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finally! a way for us to have angry sex with systemd.
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Most, yes, except the pussy runs Windows: that makes it more like an actual wife.
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Of course not!
Windows 10 with Tay the chatbot interface.
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Yep. Everyone's wondering: What happened to the Marilyn Monroe and Lucy Liu prototypes?
The best part (Score:1)
It's exactly as expressionless and personality-free as the real thing!
How many times has he fucked it? (Score:1)
Was it any good?
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You post is much funnier when read in Arnold Swartzenegger's voice.
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I vant a Scarlett sex baht zat is in-distinquish-able from ze real one! Give it to me nao!
NAO
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I prefer the slightly more grown up Scarlett:
http://esq.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/... [h-cdn.co]
Is it, uh.... (Score:2)
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Yes, down to the teeth.
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That would be the Jess Weixler [imdb.com] doll. Guess there is a new use for G-Strings, dental floss.
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Anomalocaris Nataliea Portmus
"Scratch" is not the term i would have used. (Score:2)
Androgenous nomenclature (Score:1)
The robot, named Mark 1
Isn't Mark a male name?
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Maybe that's what "she" did to his back
What I'm talking 'bout (Score:5, Funny)
Now THIS is news for nerds.
I don't want to read the article, because it might be something lame, but I like to think I live in a universe where there is such a thing as a Scarlett Johansson robot. Does anyone know if they're selling them yet? Asking for a friend.
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You can safely read the article. It is indeed a robot that looks like Scarlett Johansson. It can move its arms, grab things, make a range of awkward facial expressions, etc. You won't be disappointed.
Well, when I say it looks like her, I'm just guessing. I'm not very familiar with the actress. The article does provide a photo for comparison, and the robot looks a bit better. (With some exceptions, of course. Those hands are the stuff of nightmares.) It's possible that Mr. Ma used a younger version of
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I'm in.
Re:What I'm talking 'bout (Score:4, Insightful)
You might want to practice with a hot-dog first.
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You might wanna RTFA before putting your deposit down. This thing is extremely creepy.
Also, if it ever did go on sale, it would probably be sued into oblivion for copyright infringement on Johansson's image. The first "your sex doll looks too much like me" lawsuit is going to be interesting.
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Right of publicity, to have exclusive rights to sell your name and image off for products, but this cannot stop, say, unauthorized biographies and other articles and stories.
If you like that (Score:1)
You'd probably get a real hoot out of the article linked [mirror.co.uk] from this story (which I'm assuming may be NSFW)
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Re: What I'm talking 'bout (Score:2)
The funny thing is, it's cliche to make jokes sex robots and about men being losers and pigs, but in reality, women have been buying disembodied robotic penises for over a hundred years.
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Does the Scarlett model come with, ummm, that thing you said? A friend wants to know.
It's something (Score:2)
what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequences (Score:5, Insightful)
...of sexbots when they become uh significantly functional?
Will there be a Darwininan selection process where only people who really want children will have them, so eventually everybody wants to have children and is a competent family man/woman?
Will women be relieved that all the jerks have gone off with their sexbots and aren't bothering them anymore?
How many of men and boys that start out wanting a sexbot will grow out of it and learn to appreciate the real thing and how many will be permanently spoiled and never be able to adjust to the give and take of a relationship with another real human?
How many older men, who have had relationships with women, even relatively successful ones, will just decide it ain't worth the work anymore and go for a sexbot?
How many women will want sexbots?
Re:what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequenc (Score:4, Insightful)
Assuming that one day. they can create robots that are indistinguishable from human beings with regards to outward appearance, to tactile sensation, and with respect to how they would interact with people, I expect that the ultimate consequence of robots that can effectively function as complete companions, including as a romantic partner, would be that the only people that would seek romantic relationships with other real people are those that want to procreate.
Oh, and to answer your last question, probably most of them.
Re:what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequenc (Score:5, Insightful)
Until some point in the 20th century, prostitution was widely tolerated. Brothels operated more or less openly, and even if they were illegal, widespread corruption allowed them to operate anyway. I don't think there was much in terms of unintended consequences for the nature of human relationships.
Sex bots I don't think would change all that much, although it would be interesting to see how the forces of moral purity would challenge their commercial implementation. Would they try to ban sex bot brothels?
I'd wager that the women gaining political rights and economic abilities equal (or nearly equal for nitpickers) is largely what eliminated the accepted levels of prostitution that used to exist. Women with economic and political rights gained the upper hand in terms of sexual power and forced men to negotiate more and give women more sexual control.
Women largely operate as a sexual cartel and seek to eliminate competitors who don't adhere to the cartel's pricing requirements. Sex for pay weakens the bargaining position of women generally by requiring a higher level of compliance with women's interests. When men can obtain sex for money relatively easily, women lose some of their bargaining power.
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A "sex bot brothel" that did not also offer human or conscious robotic services would be a matter of the customers making personal choices for themselves.
Would people interfere with such personal choices? Consider the current circumstances:
o Laws against various types of consensual sexual acts are wid
Germany (Score:1)
In many countries (Germany, for example) registered brothels are still legal. Those who work there pay taxes and undergo regular health examinations.
Re:what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequenc (Score:5, Interesting)
I think most of it isn't aspirational or conscious at all, I think it's mostly evolutionary biology behaviors that border on instinctual. I don't think women get together and strategize on the best way to obtain the benefits of male relationships with minimal sexual compliance, nor do I think men (effectively, anyway) strategize on how to obtain sex from women with the smallest amount of effort.
I think evolutionary biology, though, has ingrained sexual behaviors into cultures and maybe even as instinct into people to match desired outcomes with sexuality. For women this means stable mates who will contribute materially to raising offspring, and for men this means women who are sexually compliant and monogamous to produce offspring that are their genetic progeny.
I think the economic model of a cartel is an interesting way to look at the social organization of sexual activity. Women act in surprisingly uniform ways as a group towards various aspects of sexuality that suggest a cartel. Women tend to be very critical of other women who are promiscuous, for example, much like a cartel does when one of its members violates the pricing rules. Prostitution is just a form of promiscuity that is profitable for both parties. Older women frown on older men with younger women, as it threatens the artificial valuations the cartel wants to impose -- the older woman is an inferior product (appearance, ability to successfully bear healthy children, etc) whose pricing normal market mechanisms would discount, however the cartel always wants to impose its own pricing mechanisms, seeking uniform pricing levels regardless of the product quality.
It's also interesting how economic externalities, like job equality and legal equality, influence the cartel pricing arrangements. The cartel itself is somewhat under attack, as its own members now question their pricing model. They still have a product on offer, but they don't know how to value the exchange they receive for it. Some value it low -- women with good job prospects may engage in sex more freely, as they no longer value the material stability of a marriage partner. Some eschew the value completely, disengaging from male sexual relationships. This chaos in the market is somewhat evident from reading publications oriented towards women, and the hand-wringing over sexuality, men, even lesbianism as an alternative lifestyle.
On the latter topic, I'm kind of amazed at the number of stories I've heard lately of acquaintances who have been married and even had children who end up divorced because their wife "discovered" they were lesbians in their late 30s or 40s. This kind of "discovery" would have been unheard of a century ago, and I think more closely reflects the kind of disruption in gender and sexual identity as women leave their childbearing years and no longer have the maternal instinct for childbearing. While some of these women may actually have been social prisoners of a culturally imposed sexual identity, I think its difficult to believe that ALL of them were. I think a more compelling explanation is that these women more likely had no compelling economic interest in their husbands and when combined with a naturally declining libido as they entered the sunset of their childbearing years and are actually making a much more conscious lifestyle choice that simply abandons men as a desirable partner.
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Will there be a Darwininan selection process where only people who really want children will have them, so eventually everybody wants to have children and is a competent family man/woman?
Between a welfare system so you don't need to have children support you, contraception, morning-after pill and legalized abortion doesn't the vast majority already choose to have children? It's not like you need sex bots to have sex without reproduction, it might cut down on one night stands and prostitution but those rarely lead to children anyway. It doesn't make them good parents, in fact our medical and social system is likely to make sure all of them survive to adulthood almost no matter what. What mos
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Well, if we get to the point were half of the men are either gay, or prefer a sexbot for a companion, bigamy is going to become the norm. If society has a 2:1 ratio of women to men wanting to be with actual women, that's just what's going to happen. In that instance a man knows that he'd better remain worthy of a wife (or two), or his woman will just walk off and get hooked up with another man; because in some sense no good man will ever be unavailable. Thereby getting him stuck with just sexbots for the re
Re:I almost forgot, questions about couples (Score:1)
How many couples will want to stay together but have his and her sexbots on the side?
How many couples will want one sexbot on the side for threesomes?
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"Will women be relieved that all the jerks have gone off with their sexbots and aren't bothering them anymore?"
This brings to mind the saying "Everything is about sex, except sex, that's about power." I've probably got that wrong but it's how I remember it going.
I think in many cases men who are jerks to women, seemingly only in it to get laid, are behaving that way to feel power over someone else. If it were only about getting their rocks off they'd utilize other more expedient methods to save money, time,
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What? Bitch and moan about everything? Act like hurricanes (come wild and wet and leave with your house and car)?
Re:what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequenc (Score:4, Insightful)
Ha ha it's funny because women, eh? Amirite fellas? Fellas?
Because, women? (Score:1)
Indeed. Now lets all sit back and watch some commercials about how men are stupid and inept [youtube.com] instead, because apparently that's perfect fine, right-o?
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because apparently that's perfect fine
Ah I see, now you get to the stage of randomly accusing me of saying stuff I never said, as if that somehow makes my original point invalid. Firstly, that's a nice simple logical fallacy. Secondly, when did I ever say that was fine?
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Not you specifically, just the double-standard of the world at large.
Re: what'll be the unintended/unexpected consequen (Score:2)
God how I can relate to this....
from scratch (Score:5, Funny)
Re:from scratch [Kit?] (Score:1)
Are they customizable? I'll order 3 of these. [photobucket.com]
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A Small World Disney ride anyone? (Score:2)
Still, the 3D print of the rib-cage and pelvis
This man is in serious need of a real girlfriend (Score:1)
Who can share that special love with me
And your eyes have that glow'
Computer Love...Zapp & Roger [youtube.com]
FAKE! (Score:1)
Are you a pleasure model? (Score:2)
Weak! Lame!
Which script? (Score:3)
So which of the 50 or so domains trying to run scripts on this page actually need to be whitelisted to just play the video?
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Dear Slashdot friends (Score:3)
I really recommend you go to google images and type in the following 3 words.
ancilla tilia scarlett
You will not be disappointed.
IP? (Score:2)
Multiple versions of the story (Score:1)
Re: an automated love doll ? dude has issues! (Score:1)
How soon? I just want to make sure I am out of your bed before you get in
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Have you actually tried both?
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No need, comparing real people and sex bots is comparing apples and oranges.
Real relationships are about more than just sex. Even when engaged in sex, it's about more than the mechanical aspect. When you touch your partner and they shiver with pleasure it's a very different feeling to when you touch them and they pretend to shiver with pleasure because they think that's what you want, or because the robot was programmed to. In other words, it's about forming a connection with another sentient being that fee
Re: an automated love doll ? dude has issues! (Score:2)
AmiMojo, we all know you have a robot penis in your bedside table, so get off your high horse.
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I prefer the left hand Suzuki method.
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