News From The Pinnacle Of Civilization

     I don’t know. Given the precipitous deterioration in male-female relations these past few decades, maybe this is the way things must go:

     Seoul has joyous tidings for South Koreans who found their Christmas haul lacking a little je ne sais quoi: After years of being stymied by customs, the AP reports that citizens are now free to go online and order themselves an imported sex doll. The move ends years of debate over government interference in private life; the AP notes that while no specific ban on foreign sex dolls exists, customs officials have long seized the dolls under a portion of the law that bans the import of goods that “harm the country’s beautiful traditions and public moral.” Importers complained and took their case to courts, most of which agreed with them and ordered customs to release the sex dolls, saying they are used in people’s private spaces and don’t undermine human dignity.

     What are we to make of this? Is it the consequence of a China-like imbalance in the numbers of men and women? Do human women need competition of this sort to remind them of their role in the scheme of things? Or should we just shrug and blame it all on Hajime Sorayama?

     I know there are places where women are unwilling to live…or to go. I know there are cultures that treat women badly enough to leave a lot of men lonely for female company. And of course, in this sex-saturated milieu, there are lots of folks looking for “the latest thrill.” But the above is still a dismal sort of news. It makes me think Mankind’s era might just be dribbling away like the ever weaker spurts of…well, you know.

     Of course, there could be many kinds of consequences down the road. Especially if the folks working on the AI modules for those dolls hire the wrong sort of “subject matter experts:”

FWP: How’s it been going?
Blogging Colleague: Pretty lousy, if I’m going to be honest.

FWP: Why? What’s been happening?
BC: Well, I’ve been pretty lonely these past few years, you know?

FWP: Well, yeah. So…?
BC: So I’ve been hurting for female attention.

FWP: I hadn’t thought that was such a burden, at our age.
BC: Ha! You’ve still got your wife. I’ve been alone for twenty-two years, and as wretched as I am, I couldn’t get a woman to talk to me if I offered to pay her. Forget getting one to have sex with me!

FWP: So…?
BC: So I bit the bullet and ordered one of those ultra-realistic sex dolls. You know, the kind that come with an artificial intelligence module.

FWP: No, really?
BC: Yeah.

FWP: Has it…I mean, she arrived yet?
BC: Yeah, just today.

FWP: And you’ve unpacked her?
BC: Yeah.

FWP: Well…?
BC: She said she just wants to be friends.