Salon profiles Davecat, a fellow who keeps a picture of his $6,500 real doll (named Sidore)
in his wallet, plays video games with her, dresses goth with her, and does the other things one does with a doll built
for horizontally oriented adult leisure activities. Davecat describes Sidore as a "teddy bear with benefits."
We can predict the inevitable comments on this: "That guy's a loser!" Well, maybe. Then again, maybe he's also happy, and isn't that enough for us to be happy for him? Plus, few of us can claim that our significant others are content to hold a game controller and sit next to us for hours. That's got to count for something, right?
In a way, this is really just an update of the Nintendo ROB (Robotic Operating Buddy) designed to accompany lonely children who didn't have a partner to play games with. It's a given that game-playing AI modules will be included with the inevitable household robots that will be a part of every well-off household circa 2025. Whether those robots also have "benefits" is a matter for the 'bot designers.
[Photo cropped from image by Elena Dorfman for Salon]
