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Human-Robot Intimate Relationships in QC

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Woland:
Good morning all!

I don't know why, but I was just thinking whether or not there have been any implications or outright statements of intimate relationships between humans and synthetic lifeforms/AI in the QC-verse. I can't think of an example.

To be clear, I'm not asking about just hook-ups*, I'm more interested in where these relationships would fall in the social spectrum. Are they illegal? Taboo? Accepted, but only recently? Pursued by humans but explicitly forbidden by AI common programming?

Has The Artist made any clear assertions that such relationships are simply not going to be addressed in his story? Like, it's part of the universe, but he's not going to talk about it (similar to statements regarding non-disclosure of Claire's physical-station along the gender spectrum).

I did a couple of searches and couldn't find any threads where this was already being discussed, but if I missed something, I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

*A decision about the intentionality of this pun is currently pending before the Pun Board. If you are a person who will be impacted by this decision, you will receive notice of the decision by certified. If you object to the decision, you have 30 minutes to file an appeal with the Board for a review of your objections.

Is it cold in here?:
The Artist said in one long-ago Q&A that he's unwilling to bring the subject up in the comic.

I think the QC world's attitude would be sharply mixed. That society is still working out how to treat its silicon-based citizens and only recently changed the law to acknowledge their full citizenship. Every good and bad and baffled reaction you can imagine is doubtless happening.

Hannelore accepted Station's declaration of love in stride but was weirded out by the idea of dating a synthetic and sent it back to her dad.

I hope the all-love-is-beautiful crowd wins.

One thing leaps to mind. There's going to be an emotional strain on any marriage in which one partner is almost guaranteed to outlive the other by centuries.

Another is that "intimate" includes all kinds of emotional closeness. Momo and Marigold might as well be sisters, for example.

hedgie:
To be fair, the "trainer boyfriend" was extremely uncanny valley, which might be enough to freak anyone out.

comicalArchitect:
Keep in mind that QC arguably takes place in the same universe as Diesel Sweeties (Faye's sister appeared there), and human/AI relationships are commonplace but still controversial there.

Zebediah:
May pretty blatantly implied that robots with human-compatible genitalia exist. So the possibility of human-robot sexual relationships is definitely there.

That being said, I doubt we'll ever actually see it. Besides Jeph not being comfortable with the idea, the humanoid robots in the main cast probably won't get involved with a human for a number of reasons. With Momo, there's the fact that she looks like a young teenager, which would add another layer of ick factor. May is in a cheap chassis that is almost certainly not equipped with functioning genitalia, and besides, she seems to find the whole idea of human sex a bit disgusting. And Bubbles has crippling psychological issues that make her reluctant to even remove her armor, much expose herself to any emotional vulnerability.

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