The Perfect Woman

Upon hearing the latest Radiolab episode: "Talking with Machines" I was intrigued to see for myself what AI looks like today. I was almost half-shocked to realize that the vast majority of humanoid intelligent androids are built to look like… you guessed it! Attractive women. In fact, in my quest to hopefully discount my initial observation, I only came across a handful of named male androids. None of which I might add, possessed the same hyper magnification of those qualities that we deem to be the most beautiful.

I say that I was half surprised about this realization, because popular culture and science fiction has prepared me for this reality. The earliest example that I can think of in my young mind, is Seven of Nine from Star Trek. True she was only half borg, but her appearance certainly reinforces the notion that there is just something hot about a female robot. I think the underlying question here has not to with looks, but why when we are building or even portraying robots we choose the female sex?

My impulse is to declare that it is because women are often already reduced to the robotic level, programmed by the patriarchy and expected to carry out their instructions. I want to say that it's because we tend to not view women as whole and complete humans, with complex self-reflective capabilities that inform their own selfhood. I want to say that the idea of a subservient and desirable woman android is sexually arousing in our society.

But really, I don't want to have to say these things. They seem such an archaic backdrop against modern innovation. To think that humanity is at the point when humanity can talk to computers, intelligent computers, but what we want from them is still of the most unprogressive content. Sure the majority of the work underlying AI pursuits has sincere scientific motivations; however, for whatever reason (whether it be the possibilities I suggested above or something other) we have collectively chosen to represent robots as hyper-feminine creatures, with bodies that do not represent the majority of human women.

It's sad to think that in some areas humanity has come so far, but then there are these ever present beliefs that we are plagued by. I would like to see a more androgynous machine, one that reflects its mechanical being and doesn't attempt to skirt over the complexities of human gender and sex formation.