The Human-Ape-Robot Love Triangle

With both animal rights and robot technology advancing at disturbing rates, I find myself wondering, should apes be able to marry robots? Perhaps I should backtrack a little.

Over in Spain, the Parliament's environmental committee last week approved resolutions urging the legislature to give monkeys some of the same rights as humans. Inspired by the Great Apes Project, these updates to Spain's penal code would make it illegal to perform harmful experiments on our primate relatives, or to use them in circuses, movies or TV commercials. According to reports, the resolutions have majority support and are expected to become law next year.

And in case you were wondering, bull fighting will still remain a national pastime.

Meanwhile, during the past few months much has been made of David Levy's controversial book Love and Sex With Robots. The British AI expert (who once soundly thrashed the author of this blog at chess) argued that not only will humans and machines have sex but that by 2050 it will be common practice for them to marry. A bold supposition to be sure, but given the rapid development of robots, particularly those built for erotica, it may not be so far fetched.

Tying this all together was the breakthrough experiment carried out earlier this year at Duke, where a monkey in Durham used its brain to control the actions of a robot in Kyoto, Japan. Which of course brings me back to my original question:

With chimps, gorillas and orangutans being given rights in Spain (and possibly beyond), should they be able to marry robots?

As a weird news blogger, I'd be lying if I said I was opposed, but what do you think?

Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images